FEMICIDE AND ITS IMPACTS ON FAMILY STRUCTURE: SOCIAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, AND LEGAL CONSEQUENCES FOR THE VICTIM'S FAMILY MEMBERS

Abstract

This article addresses the social, psychological, and legal impacts of femicide on the victim’s family members, highlighting the consequences generated by gender-based violence within the family structure. The study analyzes the emotional effects experienced by survivors, such as trauma, traumatic grief, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as the impacts on the emotional development of children orphaned by femicide. It also discusses the social and economic consequences resulting from the loss of the family provider, social vulnerability, and the exclusion faced by surviving families. In the legal sphere, the study examines the application of the Statute of the Child and Adolescent, the comprehensive protection of children and adolescents, the role of the Judiciary, and public policies aimed at orphans and relatives of the victims. The article also highlights State failures in preventing domestic violence, the insufficiency of protective measures, and the invisibility of indirect victims within the justice system. The research was developed through a bibliographic review using scientific articles, legislation, and doctrinal works related to the subject. It is concluded that femicide produces profound and lasting consequences for the victim’s entire family, making it essential to strengthen public policies of support, psychosocial assistance, and humanized protection for indirect victims of gender-based violence. Femicide is the murder of women because of their gender, a cruel crime that not only affects the murdered woman but also encompasses and dismantles an entire family structure. Most victims leave behind children and experience a significant social, psychological, and especially legal impact. Despite numerous attempts by public authorities to curb crimes against women, statistics have increased exorbitantly. The violence affects not only the victim but also the children and alters the entire family structure.