València (EFE) of 2021.
Likewise, the number of victims, 6,795, suffered an interannual increase of 18.4%, in relation to the 5,737 a year earlier, according to data from the quarterly statistical report published this Monday by the Observatory against Domestic and Gender Violence of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ).
The Valencian Community has the third highest rate of gender violence per 10,000 women in Spain, with 25.6, compared to the 22.2 registered between January and March of last year. Only Murcia (26.4) and the Balearic Islands (26) surpass it in this index. Meanwhile, the Spanish average rate stood at 18.4.
60% of the victims are Spanish
Of the 6,795 victims recorded in the region in these first three months of 2023, 4,118, 60.6%, are Spanish, 16.7% more than in the same period of 2022, and 2,677, the remaining 39.4% , are foreigners, a group that has grown in this statistic by 21.2%.
The number of resignations, as those cases are called in which the injured parties avail themselves of the exemption to testify as witnesses against their alleged abusers, has grown by 21.2%. In the first quarter of last year there were 684 and at present, 829.
Of the total of 7,212 complaints registered in the analyzed period, 4,654 were presented by the victims themselves either before the security forces or in the courts, 116 by their relatives and 963 derived from the direct intervention of the police forces.
Another 798 are due to reports of injuries registered in the judicial bodies and 681 were filed by assistance services and third parties in general.
Protection orders drop by 90%
On the other hand, the protection orders adopted by the courts for violence against women, 1,011, have decreased by 9.2% in relation to the 1,114 of a year ago.
In this line, the orders filed fell by 3.9%, while the inadmissible rose by 250% (from 4 to 14) and the denied by 18.2%, which went from 220 to 260. In the duty courts , protection orders adopted also dropped, from 170 a year ago to 159.
The number of people prosecuted for these crimes in the Courts for Violence against Women of the Valencian Community also grew, specifically by 18.4%, since the 951 recorded between January and March 2022 rose to 1,126 in the same period of 2023.
Of those 1,126 people, only three were women and 90.6% of the total were convicted, 1.8% more than a year earlier.
On the contrary, the number of people prosecuted for gender violence in the Criminal Courts, 792, fell by 14.9% compared to the 931 in the first quarter of last year. In the Provincial Courts that figure was also reduced considerably, 45.5%, from 22 to 12.
27% more convictions
The statistics reflect an increase of 27% in the number of convictions handed down by the Violence courts (1,017 in the first quarter of this year compared to 801 in 2022), of 1.9% in acquittals (105 per 103), while the number of provisional dismissals, 1,730, increased by 8.8% and that of free dismissals, 142, did so by 4.4%.
It is worth noting the significant increase in the measure consisting of the suspension of the visiting regime with minor children in the field of gender violence. The courts of the Valencian Community agreed to it in this first quarter in 152 cases, compared to the 119 agreed a year earlier, out of a total of 989 throughout Spain.
This circumstance is a consequence of the application of Organic Law 8/2021, for the comprehensive protection of children and adolescents against violence, which modified article 544 of the Criminal Procedure Law, establishing the suspension of the visiting regime “when a protection order is issued with criminal measures and there are well-founded indications that the minor sons and daughters have witnessed, suffered or lived together” with gender violence.
Data by provinces
By provinces, Alicante recorded 2,509 complaints and 2,472 women victims of gender violence between January and March 2023, compared to 2,276 complaints and 2,251 in the same quarter of 2022, Castellón, 1,119 and 865 (by 801 and 475 a year earlier). and Valencia, 3,584 complaints and 3,458 female victims, compared to 3,072 and 3,011, respectively, in the first quarter of last year.
The three provinces exceed the national average in terms of the rate of victims of gender violence for every 10,000 women. In Alicante that rate is 25, in Castellón 28.4 and in Valencia 25.4.
The Courts with jurisdiction over violence against women in Alicante prosecuted 455 in that period, those from Castellón did the same with 116 and those from Valencia tried 552 people.
“You have to report”
The president of the Observatory against Domestic and Gender Violence, Ángeles Carmona, points out the importance that the percentage of women who denounce their aggressors before the Security Forces and Bodies or before the Justice is maintained at around 70 percent. hundred.
“We must be able to make all of them feel that by taking that difficult step that is to denounce their partner or ex-partner, they are opening the door to a better future for themselves and their daughters and sons. When they cross the door of the court or the police station, they must feel safe”, affirms the president of the Observatory.
The increase in the number of victims and complaints has, as occurred at the end of 2022, a double interpretation: “on the one hand it is a positive fact because it shows that the victims do not keep quiet, they denounce it, but, on the other, it means that the violence of gender in Spain continues to do a lot of damage to many women”.