Comparative study of violence notifications against women before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the North Catarinian Planal

Abstract

Violence against women reflects the power relations that structure modern society, in which the existing inequalities between men and women, force them to assume positions of subordination. In the Covid-19 pandemic, health protocols recommended social isolation, which resulted in social problems and left women exposed to domestic violence. So it was asked: what is the relationship between the occurrences of domestic violence against women before and during the pandemic in the Planalto Norte Catarinense? The general objective was to understand the relationship between the occurrences of violence before and during the pandemic. A documentary, descriptive, quantitative study was carried out, based on the official Disease Notification System accessed on the website of the State Epidemiological Surveillance Directorate, in which notifications were collected from the 13 municipalities of the 25th Regional Development Agency from March to June 2019 and the same period in 2020. The results point to a 46.4% reduction in cases (153 to 82), the problem affects women between 20 and 60 years of age, with high school, physical aggression prevails. Self-provoked violence stands out, in which women live with an extremely stressful situation, both physical and psychological, seeking to end their suffering. In conclusion, there was a decrease in the notification of cases, which suggests the victim's difficulty in seeking help. Therefore, there is a need for a different look at the problem, with innovative strategies and trained professionals to face the problem.

Keywords: Violence against women. COVID-19. Nursing.