Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
to describe the epidemiological characteristics of cases of violence against women reported in the Federal District, Brazil, 2009-2012.
METHODS:
this was a descriptive study of cases of violence against women aged 18- 59 registered on the National Notifiable Diseases System (Sinan).
RESULTS:
1,924 cases of violence against women were registered, the perpetrators of which were identified as unknown (25.7%) or spouses (19.0%) of the victims; violence mainly occurred against women of brown skin color (25.0%) and in the domestic environment (38.5%); regarding violence type, physical violence (46.8%) by force (48.0%) stood out, whereby the genitals (15.7%) and the head (12.9%) were the most affected regions.
CONCLUSION:
physical violence in domestic environments by unknown aggressors was the main type of violence among the reported cases; shortcomings were identified in recording reported cases, showing the need to improve system quality and train health workers involved.
Key words:
Gender Violence; Violence Against Women; Epidemiological Surveillance; Epidemiology, Descriptive
