preview

Women's Police Stations Chapter 1 Summary

Satisfactory Essays

John Ye
Professor Gamson
SOC 150-01
24 February 2017
Faculty Author Report For this assignment, I read Cecilia MacDowell Santos’ Women's Police Stations: Gender, Violence, and Justice in Sao Paulo, Brazil (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). Santos is a professor and the director of Latin American Studies at University of San Francisco. She received her PhD in Sociology from University of California, Berkeley and her Master in Law from University of Sao Paulo. Her research focuses primarily on the legal mobilization within and across borders, violence, political memory, and women’s and human rights. Currently, she teaches courses on gender, development, and globalization, global inequalities and social justice, sociology of law, and Brazilian culture …show more content…

Under Portuguese rule prior to 1822, laws allowed men to kill their adulterous wives and their lovers. Also, Brazilian songs and proverbs often normalized such practices in popular culture. Since violence against women was treated as a norm, women often would not report cases a domestic violence, and when they do, the cases would be dismissed by local police stations. It was not until the 1980s, when feminists were able to push for reforms because the government was undergoing democratization. In 1985, the first women’s police station was formed. It had an all-female staff and police with the same powers as any other police station. Since then, many more of these police stations have been created, and many countries in Latin America, South Asia, and Europe have followed suit. The first women’s police station saw a dramatic increase in domestic violence cases being filed, but the resources to deal with these cases were inadequate. In addition, there was a contradictory relationship between policewoman, feminists, and complainants which is the focus of Santos’

Get Access