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More than 300 women's police stations have opened in Brazil since the first one was inaugurated here in São Paulo 20 years ago. "It's a national phenomenon," says Cecília MacDowell Santos, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of San Francisco in California and author of "Women's Police Stations: Gender, Violence, and Justice in São Paulo."

It's also grown into an international phenomenon, with at least 10 nations in Latin America and Asia having similar systems for registering and investigating charges of domestic violence, threats, child abuse, sexual assaults, and other crimes often perpetrated against women.

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"Why so many in developing countries? The cultural and political context is similar and there is also the economic reason," Professor Santos says. "It is less expensive to have women's police stations than to set up shelters."

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But just possibly ... more effective? Eventually?

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Special police stations had been set up for Afro-Brazilians and the elderly, and women wanted similar treatment.

"We wanted to create a place where women would feel at ease talking about these intimate problems," says Marcia Salgado, a police chief at one of the first women's police stations and now a media relations officer with the São Paulo police department. "Women are not obliged to go to women's police stations - they can take their complaints to any police station. But now they have a choice."

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Gosh. Compared to here, that sounds ... civilized. As does this:

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The women who report their abusers do so primarily because they want to show they are not powerless, Salgado says. "What they are looking for is not to criminalize the behavior of the abuser. They go to stop the violence.... It's a way of renegotiating the relationship, a means of mediation."

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Considering the outcry against simple civic arbitrators handling property issues, I wouldn't have expected anyone to come out on the side of separate criminal systems, even if they rely on the same laws.

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The women's stations are usually not separate buildings, but floors or areas in existing precincts.

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Seems to me just a separate place to make the victims comfortable and the articles notes they had already done it for the elderly and afro-brazilians as well.

Separate police stations/areas are a way of combatting an injustice and epidemic in our society. With only 6% of sexual assault victims reporting these injustices, we must exam why not. One of the most common reasons (we hear at crisis centres and from the general public) is that they do not feel that anyone would believe them. Rightfully so as it is also highly reported (I don't have the data right in fron of my, I'm sorry) that officers often treat womyn as those being in the wrong (the blame game).

While sexual assault and domestic violence are not the exact same issue, they have similar links. The issue of fear and guilt. Creating these spaces is a way of dealing with the INequality facing womyn. A way of creating a safe environment while we struggle to change the rest of society.

It's not perfect. Ideally, no man would beat a womyn. Ideally, sexual assault would be soo passée. Ideally, officers would be sympathetic, informed and willing to deal with the issue of womyn's rights and to work towards changing current inequalities. But that is not happening any time soon --- despite so many years and tears of fighting.

Mr. Magoo, I resent your effort to simply cause an argument and to attempt to discredit that article and the struggles of womyn by providing us with an unrelated comparison based solely on the language of words rather than the content of its implications.

Good article, good job Brazil and the many other countries taking great strides.

[ 25 July 2005: Message edited by: marcella ]

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Mr. Magoo, I resent your effort to simply cause an argument and to attempt to discredit that article and the struggles of womyn

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I'm trying to discredit the struggles of women by pointing out that many babblers aren't too keen on the "separate but equal" thing?

Well I doubt I could be nearly as effective at discrediting the struggles of women as you just were at discrediting yourself.

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Magoo, its not separate justice, its trying to get someone to take you seriously enough to give you justice, and making an environment which people will feel comfortable enough about to seek justice in.

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I'm not opposing that. I'm asking, is this the only way to do that? Wouldn't fixing our current system be better than fragmenting it?

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Why do you think municipalities want representative officers (women, racial, the whole nine yards)

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I get that.

Why is that insufficient? I can understand a woman feeling more comfortable talking to a woman, or a Native to a Native. Do you really need a separate facility for that??

[ 25 July 2005: Message edited by: Mr. Magoo ]

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Originally posted by retread:
Magoo, its not separate justice, its trying to get someone to take you seriously enough to give you justice,

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Originally posted by Gir Draxon:
Any policeman who disrespects someone because of race and/or gender should be fired outright.

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And I think we have been collecting data all my adult life (which is now depressingly long) on how few abused women will come forward on their own even in a supposedly liberal culture.

Anything that helps marginalized communities to feel that they can speak to authority without all kinds of panic bells and whistles going off immediately is a good idea, IMHO. Some zero-tolerance policies in liberal North America have actually been counter-productive, have left a lot of women feeling that they don't want our nameless-faceless police swooping in without a sense of the human or community issues involved. It sounds as though this program respects that kind of sensitivity, as I do.

But then, i thought some more about it.
Yes, i still agree with Mr. Magoo that we need to improve the system we already have.
We need to recruit police officers from disparate groups; we need to train them better; we need to make victims feel safe and to earn their trust.

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Originally posted by EFA:

Not practical. Half of the Victoria Police Department would be wiped right out.

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Originally posted by arborman:
You say that as if it's a reason not to do it.

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Originally posted by Gir Draxon:
There is no reason why we should not demand that every police officer, regardless of their own gender and ethnicity, should treat everyone with respect. If a white male police officer can't take a First Nations woman seriously because she is in those two demographic groups, then he should not be a police officer in the first place, for anyone. Any policeman who disrespects someone because of race and/or gender should be fired outright.

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Originally posted by skdadl:
Some zero-tolerance policies in liberal North America have actually been counter-productive, have left a lot of women feeling that they don't want our nameless-faceless police swooping in without a sense of the human or community issues involved.

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Thus if you really want to get yer opponent arrested make sure you only slap them, pull their hair or punch soft areas like the stomach, then smash yer head against a door.