ABSTRACT
Police, almost always men, routinely ignored and rarely prosecuted cases of physical and sexual abuse of women and often blamed and harassed the victims. These female police stations or delegacias de defesa da mulher (DDMs) began in São Paulo as an experimental institutional response to the deficiencies of the regular police stations. This chapter discusses the status of the DDM system and the complex political issues embedded in it. The DDMs represent a great achievement on the part of the Brazilian women's movement, but their location within the civil police engenders many political contradictions. The DDMs are one of many civil initiatives to be implemented since the end of military rule, representing a systematic effort to legitimate the new regime and the position of the leading party or parties therein. The ambiance of the DDM was otherwise rather cheerful, with much chatting and joking among the staff members.
