Gender violence
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Doménico Chiappe
Madrid
Friday, 6 September 2024, 16:35
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Living in "small municipalities" in Spain is an element of greater risk for women when it comes to gender-based violence, according to the analysis laid out in the annual report on the Memoria de la Fiscalía General del Estado. This report is a summary of all crime statistics and trends gathered by the public prosecutors' offices across Spain and was released on Thursday. Called the "rurality factor", the mortality rate of those killed by gender violence is disproportionate to the number of inhabitants in that location. Of the 59 killings of this type committed by men in 2023, "seven were committed in towns of less than 5,000 inhabitants", another two in towns of 5,001 to 10,000, eight in towns of 10,001 to 20,000 and six in towns of 20,001 to 50,000. That is 40% of the total. In towns of 50,000 to 100,000 inhabitants there were thirteen victims (22%) and in cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, some 23.
In these small municipalities the female victims avoided making a police report due to the fact that there is "greater difficulty for these women to notice and recognise violence, then to report it as such for fear of stigma", together with "greater difficulty in accessing specific resources for gender violence [support]." A third of the fatalities lived in locations with less than 20,000 inhabitants.
The risk factor of life in a village or small town is corroborated by an analysis of "attempted femicides", a statistical category that has only been in place for a few years and which includes women who have been spared death despite a credible attempt by their partner or ex-partner to kill them.
Last year 45 women narrowly escaped being murdered by their partner or ex, according to this report. The "serious acts" reported in these "attempted femicides" consist of stabbings (as the "most used method") of 27 women, strangulation in three cases, beatings in one, another used an axe and another one threw the woman over the balcony. There were also four hit-and-runs, two shot intentionally with firearms, one assaulted with a power drill and another attacked with a screwdriver, two arson attacks and one attempted asphyxiation.
Most of the survivors are between 25 and 50 years old. Twelve of these women (25%) had reported being at risk and 28 (62%) had had children with their aggressor. The proportion of these types of victims in small municipalities is also disproportionate in terms of the population size overall: "eleven of the attempted femicides were committed in towns of less than 20,000 inhabitants (25%) and 21 in towns of 20,000 to 50,000 (46%), which represents a high percentage of attempted femicides committed in towns of up to 50,000 inhabitants (71%)," states the report.
In five of the cases the attackers also wanted to kill other people related to the woman, known as "extended attempted femicides". In 2023, when one of the men also murdered his two sons, aged 8 and 5, there were nine other victims who narrowly escaped death. There were three more sons of the aggressor aged nine, ten and eleven in La Rioja, a 13-year-old daughter thrown down to the patio from an upper floor of the family home in Sagunto, and a little boy who tried to defend his mother although she was finally killed.
In other cases there was a woman and her two-year-old son who were seriously injured in a hotel room, two nieces who witnessed the murder of their aunt, a younger daughter was badly beaten when she came to her mother's aid and another daughter was assaulted when she tried to prevent her mother's femicide. In addition, three people who tried to prevent the crimes taking place were stabbed.
The risk factor increases during holiday periods such as the two key summer months and bank holidays. The 2023 report breaks down the days on which the murders were committed into holiday and work days as this has proved significant: "One of the reasons put forward to explain this concentration of homicides is that more time is spent together and extended social and family relationships occur more in the months that make up the holiday periods." Looking at the stats: "In the months of July, June and December the incidence of femicides has been highest (since 2006). The percentage of femicides committed in months related to summer and holiday periods reaches 54% of those committed in the year."
In 2023 the first four tragic cases occurred "on the day when, for work and school purposes, the Christmas period usually ends". The report continues: "We could conclude that in the periods in which social and extended family relationships occur more intensely (holidays, weekends or bank holidays) more femicides are committed."
In last year's crisis cabinet meetings convened by central government because of the build-up of so many gender-based killings being committed in just a few days, the term "persistent aggressors" emerged. These are defined as those men who were found to have abused more than one partner and who are under the watchful eye of VioGén, a computer-based risk-monitoring and protection system for victims who have reported gender violence (not just for men against women). Last year, of the 59 perpetrators who killed, seven had a history of gender-based violence with other partners, two had been reported for domestic violence against the mother and one had a history of sexual assault.
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