Pacote anti-feminicídio e o recrudescimento penal: política de enfrentamento ou ilusão de proteção?

Abstract

This study aims to analyze Law No. 14,994/2024 and its main legislative innovations, with an emphasis on the increase in penalties in the context of combating femicide. From a critical perspective, it seeks to evaluate the limitations of this penal response, questioning its effectiveness in light of the persistence of gender-based violence. Furthermore, the study considers the absence of preventive public policies and investigates the extent to which the legislation can be understood as an expression of symbolic criminal law and legislative populism, which prioritize punitive responses with media appeal over structural solutions. The enactment of stricter criminal laws, especially in contexts of social unrest, does not always reflect a genuine effort to address the problems at hand. Often, such initiatives operate within the symbolic realm, conveying the impression of immediate state action despite lacking effective measures or consistent public policies. Thus, although this practice is frequently used as a strategy to garner popular support in political discourse, it tends to neglect the necessary adoption of structural and long-term solutions, thereby compromising the real effectiveness of responses to the problem. The methodology adopted is bibliographic and documental in nature, based on doctrinal reviews and current legislation. It is complemented by the presentation of statistical data on femicide rates in Brazil, aiming to highlight the persistence of gender-based violence in the country and to analyze the limits of penal responses in face of the complexity of the phenomenon. It is concluded that, although the classification of femicide as an autonomous crime and the increase in penalties are important measures to acknowledge the severity of the issue, such actions are insufficient to tackle the structural roots of gender-based violence. Persisting in punitive escalation while operational and structural failures remain reveals a limited strategy disconnected from the real needs encountered in the daily prevention and confrontation of gender violence.