Archives of violence: state data production and recognition of the LGBT+ population in Sao Paulo

Abstract

How do certain experiences of violence become visible and intelligible to the state, while others remain absent or precariously inscribed in its records? This study takes this question as its starting point to examine anti-LGBT+ violence in the state of São Paulo through police reports, shifting the focus from the incidence of violence to the institutional processes that define the conditions under which it is recognized. The study analyzes information obtained from the São Paulo State Public Security Department through access-to-information requests, covering the period from 2019 to 2023, and places it in dialogue with data published by the Brazilian Yearbook of Public Safety and civil society organizations. The analysis goes beyond the number of reported incidents to examine the structure of the records, the categories available, and the completion of fields identifying victims and forms of violence. The results show that information on sexual orientation and gender identity only became available in the analyzed databases in 2023 and, even after its inclusion, remained absent from some records and was entered without uniform criteria. Significant gaps were also found in data on race/color, as well as discrepancies among figures produced from information provided by the same Department. These findings show that police records do not function as neutral instruments of documentation, since recording and classification practices directly shape what the state is able to recognize and count as anti-LGBT+ violence.