Intimate partner violence: contextual and predictive factors

Pérez Rivas, Natalia / Regueira Diéguez, Antía / Guinarte Cabada, Gumersindo / Muñoz Barús, José Ignacio / Rodríguez Calvo, María Sol / Vázquez-Portomeñe Seijas, Fernando (2013): “Intimate partner violence: contextual and predictive factors”. 13th Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, Budapest, 4-7 september 2013 [Póster] This license requires that reusers give credit to the creator. It allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form and for noncommercial purposes only. • BY: Credit must be given to you, the creator. • NC: Only noncommercial use of your work is permitted. Noncommercial means not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation. • ND: No derivatives or adaptations of your work are permitted. Intimate partner violence: contextual and predictive factors © 2013 by Pérez Rivas, Natalia / Regueira Diéguez, Antía / Guinarte Cabada, Gumersindo / Muñoz Barús, José Ignacio / Rodríguez Calvo, María Sol / Vázquez-Portomeñe Seijas, Fernando is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 This proyect was supported by Grants from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (FEM 2010-22350-C02-01 and FEM 2010-22350-C02-02) and from Ministerio de Sanidad, Servicios Sociales e Igualdad (Instituto de la Mujer 181/12). INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE: CONTEXTUAL AND PREDICTIVE FACTORS Pérez Rivas, N1; Regueira Diéguez,A2; Guinarte Cabada, G3; Muñoz Barús, J I2; Rodríguez Calvo, M S2; Vázquez-Portomeñe, F3 1Department of Criminal Law. 2Department of Pathology and Forensic Sciences. 3Institute of Criminology. Introduction Methodology Results This proyect was supported by Grants from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (FEM 2010-22350-C02-01 and FEM 2010-22350-C02-02) and from Ministerio de Sanidad, Servicios Sociales e Igualdad (Instituto de la Mujer 181/12) Files classified as gender violence from the prosecutor office of Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, NW Spain) were examined and analysed. A total of 419 files from 2007 to 2011 were included in the investigation. The clinical histories of victims were also studied. A descriptive statistical analysis, testing the possible association of variables was carried out with the statistical package SPSS. The main objective of this poster is to analyze different aspects of the prosecution of violence against women. As part of this task, we examine the victim´s attitude toward reporting the different types of abuse as well as the overall role of their testimony at the oral trial. The poster also attemps to evaluate the importance of the medical documents in the prosecution of these aggressions. The victim declares as a witness (either called by the prosecution or by the defense) in approximately 85%of the cases. This percentage decreases in proceedings initiated by a victim´s report (84.23%) or (more remarkably) a third parties´report (71.42%). However, filing a police report or a family report increases the presence of the victims (to a 91.66%and a100% respectively) to testify in the process. Meanwhile an analysis of the same data disaggregated by the type of crime reported shows one remarkable aspect: while in processes related to occasional abuse 26,12%of the women did not appear in person at the trial resulting in the decision or exercised their right not to testify, this percentage drops below 21%in the case of proceedings conducted for habitual abuses. Three personal and social factors generate distortions, both in terms of content and expression of testimony: the socioeconomic and family circumstances and the cohabitation with the aggressor. Relatives, neighbors, friends, colleagues or third parties provided information in 53%of all studied cases. In the processes in which the victim exercised their right not to testify the percentage goes down to 29,76%. This just goes to prove that social support for values like dignity and equality of the women is still fragile. Criminal policy must face in this area considerable obstacles. In 41%of the cases the victim refused to ratify during the oral trial what she declared during the pre-trial phase, availing themselves of their right to remain silent and "forcing" the judiciary to acquit the accused on the grounds of lack of evidence. These data make clear the difficult situation of these women and the significant conflict of interest between their obligations to declare (especially when they represent the notitia criminis: 82.14%of them had filed a report) and their family and socioeconomic background. In almost 20%of cases in which the victims testified at the trial they did recant their previous declarations or recognized at minimum that they had exaggerated when they had filed the report, changing significantly their version of the facts. The preparation of the testimony of the victims, with the lawyer and other specialists (such as psychologists or other advisors), is key in any criminal political strategy aimed at ensuring and improving the prosecution of these crimes. In general, and according to what has already been pointed out, it would be truly committed to define the position of the victims as totally free trial agents. Women don´t display the same attitude and mentality toward reporting the different types of abuses. 9.8 out of ten proceedings related to habitual violence were initiated by the victims, whereas the proportion goes down to 8.6 in cases of occasional violence. Medical documents are considered to be an insufficient evidence to prove the responsibility of the aggressor, unless they support the testimonies presented by the witnesses. For this reason, the inclusion of victim’s injury reports in 15%of the prosecutor files did not prevent the conclusion of the process with a not guilty verdict. This statement is valid for both first assistance reports (included in 53%of the prosecutor files) and victim´s forensic reports (included in 62%). Their evidential value is associated with their capacity to prove the reality and the production mechanism of the aggressions narrated by the victim and/or third parties. Empirical investigations need to be implemented in order to know the experiences and points of view of the professionals, to ensure a better coordination and to prevent secondary victimization. FIRST STEP IN CRIMINAL PROSECUTION: REPORTING ABUSEVICTIM’S TESTIMONY ROLE IN CRIMINAL PROSECUTION REPORTING GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE MEDICAL DOCUMENTS’ ROLE IN CRIMINAL PROSECUTION 81.3% of the gender-based violence proceedings were initiated by avictim’s report or a police statement with victim’s report. The low percentage of the cases initiated by a direct intervention of the Police -10.47%- confirms that it is difficult to impulse the prosecution of these abuses when the victim does not wish to report them. Factors such as the consequences of the criminal sanctions for the whole family or the fear of producing a definitive family breakdown play a significant role in the low proportion of processes initiated by a relative´s report (or apolice statement with a relative´s report) (2.06%). In this period the report ingrate stood at 7.5 per 10.000 women and has remained above 8 since 2009. The rate fluctuated from 5.83 in 2008 (lowest) to 8.62 in 2009 (highest). These statistics provide an evidence of the success of the strategies developed to encourage the victims to report (including controversial decisions like the aggravation of criminal penalties and other sanctions).