Symbolic and Transformative: Alignments Toward Feminicídio Legal Reform inside the Brazilian Police.

This article examines how law enforcement actors in Porto Alegre, Brazil, adopt the Feminicídio Law—a feminist-inspired legal reform that increases penalties for gender-based homicides. Drawing on one year of fieldwork in homicide and women's police stations, police inquiry records, and local media, the study finds that while all officers recognize and use the feminicídio legal category, their alignments differ: homicide division officers symbolically accept the reform without changing investigative practices, whereas women's police station officers adopt a transformative alignment, advocating for new training, collaboration with feminist movements, and institutional changes. These divergent responses reflect institutional roles, professional beliefs, and prior feminist engagements within the police, illustrating the uneven incorporation of feminist ideas in state structures amid Brazil's contested political context. The findings highlight the importance of institutional context and prior feminist interventions in shaping how feminist legal reforms are interpreted and implemented by state actors.