For the eighth consecutive month, rapes have increased in São Paulo; the year-to-date increase is 16,2%.

247 - Rape cases have increased again in São Paulo, with a 10% rise in May. This is the eighth consecutive month of increase in this type of crime. According to official data, there were 1.036 sexual assaults in May, compared to 943 reported in the same month of 2017. The increase is even greater in the first five months of 2018, with 5.212 cases compared to 4.485 in the same period of 2017, a rise of 16,2%.

The economic crisis, coupled with the chaos surrounding Parente, the truckers' strike, and the coup as a whole, is creating the worst set of statistical setbacks in the country's history. Within this data, which is from the state, the city of São Paulo saw a 32% increase in murders in May, rising from 50 in May of last year to 66 victims this year.

Regarding rapes, the secretary reiterated that it is a difficult crime to combat because most occur in closed environments and are committed by people connected to the victim. Mágino states that the increase may be linked not to an increase in the number of crimes themselves, but to an increase in reports, since some of the registered cases (about 30%) did not happen in May, but rather in previous periods.

'Women are finding the courage to confront this in the best way possible. The best way possible is to report it [to the police]', she said.

Read more here