The Ministry of the Interior has just launched a series of measures aimed at better protecting women who suffer gender violence. The new criteria to establish protection mechanisms for these victims coincide with the latest case of vicarious violence that occurred last Sunday in Almería, where a man poisoned his two daughters, ages four and two, with pesticide and subsequently committed suicide. However, the measures that have come into force this Monday through an instruction from the Secretary of State for Security emerge from the latest case evaluation tables, which periodically analyze the murders of women that occur in Spain, six of which this year and 1,245 since they began to be counted in 2003. “This is a series of requirements that seek to extend protection and maintain it in those cases in which police experts determine that there is a “latent risk,” explains Belén Crego, responsible for the area of Gender Violence, studies and training of the aforementioned Secretary of State. She landed in the position four months ago and has taken command “with the desire to improve,” she says.
The department headed by Fernando Grande-Marlaska aims, in this way, to seal the cracks in protection from a police perspective, both in active cases and in cases that could be deactivated. Of the 58 murdered women registered in 2023, “there were 15 cases in which there were previous complaints of abuse, of which six remained active,” Crego recalls. The objective of the new measures is “to toughen the requirements for the deactivation of cases, so that there are more variables by which the protection of women is sustained over time,” he explains.
On the one hand, it limits the criteria that allow the inactivation of open cases in the Viogén System, which has accumulated 794,273 cases since July 2007 and until February 29, of which 83,070 are active. That is, they include a graduated police control depending on the level of risk detected in each case. A total of 696,448 are inactive, those in which police specialists consider it unnecessary to maintain control mechanisms. In addition, there are 811 cases discharged and 13,944 correspond to victims abroad. A total of 2,881 agents ensure this protection, according to the latest Interior data, and have carried out 6,627,290 risk assessments since 2018.
The new instruction also opens the possibility of a new type of protection called “supervised inactivation”, which will be applied in those cases considered highly complex. Specifically, it will be used in those that police evaluators have at some point considered to be of special relevance or in those that affect minors at risk.
“In this tremendous case in Almería, for example, everything possible had been done by the police, it was an active case, but the judge had established a visitation regime with the two daughters, who were not subject to any protection measures with respect to the father and we cannot enter into civil measures,” explain sources from the gender violence area of the Secretary of State. “This case will certainly appear on the next assessment table; these are very difficult situations to anticipate, because they do not usually have traditional risk factors,” warn the same sources. “There are many similar situations, because the law provides that it is always a judge who will decide whether or not to establish a visitation regime and how,” they point out.
The end and beginning of the year tend to be dark periods when it comes to gender violence, according to experts and statistics. The analysis of some of them in these evaluation tables, such as the one that occurred on November 23 in Carabanchel (Madrid), has given rise to this new battery of measures. There a 26-year-old man, with complaints of abuse, stabbed to death his ex-wife, Tatiana Beatriz AT, 25, and their daughter, just five,
Or the case of Elisa, the woman from Armilla (Granada) who was stabbed in the neck and face by her ex-partner, who had been denounced multiple times and who had only been sentenced to six months of community service, on November 7. in front of his three children. “The entire system failed,” Loli Cañavete, the mayor of Armilla (PSOE), says by phone. “Elisa, who reported, who used the resources provided by the system, who had to live again with her attacker for seasons because she did not have financial resources to support her three children, remains hospitalized today, with enormous consequences, and her children are They stay united thanks to the aid that the city council gives them: rent, food, clothing…”, says Cañavete.
“The knowledge acquired over these years in relation to homicides of gender violence and other especially serious events with prior reporting has allowed us to understand this phenomenon in greater detail and advises avoiding the early inactivation of cases in which the risk real remains latent,” states the new instruction from the Secretary of State for Security. “The experience accumulated during the year of operation of the Evaluation and Monitoring Table of Lethal Cases of Gender Violence also advises the review of the criteria for inactivation of open cases in the Viogén System to improve the safety of the victims,” he justifies. .
New requirements
From now on, to inactivate cases of unappreciated risk or low risk it will be necessary “that there are no judicial protection measures in force, that police experts contact the victim at least once in person and carry out a risk reassessment, and that the circumstances of vulnerability of the victim or dangerousness of the aggressor do not advise otherwise.”
In cases in which the risk is medium, high or extreme, to inactivate them it will be necessary “that it has not been possible to locate the victim for at least six months”, or “that death, departure abroad, internment has occurred. in the custody of the aggressor or the victim, or any other analogous circumstance that makes protection unnecessary or the aggression impossible”, or that the victim voluntarily, manifestly and repeatedly renounces their protection. However, in these cases, even when the victim wants to renounce protection, it will only be considered in the following cases: “When there are no judicial protection measures, it will also be mandatory to record in the VioGén System the waiver of protection as cause of inactivation, and it will be mandatory to send detailed and reasoned communication to the judicial authority and the Prosecutor's Office, and the agent evaluating the case must apply the Zero Protocol provided for the cases of 'persistent aggressor' or 'resistant victim'.
Supervised inactivation
Another measure aimed at prolonging the protection of women victims of abuse is the so-called “supervised inactivation.” “It will be applied in those qualified cases due to their high complexity and the existence of a qualified risk for the woman,” the instruction states. These are cases in which the ordinary inactivation rules are suspended: “Those that at some point have been evaluated as of special relevance or with minors at risk,” or cases “that in the last six months have had a medium, high risk assessment.” or extreme”, or those in which, after the first evaluation, two or more complaints have been registered in the following six months”, and also “cases that meet the general criteria for inactivation but that, in the opinion of the evaluating agent , they must go to the supervised inactivation situation.”
Supervised inactivation may be extended for up to one year, with a minimum initial period of six months, with two possible quarterly extensions. During this period, risk assessments will be carried out through personal interviews with the victim and the protection measures will be those that correspond to each level of resulting risk, although in cases of “not appreciated” at least the “risk” measures will be applied. low”. Once the period of supervised inactivation has ended, to proceed with the ordinary inactivation of the case, there must be at least two risk assessments with successive results of “not appreciated” and a personal interview with the victim.
The new instruction maintains a spirit of greater closeness to the victim and greater personalized attention, and advocates a fundamental aspect, which has to do with the coordination of all the competent institutions in their protection: “The activation of collaboration measures and activation of resources in favor of the victim with other institutions.”
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