Femicides: a study in Brazilian state capital cities and large municipalities

This study analyses the relationship between femicides and indicators of socio-economic condition, demography, access to communications, and health situation, in Brazilian state capitals and large-population municipalities. It is an ecological study using the standardized mean coefficient of female mortality due to aggression as a marker for femicide in the years 2007-09 and 2011-13. The Pearson Correlation test was used for the statistical analysis between the outcome and 17 independent variables, and those that were statistically significant (p < 0.05) were introduced into a multivariate linear regression model, using backward elimination. In the first three-year period the average rate of femicide was 4.5 deaths per 100,000 women, and in the second period it was 4.9/100,000. Poverty (beta = -0.330; p = 0.006), Pentecostalism (beta = 0.237; p = 0.002) and male mortality by aggression (beta = 0.841; p = 0.000) were associated with femicides. The negative association between poverty and feminine deaths indicates a paradoxical relationship, in that women who die in the richer regions are mostly poor. A relationship was also found between gender violence, fundamentalist religious beliefs, and urban violence.