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“The pandemic only gave visibility to what is invisible”: a qualitative analysis of structural violence during COVID-19 and impacts on gender-based violence in Brazil

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic produced alarming rates of disease and mortality globally, yet few nations were as severely impacted as Brazil. The pandemic also exposed and exacerbated persistent forms of structural violence across Brazil, which complicated gender-based violence (GBV) prevention...

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Autores principales: Vahedi, Luissa, McNelly, Samantha, Lukow, Nina, Fonseca, Anna Carolina, Erskine, Dorcas, Poulton, Catherine, Stark, Lindsay, Seff, Ilana
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10517463/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37741981
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16675-8
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author Vahedi, Luissa
McNelly, Samantha
Lukow, Nina
Fonseca, Anna Carolina
Erskine, Dorcas
Poulton, Catherine
Stark, Lindsay
Seff, Ilana
author_facet Vahedi, Luissa
McNelly, Samantha
Lukow, Nina
Fonseca, Anna Carolina
Erskine, Dorcas
Poulton, Catherine
Stark, Lindsay
Seff, Ilana
author_sort Vahedi, Luissa
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic produced alarming rates of disease and mortality globally, yet few nations were as severely impacted as Brazil. The pandemic also exposed and exacerbated persistent forms of structural violence across Brazil, which complicated gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response efforts. While structural violence is not new, the systemic pressure and uncertainty introduced by COVID-19 intensified the detrimental impact of structural violence on the lives of Brazilians impacted by GBV. This work qualitatively investigated how the COVID-19 pandemic amplified structural violence and GBV in Brazil. METHODS: We analyzed key informant interviews (KII) conducted with 12 service providers working in sectors related GBV prevention and response in Roraima, Boa Vista, and Rio de Janeiro. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and translated from Portuguese or Spanish into English, before applying deductive and inductive coding approaches through a collaborative data reduction process. The theoretical lens of structural violence outlined by Farmer and Rylko-Bauer guided the thematic development. RESULTS: Analyses identified three themes. First, structural violence manifests as policies of inaction and erasure, which reduce the opportunity for upward social mobility among GBV survivors including Black women, trans persons, and people who live in the favelas. Policies of inaction and erasure fail to acknowledge/adequately respond to the significant health and safety needs of these communities. Second, structural violence is a fundamental cause of violence against women and children. Finally, service providers described community driven responses that address the dire survival needs (i.e., food insecurity) imposed by COVID-19, within a context of structural violence. These community driven responses were innovative, agile, and based on dire needs expressed to, and observed by, the service providers interviewed. CONCLUSION: This analysis highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing forms of structural violence prevalent throughout Brazil. Findings stress the urgency with which the Brazilian government and international organization must act to support community driven programs that strive to address the most basic human needs. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-023-16675-8.
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spelling pubmed-105174632023-09-24 “The pandemic only gave visibility to what is invisible”: a qualitative analysis of structural violence during COVID-19 and impacts on gender-based violence in Brazil Vahedi, Luissa McNelly, Samantha Lukow, Nina Fonseca, Anna Carolina Erskine, Dorcas Poulton, Catherine Stark, Lindsay Seff, Ilana BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic produced alarming rates of disease and mortality globally, yet few nations were as severely impacted as Brazil. The pandemic also exposed and exacerbated persistent forms of structural violence across Brazil, which complicated gender-based violence (GBV) prevention and response efforts. While structural violence is not new, the systemic pressure and uncertainty introduced by COVID-19 intensified the detrimental impact of structural violence on the lives of Brazilians impacted by GBV. This work qualitatively investigated how the COVID-19 pandemic amplified structural violence and GBV in Brazil. METHODS: We analyzed key informant interviews (KII) conducted with 12 service providers working in sectors related GBV prevention and response in Roraima, Boa Vista, and Rio de Janeiro. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and translated from Portuguese or Spanish into English, before applying deductive and inductive coding approaches through a collaborative data reduction process. The theoretical lens of structural violence outlined by Farmer and Rylko-Bauer guided the thematic development. RESULTS: Analyses identified three themes. First, structural violence manifests as policies of inaction and erasure, which reduce the opportunity for upward social mobility among GBV survivors including Black women, trans persons, and people who live in the favelas. Policies of inaction and erasure fail to acknowledge/adequately respond to the significant health and safety needs of these communities. Second, structural violence is a fundamental cause of violence against women and children. Finally, service providers described community driven responses that address the dire survival needs (i.e., food insecurity) imposed by COVID-19, within a context of structural violence. These community driven responses were innovative, agile, and based on dire needs expressed to, and observed by, the service providers interviewed. CONCLUSION: This analysis highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing forms of structural violence prevalent throughout Brazil. Findings stress the urgency with which the Brazilian government and international organization must act to support community driven programs that strive to address the most basic human needs. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-023-16675-8. BioMed Central 2023-09-23 /pmc/articles/PMC10517463/ /pubmed/37741981 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16675-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research Article
Vahedi, Luissa
McNelly, Samantha
Lukow, Nina
Fonseca, Anna Carolina
Erskine, Dorcas
Poulton, Catherine
Stark, Lindsay
Seff, Ilana
“The pandemic only gave visibility to what is invisible”: a qualitative analysis of structural violence during COVID-19 and impacts on gender-based violence in Brazil
title “The pandemic only gave visibility to what is invisible”: a qualitative analysis of structural violence during COVID-19 and impacts on gender-based violence in Brazil
title_full “The pandemic only gave visibility to what is invisible”: a qualitative analysis of structural violence during COVID-19 and impacts on gender-based violence in Brazil
title_fullStr “The pandemic only gave visibility to what is invisible”: a qualitative analysis of structural violence during COVID-19 and impacts on gender-based violence in Brazil
title_full_unstemmed “The pandemic only gave visibility to what is invisible”: a qualitative analysis of structural violence during COVID-19 and impacts on gender-based violence in Brazil
title_short “The pandemic only gave visibility to what is invisible”: a qualitative analysis of structural violence during COVID-19 and impacts on gender-based violence in Brazil
title_sort “the pandemic only gave visibility to what is invisible”: a qualitative analysis of structural violence during covid-19 and impacts on gender-based violence in brazil
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10517463/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37741981
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16675-8
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