Throughout 2018, 69,000 complaints were filed before both Bodies.
Of the total police complaints received in 2019, 64% filed before the National Police, whose demarcation of powers are the provincial capitals and large population centers, in which, in general, the victims find more resources and enjoy greater anonymity, circumstances that favor the complaint.
In the rest of the national territory, under the jurisdiction of the Civil Guard, 36% of complaints were received. The environments with the lowest concentration of population and rural areas are spaces where victims find fewer resources and less anonymity, which makes it difficult to report such crimes, often suffered by victims for years.
Active cases
Until October 30, 2019, police officers monitor a total of 60,000 active cases. These cases are distributed among the National Police (25,000), the Civil Guard (24,000), as well as the Foral Police of Navarra and the Local Police of almost 400 Town Halls attached to the VioGén system of the Secretary of State for Security.
In this sense, for the Ministry of the Interior it is a priority to advance in the measures that facilitate the police report, either of the victim or his environment, and make it accessible in all cases of gender-based violence, on equal terms and conditions. Regardless of the circumstances.
New risk assessment protocols
To ensure that the police intervention is as effective as possible, the Ministry of Interior, following the guidelines set by the State Pact against Gender Violence, has promoted throughout 2019 improvements both in the "Protocol for police assessment of the risk of gender-based violence, victim safety management and follow-up of Cases through the VioGén System", as in the VioGén system that allows members of the State Security Forces and Bodies to manage cases of gender violence including police assessments and reassessments of risk.
Since October, all active cases are being reassessed under this new Protocol at the medium risk level whose complaint and first evaluation is prior to March 2019, the date of entry into force of the new Protocol.
The modifications introduced have focused on:
- Improve the predictive capacity of police risk assessment. For the first time, the police assessment not only anticipates the level of risk of recidivism in each case, but also the risk that such recidivism is very serious or even lethal. The predictive tool identifies and indicates before the judicial authority the cases that present a profile susceptible to lethal recidivism if it is not intervened from all the institutions involved.
- Improve the identification of cases with vulnerable or at-risk minors by victims of gender violence. The Secretary of State for Security emphasizes the importance of taking into consideration the minors in charge of the victim in those cases in which, even though they have not suffered direct aggression, the indicators show that they can find themselves in a situation of vulnerability or risk These cases with minors are identified before the judicial authority to be evaluated by specialized forensic evaluators so that the judicial authority can adopt the most appropriate measures for their protection.
Importance of training
Another priority of the Ministry of the Interior is the training, especially of the evaluating agents that are in charge of the first contact with the victim, the reception of the complaint and the first police assessment of the risk. During this year, 2,800 members of the State Security Forces and Corps participated in the training courses.
It will depend on the rigorous and expert intervention of these agents that the initial diagnosis of the case is adjusted to reality and that the police measures adopted are appropriate. Also, this initial diagnosis is the one that is brought to the attention of judges and prosecutors for the adoption of precautionary measures or protection orders.
Third cause of imprisonment
On the other hand, in prisons dependent on the General Secretariat of Penitentiary Institutions of the Ministry of Interior 4,308 men are convicted for the crime of gender-based violence. This makes sexist violence the third cause of deprivation of liberty, after crimes against heritage and against public health.
The services of Penalty Management and Alternative Measures, also dependent on Penitentiary Institutions, have received in the year 20,822 alternative judicial orders to prison (Community Benefit Work and suspension of sentence). In this area, gender violence is the most common cause of conviction, followed by crimes against Road Safety.
The profile of the abuser deprived of liberty is that of a Spaniard (78% of those convicted) between 41 and 60 years (45%). Characteristics that are repeated in the field of alternative penalties: 74% Spanish with ages between 31 and 40 years.
PRIA and PRIA-MA
Since 2001, Penitentiary Institutions have been working on the reeducation of those convicted of gender violence to fulfill the constitutional mandate of reintegration. It does so through the Program of Intervention for Aggressors of Gender Violence (PRIA) for those deprived of liberty and PRIA-MA in the case of alternative measures.
At the moment the program, which is voluntary in the case of those sentenced to prison, is being taught in 48 prisons of the General State Administration with a total of 940 participants. In the case of alternative measures, the suspension of the sentence entails the obligation to undergo the treatment. So far this year, 8,589 abusers have intervened.
Reintegration statistics support the success of these programs. In the case of the PRIA, the last report was made between 2007 and 2010 on a sample of 1,065 prisoners who participated in the program. The recidivism of those who did not finish it was 13.7%. The recidivism in the case of those who did finish the therapy was reduced to 8.6%.
In the case of PRIA-MA, the last study prepared by the Autonomous University of Madrid is from 2017. It was carried out on a sample of 678 convicts who participated in the program in 2010. Only the police complaint was established as a recidivism criterion, no need for conviction, in the 5 years following the completion of the program. In this case the recidivism among those who finished it was 6.8%.
'Sermujer.es'
In parallel to the work carried out with those convicted of gender violence, Penitentiary Institutions launched the SerMujer.es program in 2011. This is a psychotherapeutic intervention to provide women deprived of freedom of tools to improve their personal abilities, face the difficulties of being in prison, and to teach them to detect and deal with sexist violence.
Around 1,500 women have participated in the program since its implementation. At the moment it is taught in 19 centers over 239 women. A study conducted by the UNED To verify the effectiveness of SerMujer.es, it was possible to detect that between 70 and 75% of women entering prison have been victims of ill-treatment.