Criminal system and women's rights

Abstract

The text examines the presence of patriarchal ideology in Brazilian criminal law, especially in crimes against morals and the family, which reproduce control over female sexuality. It analyzes dominant criminalizing trends, fueled by diffuse collective fear and the manipulation of social insecurity, including among progressive sectors and feminist movements. It proposes, as guidelines for penal reform, the realization of a minimal Criminal Law, through the decriminalization of conducts such as seduction, consensual abduction, adultery, and consented abortion, the unification of offenses against sexual freedom, and the suppression of crimes against marriage and the family. It concludes that the recognition of women's rights is not achieved through punitive reaction, but through overcoming relations of domination and exclusion, advancing alongside the reduction of the criminal system.