Spain: Gender-Based Violence Offenses To November, Up 11.2% From Last Year

Between January 1 and October 30, 2019, the National Police and Guardia Civil processed over 64,228 reports of gender-based violence offences, up 11.2% on the same period of the previous year, when 57,688 reports were received.

According to officials, 69,000 reports were filed with the two forces in 2018.

The government said that 64% of all the police reports received so far in 2019 were filed with the National Police, which is responsible for provincial capitals and major population centers, where victims generally have more resources and enjoy greater anonymity, circumstances that encourage people to file such reports.

The remaining 36% of reports were filed in the rest of the country, where the Guardia Civil handles them. Less densely populated areas and the rural environment are places where victims have fewer resources and less anonymity, which makes reporting this kind of offence more difficult and they are often suffered by victims for years.

Active cases

To October 30, 2019, police officers were looking into a total of 60,000 ongoing cases. These cases are split between the National Police (25,000) and the Guardia Civil (24,000), as well as the Provincial Police Force of Navarre and the Local Police Forces from almost 400 local council authorities monitored by the VioGén System of the State Secretariat of Security.

In this regard, the Ministry of Home Affairs has prioritised progress on measures to facilitate filing a police report (either by the victim or the people close to them) and to make it an option in all cases of gender-based violence under the same conditions and regardless of the circumstances.

New risk assessment protocol

To ensure that police intervention can be as effective as possible, the Ministry of Home Affairs is following the guidelines set by the State Pact against Gender-based Violence to foster improvements throughout 2019 to both the “Gender-based violence police risk assessment protocol, victim safety management and case tracking by the VioGén System” and the VioGén System that allows members of State law enforcement agencies to manage cases of gender-based violence by including police risk assessments and re-assessments.

Since October, all active cases with an intermediate risk level that were reported or initially assessed prior to March 2019 (when the new protocol took effect) are being re-assessed.