Forty women have been murdered by their partners or ex-partners and eight minors have been victims of vicarious crimes so far in 2024. Meanwhile, every day in Spain more than 560 complaints are filed for gender violence and 55 for sexual violence, 13 of them for rape. The magnitude of violence against women in Spain is unacceptable. On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, EFE has prepared an X-ray of male violence in this country.
Feminicides
There are 40 women murdered by their partners or ex-partners so far this year, 1,285 crimes since 2003. This Sunday, a new victim has been killed by her husband in Estepa (Seville), who then committed suicide, a case that is under investigation. Andalusia is the most populated autonomous community and the one that has registered the highest number of murders (266), followed by Catalonia (211), Comunitat Valenciana (162), Community of Madrid (134), Canary Islands (83), Galicia (71), Castilla y León (64), Castilla-La Mancha (59), País Vasco (42), Baleares (41), Región de Murcia (35), Aragón (34), Asturias (29), Comunidad Foral de Navarra (15), Extremadura (12), Cantabria (11), La Rioja (8), Melilla (5) and Ceuta (3). As a result of these femicides, 463 children have been orphaned since 2013. The thirties is the age group in which a greater number of murders are concentrated (352). Behind, but not far behind, are the forties (298) and the twenties (242). Thirteen fatal victims were minors and another 80 were over 70 years of age. By nationality, 829 women were Spanish (64.5 %), 438 were foreigners (34.1 %) and in 18 cases their origin was not recorded. As for the aggressors, 66.6 % were Spanish and 32.2 % were from another country. A total of 271 femicides committed suicide after committing the crime, 21.1 %, so that they could not be tried for their acts, and another 168 attempted suicide (13 %). In the vast majority of cases there were no reports of abuse against the alleged aggressor, only 21.57%. Since 2022, the Government Delegation against Gender Violence also prepares statistics on femicides perpetrated beyond the sphere of the partner or ex-partner. In 2022 and the first half of 2024, 62 women have been murdered for the mere fact of being women. In 36 cases, the aggressor was a family member, in 17 cases an acquaintance and the remaining nine femicides were sexually motivated.
Vicarious violence
Violence against the children of female victims is also a type of gender-based violence. As a consequence of vicarious violence, eight minors have been murdered in Spain this year. Since 2013, there have been 61 vicarious femicides against minors, with the vast majority of them perpetrated by their fathers (88.5%, compared to 11.5% committed by the mother’s partner or ex-partner). After committing the crime, 34 of the 61 perpetrators committed suicide (55.7 %), and another seven attempted suicide (11.5 %). As of October 31, 2024, police forces had 1,711 minors registered in VioGén at risk of being assaulted by their parents or by the partners or ex-partners of their parents and another 12,282 exposed to a situation of vulnerability due to living in contexts of male violence. According to the Macro-survey of the Government Delegation against Gender Violence, more than 1.69 million children live in homes where their mothers suffer gender violence by their partners or ex-partners.
Complaints and protection
In Spain, more than 2.34 million complaints of gender violence have been filed since 2009. In the second quarter of this year, the latest period for which data is available, 561 complaints were filed daily, 23 every hour.
Since 2007, the 016 telephone number has received more than 1.36 million calls and currently more than 4,700 abusers live with a bracelet that monitors their movements to alert them of a possible approach to their victim. In October, the Ministry of the Interior registered more than 100,000 cases of gender violence with police monitoring, 52% of them related to women with minor dependent children and about 30% are foreigners. One in five victims of gender violence suffers male abuse by more than one aggressor in their lifetime and more than 16,400 women have been alerted that their abuser has previously assaulted other victims. In 2023, a total of 123,452 serious acts of gender violence were perpetrated, 9.8% more than in 2022 and 48% more than five years ago, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
Sexual violence
Fernando Grande-Marlaska’s department is also recording a progressive increase in the number of complaints of sexual violence in recent years. If in 2022 there were 32 daily complaints for sexual crimes and 10 for rape, in the first half of 2024 there were already 55 daily complaints for sexual assault and 13 for rape. In the context of sexual violence, Spain has a pending debt when it comes to responding to victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation, for which there is hardly any data and for which there is no comprehensive law. 652 women and 12 girls victims of sexual exploitation were released by law enforcement agencies in 2023. Of these, 294 were also identified as victims of trafficking. There are more than 114,000 women in prostitution in this country and at least 24.2% of them, more than 27,000, are at risk of sexual exploitation, and between 8.5 and 15.4% are at risk of having been recruited by a trafficking network.
