THE APPLICABILITY AND RELEVANCE OF STRUCTURAL PROCESSES IN THE ISSUE OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Abstract

Gender-based violence against women (GBVAW) is configured in the Brazilian scenario as a complex, systemic, and persistently rising phenomenon, whose tensions challenge the boundaries of traditional individual litigation and demand structural reforms. Given this outlook, this article aims to analyze the characteristics of structural litigation and verify the feasibility of its application to combat GBVAW. Methodologically, a qualitative and exploratory study was developed, supported by a literature review—under the lens of Niklas Luhmann's Systems Theory and Friedrich Müller's Structuring Theory of Law—and documentary research. The case law from the Federal Supreme Court (STF) and the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) was mapped during the first semester of 2026. The results indicate that, although the Superior Courts present relevant rulings of a punctual and repressive nature, there is an absence of ongoing structural litigation specifically addressing this thematic. Based on the analytical framework and the institutional model of NUPEC/STF, the design of a potential polycentric structural intervention is projected. It concludes that structural litigation acts as an instrument of active justice capable of shifting the Judiciary away from a purely retrospective role, elevating it to an inducer of integrated and continuous institutional reforms, which are essential to break the cycle of gender violence.