Madrid (EFE).- A total of 46,040 women have some type of police protection as victims of sexist violence, of which 1,097 are at high risk and 31 at extreme risk level, according to the latest data from the Ministry of the Interior.
This May, as reported by Interior in a statement, the Comprehensive Monitoring System in cases of Gender Violence (VioGén System) has exceeded 6 million police risk assessments for women victims of sexist violence, carried out by the Security Forces specialists.
VioGén active cases
Specifically, since its creation in July 2007, the system has reached 6,047,700 police risk assessments (VPR) for a victim of gender violence.
It is an operational instrument “of vital importance” since it allows determining the level of danger of suffering new aggressions faced by the affected woman, determining the most appropriate protocols to give the necessary protection to both her and her children, as well as carrying out monitoring the evolution of each case to adjust security measures to changes that may occur.
Currently the system has 77,213 active cases.
According to the risk assessment tools, the system provides police protection to 31 women at extreme risk level, 1,097 at high risk, 11,364 at medium risk, and 33,548 at low risk.
In total, 46,040 women currently have police protection measures in accordance with the level of risk in which they find themselves.
Changes in police risk assessment mechanisms
Since March 2019, changes have been introduced in the police assessment mechanisms for the risk of recidivism and their predictive capacity has been extended to cases of potential lethality thanks to the application of a protocol capable of detecting cases in which minors may find themselves in situations of vulnerability or risk.
This allows legal operators to be informed of the risk in order to establish protection measures against the situation of violence suffered by their mothers.
Since then, this protocol has been improved through instruments that detect the most serious and complex cases to generate an automated notification to the police officers assigned to protect the victim.
Agents authorized to work in VioGén
Currently, there are 41,666 agents authorized to work at VioGén. Most of the National Police (6,128 troops), the Civil Guard (20,878), Mossos d’Esquadra (517), Navarra Foral Police (177), National Police units attached to the autonomous communities of Valencia and Galicia (56 effective between both) and the 2,666 local agents of the 702 municipalities adhered to the system.
To these police officers must be added members of Penitentiary Institutions, the Judiciary and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the coordination units of the Ministry of Equality and the autonomous social service entities.
VioGén was created in compliance with the 2004 law against gender violence. It is a police system centralized in the Ministry of the Interior, aimed at monitoring and protecting women victims of gender violence and their children.
It collects all the police information on victims of gender violence from the State Security Forces and Bodies: National Police, Civil Guard, municipal police and autonomous bodies.
When the complaint is made, it is immediately registered in the VioGén system and the agents in charge of the proceedings carry out an assessment of the risk situation through the forms.
Based on the results of the questions and the police investigation, the system determines one of the five levels of risk that exist: not appreciated, low, medium, high and extreme. Each of them entails specific protection measures.
