Tânia Rêgo / Agência Brasil
After a case of rape last week, at night in Lisbon, the PJ used social media to try to raise awareness of the dangers of nightlife. However, the example given – consider internet users – was not the happiest. Women file complaints against the Police.
The controversy arose in a publication on social media, where the Judiciary Police (PJ) tried to raise awareness of the dangers of nightlife.
To do this, he gave the example of a young woman who was raped last Wednesday, in Lisbon.
The PJ mentioned the “state of unconsciousness after excessive alcohol consumption”, asking: “when you go out at night you never think about this outcome, do you?”
“In the context of nightlife, and beyond, alcohol makes people vulnerable, reducing the ability to stay alert and react to episodes of violence and sexual abuse. That’s what happened. The inability to react, in these conditions, dictated yet another victim,” the authority wrote.
Most people understood the post as a lack of responsibility for the aggressor, who committed the crime, and not the victim, who was drunk.
After all, “is the victim to blame?”questioned several users, in the Instagram post, whose comments were, however, disabled.
“Here the onus was placed on the wrong side. The victim had the right to drink alcohol and in fact it is not illegal to be unconscious as a result. However, it is a crime to rape someone. How about we change the narrative? Raise awareness on the other side so that they realize that violating is a crime. A woman having to think about drinking very carefully because she then has less capacity to react only comes into question because there are those who commit these crimes, in other words, which side is the problem on?”, said an internet user, in a comment that has already accumulated almost 1,300 likes.
“They may not blame the victim’s alcohol intake but rather the horrible act What did the man do?” asked another user, also with more than a thousand likes.
“You can raise awareness about excessive alcohol consumption without having to blame the victim of the crime”, recalled yet another internet user.
“I find it strange that whoever wrote this didn’t say that wearing a miniskirt also helped with the abuse.”said, ironically, a user, lamenting that “the burden of a crime is placed on the behavior of the victim instead of the criminal”.
The comment with the most appreciation says: “Judicial Police, it was not the inability to react that led to the rape, it was the existence of a sexual predator. It is essential that an Institution like yours, which we are very proud of, promotes correct discourse and is objective where the burden of the crime really lies, on the rapist, and does not blame the victim for the crime of which he was the target.”
“No one, woman or man, ‘puts themselves out there’ in any way to justify a rape, be it in the way they dress, where they walk and at what time, the alcohol they consume, etc. It is imperative that they portray themselves to the Institution they are and what you represent to the community, as your words should always be a good example and reference”, he added.
The aggressor, in the case exemplified by the PJ, was arrested, as the authority itself states, for the crime of sexual abuse of a 17-year-old girl.
In the publication, the Police recommended “moderating alcohol consumption” when going out at night, “not accepting and monitoring drinks” and “refusing rides from strangers”.
Women file complaint against PJ
According to , the Women’s Democratic Movement (MDM) presented complaint to the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality against the PJ for the post on social media.
The group considers that the publication “stigmatizes, promotes unacceptable accountability of women and excuses aggressors for criminal practices.”
“The chosen text and image shift the focus of the crime to an image of a woman, insinuating a causal link between being a woman, going out at night, consuming alcohol and ‘bad outcomes’. This narrative neither informs nor prevents: it stigmatizes in an unacceptable way”, states the MDM complaint, cited by the morning newspaper.
“Violence prevention cannot be achieved by lecturing victimsreal or potential, nor with messages that insinuate that they have ‘got their act together’; it is done by naming the responsibility of those who attack, communicating in a procedurally neutral way and directing the message to those who must be challenged: without explicit consent, it is a crime; if the other person can’t or doesn’t want to, stop; whoever witnesses it, intervenes safely and asks for help”, he adds.
