The scourge of gender violence continued to hit even harder in 2023. A new spike in cases of abuse has once again placed the Region as the second community most affected by this violence. Complaints of sexist violence continued their upward climb last year with a new spike in the community, up to 12.6%, according to data managed by the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ). In those twelve months, the courts received up to 8,898 complaints from women who claimed to have suffered abuse from their partner or ex-partner. The figure represents an average of 24 complaints daily.
With these data, the Region once again positioned itself as the second community most affected by abuse of women. It registered 114.5 cases of gender violence per 10,000 women, the second highest rate in the entire national territory, only surpassed by the Balearic Islands (124.8). The numbers considered in the Community are very far from other parts of the country, such as Castilla y León and Galicia, with a rate of 52.5 and 53.1 cases of gender violence per 10,000 women, respectively. The national average is 79.4.
An unstoppable rise
At the national level, 2023 also left a new increase in sexist violence, although the rebound was somewhat less pronounced than in the Community. The Spanish courts received a whopping 199,282 complaints of gender violence, 9.46% more than in 2022. This new increase reinforces a trend that has been continuously observed since 2013, with the only exception being 2020, in which the situation of the victims of sexist violence was conditioned by the covid health crisis.
According to the data managed by the Judiciary, in these twelve months the number of minors facing this violence in the Region increased slightly. There were fifty, compared to 42 the previous year. The number of Spanish minor victims increased, however, up to 55.6%. Of the total number of female victims, 36% were foreigners. A distribution that, except for small oscillations, has remained stable for years.
The data that the Judiciary puts on the table also reveal a slight reduction in the number of women who refuse to testify despite the legal reform that came into force more than a year ago. If in 2022 533 women took advantage of the exemption from not testifying against their attacker, last year the figure was 456, 14.4% less. Furthermore, it barely accounts for 5.1% of the total complaints, an increasingly smaller number.
The legal exemption that allows a woman not to testify against her husband or partner, in fact, is no longer total. If the victim agrees to testify for the first time, before the Police or before the judge, after having been fully informed of her rights, she will no longer be able to invoke the 'a posteriori' dispensation. She won't be able to back down now. The change sought to prevent the pressure from the aggressor, her family or her environment from ending up invalidating her testimony, which in many cases is what can lead to the conviction of the abuser or, failing that, precipitate acquittal.
More than 2,100 prosecuted
Up to 2,172 people were prosecuted last year for alleged gender violence, 29.2% more than a year before. 97.3% of the sentences were convictions, according to data from the Judiciary. This percentage is much higher in the Community than at the national level, where it is close to 81%.
Judges suspend visits to 332 suspects
Courts increasingly strictly apply the maxim that an abuser cannot be a good father, thereby immediately suspending visitation with children. Over the past year, the courts have agreed to thousands of suspensions of child visitation to abusive parents. The measure was taken in 4,026 cases, a figure similar to the 4,111 registered in the previous year. In the case of Murcia, in 2023 the judges agreed to 332 suspensions of visits to abusers.
The number is due to the widespread application of the legal reform that came into force a few years ago and which indicated that if there are known signs of gender violence or also suffered by minors, the aggressor's contact with the children must be immediately cut off. suspending the visitation regime, if any, during the course of the investigation and withdrawing parental authority in the event of conviction.
In fact, official statistics also highlight that judges, in these same protection orders, have provisionally suspended the suspect's custody of his children on another 144 occasions in the Region. In another 56 cases the suspension affected parental rights.
Once again, seven out of every ten complaints (70.93%) were filed by the victims themselves, either in court or at the police station. A figure that continues to be much higher than the complaints filed by the victim's entourage, just 1.82% of the total. Complaints derived directly from police reports represented 15.89%; those caused by reports of injuries, 7.94% and those presented by third parties, 3.43%, according to the statistics managed by the Judiciary.
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