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Violence Against Women: 10 Reports / Year 2003penalties are very rarely applied, and where they are applied, they remainextremely light. 31 Lack of court follow-up limits the power of police stationsin dealing effectively with domestic violence, since initial punitiveaction is usually not pursued.The special courts are not the only reason why domestic violence remainsun-addressed. Police and judiciary policies applicable against violencecases still tend to disregard the gravity of violent acts that occur withinthe domestic sphere. In cases of first or deemed minor offences, when thepenalty does not exceed one year imprisonment, the offender may receivesuspended sentences with no jail term whatsoever. 32 Women thereforetend to drop charges since there is no effective punishment at stake.Furthermore, since a fine is usually imposed rather than seclusion, womenwho still have to share the same household with their companions, forlack of alternative housing and/or financial means, end up being equallypunished by a sentence that reduces the family’s global income. Thesefinancial restrictions seriously affect women of the poorest classes whoalso happen to be frequent violence victims, and fear of this unwantedresult may lead them to withdraw the case. OMCT is concerned that overallthe present system is simply not aimed at punishing these types ofcrimes or protecting the victim. 33OMCT acknowledges the fact that the government has made substantialefforts to set up special police stations (“delegacias da mulher”) 34 toprocess cases regarding rape, other sexual crimes and domestic violenceand abuse. Indeed their numbers have risen from 125 in 1993 to 307 in1999. Yet, OMCT is concerned that these numbers should not mask thefact that less than 10% of more than 5’000 municipalities in Brazil possessthese facilities, and of those of do, 61% are situated in the Southeastand 16% in the South, while the North, the Northeast and the Central Eastare clearly underrepresented with respectively 11%, 8% and 4%.Furthermore, most of the existing special police stations are ill-equippedto respond to the needs of women victims of domestic violence. 35 Thelack of human resources, especially well-trained personnel to deal withcases of violence perpetrated against women on the one hand, and theinadequate infrastructure and non-exchange of information between theoffices on the other hand, are the main reasons of their incapacity to solvethe problem. Furthermore, the special police stations have low statusamongst the police and frequently receive old or inefficient equipment.76