“If I find you with someone else, I’ll kill you! I’ll send you some flowers and then I’ll escape”: Scenarios of violence against women in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro

Abstract The objective of this work is to carry out, from a characterization of violence against women in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro (RMRJ), a theoretical-empirical confrontation regarding the issue, considering the local analysis. In this way, we collate literature that consolidates the pertinence of policies and laws regarding violence, while considering studies of quantitative bias in their scope. In methodological terms, we restricted ourselves spatially when tabulating the databases of violence against women in the RMRJ and analyzed them from the weighted literature to support or refute indicated axioms about violence. Among the results found in the RMRJ are some which confirm studies: violence against women involves an aggressor who is aware of the victim and violence is practiced in a domestic or family environment. At the same time, some results call certain axioms into question, such as that physical violence is explicitly predominant, or that sexual violence is practiced in non-residential locations. Other results indicate new elements: that the type of violence changes according to the victim’s age and education, markers that make women particularly weaker. With regard to limitations, we highlight the need for stratified studies that observe territorial particularities.