Violências contra pessoas em situação de rua: notificações, tipificação, natureza e fatores associados

Abstract

Introduction: The growth of the homeless population highlights the social inequalities in the country, posing significant social and health challenges. Without housing, living in extreme poverty, and with weakened family ties, this population faces daily violence, including physical and psychological assaults, violent approaches by public security, neglect in care, and lack of effective public policies. General Objective: To analyze the association of sociodemographic factors, living conditions, and characteristics of both aggression and aggressors with violence against people experiencing homelessness. Methods: This is a quantitative study comprising two cross-sectional studies in Belo Horizonte and an exploratory analysis of violence notifications against this population in Brazil (2015–2022). Article 1 – “Violence Notifications against People Experiencing Homelessness: SINAN Analysis”: Column variables represented victims’ demographic characteristics, while row variables included aspects of violence. Joint analysis was performed using Simple Correspondence Analysis (SCA). Article 2 – “Factors Associated with Violence against the Homeless Population in Belo Horizonte”: The outcome variable was the experience of violence in the street context, analyzed using Poisson regression with robust variance. Article 3 – “Nature and Factors Associated with Violence against People Experiencing Homelessness”: Column variables corresponded to the types of violence, while row variables included sociodemographic characteristics and living conditions of the victims. Simple Correspondence Analysis was conducted, using Ayres’ theoretical model of health vulnerability. Results: Article 1: Physical violence was the most common, and most victims were Black. The SCA showed associations between violence involving legal intervention with firearms and police perpetrators; among Black male victims, physical violence with blunt objects, perpetrators unknown, occurring in bars; and among White female victims, recurrent psychological violence through threats and physical force, with known perpetrators or intimate partners, occurring in residences. Article 2: Having a partner (PR=1.748) and not having an income (PR=1.441) were associated with higher prevalence of structural and overall violence. The use of shelters and hostels was associated with increased interpersonal (PR=1.528), collective (PR=1.487), structural (PR=1.695), and self-inflicted violence (PR=2.2). Article 3: Among participants, 91.6% reported experiencing some type of violence, with psychological violence being the most prevalent (83.5%). The SCA showed: psychological violence among White victims with up to one year on the street; physical and property violence among Black men with ≤8 years of schooling, aged ≥40 years, with 1–4 years on the street, and using psychoactive substances; and sexual violence among Brown women with >9 years of schooling, more than four years on the street, and aged 18–39 years. These findings indicate that violence does not occur in isolation but reflects a social and structural process of vulnerability, in which individual, social, and institutional factors interact, increasing exposure to violence and limiting access to rights in contexts of historical inequality.