A crime of passion, a secret, a relationship conflict, family problems, a specific outburst… This is what sexist violence was for almost everyone when even the Comprehensive Law against Gender Violence had not put another option on the table. way of understanding it: “Gender violence is not a problem that affects the private sphere,” reads the first sentence of the norm, published in the Official State Gazette on December 28, two decades ago. Thus, the scaffolding of a system that became an international reference began to be built and a new concept began to be installed that, slowly and with its setbacks, spread.
“The law was a revolution in the way we as a society understand gender violence. Before, it was presented as domestic violence, which was characterized by the setting where it occurred and not by the masculine cultural construction that, due to its position of power, understands that it can control and dominate. Before, it was situated in the dynamics of a couple or a family, specific to them, and not as an expression of those structural references,” says Miguel Lorente, former delegate of the Government against Gender Violence during the second term of José Luis. Rodríguez Zapatero, promoter of the law.
This new perspective is what María Bilbao, a psychologist specialized in sexist violence, also points out as one of the main advances of the law, which “represented the public recognition of violence as an endemic evil of patriarchy” and from there converted it “ in a social problem.” This changed the way of responding to the problem: the law articulates a whole series of measures in different areas, a network of care for victims, specific courts or the VioGén protection system. “That the State takes responsibility for this by offering employment resources, psychosocial care or financial aid is a beginning to go from victim to survivor,” adds Bilbao.
Collecting data, monitoring what happens, has also been a differentiating element. Already a year before the entry into force of the norm, the official count by the Government of women murdered at the hands of their partners or ex-partners began, which feminist organizations had already been doing for some time. During the first decade, the average number of murders reached 62 and in the last, 51, reducing by 17.6%. “The objective of the law has been met, not in the sense of achieving a defined result, but in advancing in the eradication of gender violence. We are in that process,” believes Lorente.
Even so, the path followed by the norm that made Spain a pioneering country has not been easy. It was difficult for it to move forward thanks to the push of women’s associations that ended up crystallizing in the commitment of the PSOE, but once approved it was necessary to face 180 issues of unconstitutionality that indicated that the law violated the principle of equality and, in practice , discriminated against men. Although the Constitutional Court settled the matter in 2008, that same melody has played loudly again in recent years with the rise of denialism: it was the argument that Ciudadanos used in 2015 to defend ending specific penalties and the usual speech of Vox , which resurfaces with the alliances with the PP.
More and more complaints
Still, the number of murders is the tip of the iceberg, the most brutal expression of violence, but its impact encompasses much more. More and more women identify it and manage to leave it, and in fact, the complaints have been increasing over time – with a drop in the economic crisis and the coronavirus pandemic –: this has increased from the almost 136,000 filed in 2009. to 200,000 in 2023. Even so, the complaints do not tell us the whole reality, taking into account that they are only presented by a minority of victims. When women are asked directly if they suffer or have suffered violence, the numbers skyrocket: the latest Macrosurvey, from 2019, indicates that 32% of the female population has been a victim; The 2023 European Survey shows 28.7%, almost three out of ten women.
On the other hand, the protection orders issued have evolved in step with the number of complaints, with their peaks and valleys, although a large proportion of them are still rejected, as can be seen in the following graph – 31% in 2023.
If we compare with 2009, the number of complaints has grown strongly, 46.9%, and the protection measures have done so at different rates: those denied have increased by 7% and those adopted by 1.4%. Furthermore, there are marked differences between courts: some reject almost all of them and others, on the contrary, accept almost all of them. A disparity in which multiple factors intervene, for example the size of the judicial bodies or the training and gender perspective with which it is assessed whether or not a victim is at risk, the experts point out.
Hence, for the judge of the Court of Violence against Women of Getafe, Cira Domínguez, delving into the specialization of the courts is still a pending issue. In fact, 36.3% of victims still do not have access to them two decades later. “It was the first law that addressed violence in a transversal way, in the criminal sphere, but also labor, social, economic… And from there it is presented as a political and social problem, but there is still a need for courts with exclusive powers and more training, also for the technical teams,” emphasizes the member of the Association of Women Judges (AMJE).
The judicial panorama is completed with the end of the process: how do the complaints end? And there, the figures are ambivalent. There are more and more convictions, but also more acquittals and files that usually occur due to “lack of evidence”, which constitute an important part of the total and in response to which experts and associations demand more in-depth investigations. Even so, globally, more and more women trust the judicial system to escape violence, a reality that contrasts with the absolute occultism with which they lived 20 years ago. “The norm has enabled great advances and laid the foundations for the recognition and rise of feminism,” believes Bilbao.
A “multifactorial” reality
The law deployed a whole range of public policies, among them, the implementation of economic measures to help victims which, although they often fall short, have not stopped increasing. On the other hand, it inaugurated a network of care resources that in many cases, such as in Madrid, are at their limit, but make possible “an attempt to repair” the “damages suffered by the victims” at a level not only physical, but also psychological or sexual. two dimensions that sometimes in the judicial field tend to have less coverage, says Bilbao, who believes that all of this “has served so that many women can put words to what they experience and take action.”
Over time, in these 20 years there are pending issues that have been delved into, especially in the last decade, although others are still missing. The women’s sons and daughters began being totally invisible and in 2015 they were recognized as direct victims of the violence suffered by their mothers. “This progress is enormous, that is when the law begins to delve a little deeper into a problem that is complex and multifactorial,” explains the psychologist. Little by little, other measures have been taken, such as the prohibition of visits when there are signs of gender violence, but gaps in protection remain a reality.
The murders of minors for this reason began to be counted in 2013 and since then there have been 62, in some cases after the justice system ignored the complaints of their mothers. In fact, several UN rapporteurs have drawn attention to a “discriminatory bias” that causes women’s testimony to be taken as less credible and, at times, they are accused of manipulating their sons and daughters. In this sense, the law has also made progress by vetoing the use in courts of the false parental alienation syndrome (PAS) against women, but it has not been able to completely banish it.
The ways in which a victim can be protected are also increasing: it is no longer necessary to file a complaint to access rights and aid, it is enough for victims to be assisted at some point in the gender violence network. Now what is missing, Lorente points out, is a generalization “of prevention through education” to youth, which is immersed in a context of polarization, and “of social awareness.” Also “improve the detection” of gender violence “by going where women go: medical consultations,” insists the forensic doctor, who, as the Ministry of Health attests, still “there is a lot to do there.”
On issues that have yet to be addressed, the State Pact against Gender Violence is expected to advance, a public policy approved in 2017 with more than 200 measures and an economic commitment to, to the extent possible, deal with the ups and downs. budgetary proposals that communities and city councils have also been making during this time, with significant cuts in some cases. Now, a subcommittee created within Congress is working on its renewal with an eye toward the first quarter of next year. This time, of course, with the foreseeable opposition from the extreme right and the defense of a rhetoric, that of domestic violence, from more than 20 years ago.
Source: www.eldiario.es
