2020, the year in which Spain lived three months of strict confinement due to the pandemic, was also the year with the fewest fatalities due to sexist violence since there is data. Even so, 46 women were murdered, which, although there are nine fewer than the previous year, are equivalent to one death every 7.9 days. The data reveal that this frequency was much lower during the 99 days of confinement: between March 15 and June 21 there were four murders, the lowest number in the historical series for a period of that duration, according to the report prepared for him Observatory against Domestic and Gender Violence, dependent on the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ). The experts, who during the weeks of mandatory quarantine warned of the increase in calls to 016 and of the danger that being locked up with their aggressor posed for the victims, agree that the reduction in femicides could be connected both to the greater control of the aggressor regarding their victim during confinement and the aggressor’s difficulty of access to the woman in the case of couples who did not live together. As soon as the state of alarm was lifted, sexist murders increased: 12 in 47 days.
The data collected by the Observatory against Gender Violence regarding 2020, experts warn, must be analyzed with caution due to the highly anomalous circumstances in which most of that year passed. All in all, the figures confirm a downward trend observed since 2011, with data far removed from the values recorded between 2003 and 2010. According to the CGPJ specialists, “the consolidation and improvement” of public policies for protection against violence gender have contributed to maintaining this downward trend. The report indicates as key factors “the increase in the granting of protection measures, the improvement of telematic tools, the percentage increase in convictions or the progressive realization of the measures included in the State Pact.”
But there are data in which this improvement is not observed, such as that of the fatalities who came to file a prior complaint. Of the 46 murdered women (in addition to three minors), only eight (17.4%) had reported the aggressor, a percentage lower than in 2019 (21.8%) and the average of the historical series from 2003 to 2020 (25.6%). However, the percentage of fatalities who filed prior complaints between 2003 and 2020 is irregular and has many interannual fluctuations, ranging from 15.8% in 2005 to 34.5% in 2014. Five of the eight women murdered in 2020 who had already denounced the one who later became their executioner maintained coexistence with him.
The individualized analysis of the eight cases with judicial records reveals that the previous complaints presented by the victims gave rise to a total of 11 judicial proceedings, since three of them had presented more than one complaint of gender-based violence against the aggressor. The CGPJ’s analysis is limited to seven of the eight cases and to nine procedures because the Observatory has not had access to the judicial file of one of the victims. In three of those nine proceedings, it was the victims themselves who filed the initial complaint. Most of the time (78%) a physical assault was reported (from pushing and pulling the hair to hitting and choking attempts). 11% of the complaints were for psychological violence, being death threats, insults, contempt and humiliation or threats to deprive victims of their children the most frequent events. In six of the nine cases a police risk assessment had been carried out, but a “high” risk was only found in one of them. In two, “medium” risk was detected, in one “low” and in the remaining two, “unappreciated”. Eight out of ten murdered women (36 of the 46 victims, 78.3%) were living with the aggressor at the time of the crime. In 2019, there was coexistence in 65.5% of the cases. In the historical series, between 2003 and 2020, it occurred in six out of ten cases (60.8%).
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