Femicides of prostitutes in Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil

This article presents the feminicides among sex workers in the city of Porto Alegre, in the years 2006-2010. A case study analyses 12 feminicides that occurred in prostitutes and were identified in 94 police inquiries, referring to the women murders available by the Police State Department of the city. Feminicides were characterized into three categories: crimes of misery, because all the women were very poor; hate crimes, in which were rape, mutilations, torture and extreme use of lethal instruments; and sexual crimes in which were sexual violence. During the period studied, feminicides by sexual workers were highly frequent in relation to other women. These deaths express the neglect and the misogyny of patriarchal society and the little value of these human lives.