Violence against women: a model for evaluating public policy performance

Abstract

Violence against women has been reported as a serious public health issue. Particularly, Domestic and Family Violence against Women (DFVaW) affects about 29% of the female population in Brazil. Public Policies (PPs) to combat DFVaW have been implemented since the 1980s in Brazil, culminating in the publication of the legal framework to address this issue in 2006, the Maria da Penha Law. In this sense, the objective of this study was to develop a performance evaluation model for PPs to address VAW in the municipalities of the state of Santa Catarina. The applied methodology was Item Response Theory (IRT), which enabled the creation of a performance evaluation scale. Additionally, simple regression analysis was used in the model, with municipal score as the independent variable and the rate of DFVaW reports as the dependent variable. The results showed a positive linear correlation between the variables, suggesting that the implemented PPs do not result in a reduction in the number of VAW occurrences.:

Keywords:
public policies; violence against women, item response theory