Carmona (CGPJ): "In Spain, about 10,000 cases are investigated per year involving women with serious injuries due to sexist violence"

It is reported that the CGPJ is analyzing the attempted sexist homicides as requested by the Prosecutor's Office

   SEVILLA/MADRID, 19 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

In Spain, about 10,000 cases are investigated per year involving women with serious injuries due to sexist violence, as revealed by the president of the Observatory against Domestic and Gender Violence of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), Ángeles Carmona, in an interview with Europe. Press on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which is celebrated on November 25.

"In Spain, around 10,000 cases are filed each year involving women due to especially serious injuries, injuries that, according to the Penal Code, require surgical medical treatment," he assured.

In this sense, Carmona has pointed out that it is "very important" to analyze both completed and attempted homicides, due to the scientific study value they have and has stressed that making the data of the latter known makes visible the number of injured women. , "a figure that sometimes never spreads so much."

He also added that the Observatory has observed that there are women who, after an attempted homicide, have been left incapacitated or with injuries that prevent them from leading a normal life. "This type of violence seems quite invisible. Truly, the survivors are very brave women who usually escape from violence thanks to institutional help and that of their environment, but many of them, unfortunately, with lifelong consequences." , he lamented.

Furthermore, Carmona explained that they are collecting information about women who have survived an attempted sexist homicide "especially to analyze what went wrong, what help they needed, not so much institutionally but from their environment", as has been done. requested by the Violence Against Women Prosecutor's Office. "With the Observatory, we certainly pick up the gauntlet of what the Prosecutor's Office has said and it will surely give us a lot of light to then assess the risk," she stressed.

In any case, he considers it "necessary" to report on the number of women murdered by gender violence and to "put black on white", even though the data may seem "very cold and sometimes it is true that it chills the blood", after that the Court of Auditors has warned that reporting these figures can overshadow the effectiveness of protection measures.

"One of the great successes that Spain has had in the fight against sexist violence and that has made it one of the pioneering countries and perhaps the one that is most at the global forefront in this fight is precisely social awareness and sensitization" , he stressed.

So far this year, 52 deaths have been recorded due to sexist violence, two more than in all of 2022, data that the president of the observatory has described as "chilling." "We are very concerned at the Observatory because this year 2023 we are seeing an increase, although we still have to wait for the year to end to make a truly professional and serious comparison of the number of murders," he assured, adding that "the only way to end "This is involving each and every one."

Of those 52 cases of gender violence, 16 occurred in July and August. Regarding this concentration, Carmona has indicated that July and August, along with December, are months in which there is more coexistence and more leisure situations in which there may be "more friction." "Normally these murders occur at home. This is terrible. We must take extreme precautions in these specific months, to avoid these serious crimes," he warned.

Likewise, he stressed that minors "are the most vulnerable in sexist violence" and stated that "an abuser can never be a good father." On this topic, she added that there are "many" mechanisms so that judges can protect the sons and daughters of victims of gender violence.

"We have seen that there are women who do not report or who retract or withdraw their complaints for fear of losing their children, of not being able to protect them. Currently, both the Civil Code, article 94, and 544 of the Criminal Law allow "the judges suspend the visitation regime from the beginning of the procedure or even deprive the parental authority of the parents who are involved in a procedure for sexist violence," he added.

Carmona has questioned the effectiveness of re-education programs for abusers, since, as reported, the aggravating circumstance most often applied in sentences is recidivism. "It is true that until now we have placed emphasis on the protection of the victim because it was necessary, because all the efforts and the entire budget must go to protect the victim, but it is also important not to leave aside that there are many abusers who reoffend. "We see that there are more and more violations, that is, abusers who not only commit the crime of gender violence, but also disobey court orders, prohibition, rapprochement, prohibition of communication," he warned.

Since the application of the Law of only yes is yes, more than 1,000 sexual offenders have benefited from sentence reductions and more than 100 have been released from prison. Regarding this issue, Carmona has stated that he believes that "from now on there will be no more sentencing reviews."

Furthermore, he stated that, "luckily", it has been rectified and that, therefore, the penalties will be "just as harsh." "They are very serious crimes. We have seen that in almost 50% or even more than 50% of these sentences the victims are minors and this is greatly repugnant to our society and therefore, the fact that the penalty is more serious It also gives the message that this is an execrable crime and that, of course, all the action of justice will fall on these criminals," he stated.

Regarding the Ministry of Equality's offer to provide electronic bracelets to released sexual offenders if requested by the judges, they have pointed out that they can only be imposed in those cases in which a prohibition on approach has been established by sentence. Carmona herself reported last September that only "two or three" of the more than one hundred released prisoners were wearing telematic bracelets.

In any case, it has highlighted the more than 4,000 devices imposed on perpetrators of gender violence that "are being a success." "Apart from the victim, the abuser himself values ​​it positively because it helps him not to break the restraining order," he noted, adding that in Spain there has been no regrets for "any murder of any woman with this device imposed."