Madrid (EFE)
The text of the order, the 1/2023 to which EFE has had access, justifies this communication to the victims after the analysis of the cases of sexist violence incorporated into the VioGén monitoring system that determine that the condition of recurrent or persistent aggressor -two or more complaints from different couples- «constitutes a specific and serious risk factor for the woman and the children or people who depend on her».
However, the extensive ten-page instruction signed this Thursday by the Secretary of State for Security, Rafael Pérez, makes clear the “terms and assumptions” in which agents specialized in caring for victims of sexist violence can report these antecedents, without in any case that communication can be “generalized”.
Criteria for reporting history
The specific criteria for a victim who denounces her aggressor to be informed that he has had episodes of abuse with previous partners are the following:
- The police risk assessment must yield a Medium risk level of special relevance, High or Extreme.
- All these circumstances must be met: plans or threats aimed at harming the victim; exaggerated jealousy or suspicions of infidelity; violent history of the aggressor or addictions to toxins and that the victim has expressed her intention to break the relationship.
- The violence reported by that victim must include behaviors considered during the police risk assessment “as serious or very serious”, with physical or sexual violence or death threats.
- Your partner’s background information will only be notified when it appears in the system in the previous five years, so the rest will be excluded, as well as the prescribed facts or on which there is an acquittal or free dismissal.
- The information provided will be: “The data of the person denounced is recorded in the VioGén System”. You will not be told the nature of the previous abuse, its legal assessment, procedural situation or other background or personal data.
The instruction not only develops the communication to the victims of the aggressor’s background but also includes a series of “special protection measures in cases of persistent aggressors” and reinforces the “monitoring” strategies on this profile of “multi-victimizers”. »: - The reported aggressor will be informed that the control, protection and follow-up measures will be extended to other previous victims.
- If the agents request the prosecutor’s office that the aggressor wear a telematic bracelet, they must specify in the police report that there are complaints from other victims and must emphasize that the accused “presents a notable specific risk of committing new criminal acts with the same victim and with other victims.” ».
- The agents will reassess the risk of victims of that aggressor active in the VioGén System. When the case appears in the system as “inactive” in a period of less than three months, they will also contact the victim.
- Actions will be taken to comply with judicial measures, such as a restraining order, since these aggressors are more likely to break them.
- The data contained in prisons on these aggressors will be examined, contrasted and updated.
- When there is a case of a persistent aggressor, the VioGén system will automatically generate a “report” with the characteristics of this type of aggressor, regardless of the level of risk, with the aim of “improving the quality of information available to the judges and courts when making their decisions.