Reports of gender violence registered in the Canary Island judicial bodies increased by 2.4% in the first three months of the year. This growth has occurred against the national trend, which last winter was decreasing for the first time since the pandemic.
While in the winter of last year the courts of the Islands had registered 2,507 reports of gender violence, this year the number was 2,566 (59 more), according to data released this Friday by the Observatory against Domestic and Gender Violence of the General Council of the Judiciary.
According to the report of the governing body of the judges, the number of women victims of gender violence in the Canary Islands also increased between January and March of this year compared to the same period of 2022. It went from 2,507 to 2,511, four more, a percentage increase of 0.2%.
According to official data, the Canary Islands registered a rate of 22.1 women victims of gender violence per 10,000 women during the first quarter of this year, the fifth highest in the State after Navarra (30.1), the Balearic Islands (27.3), Murcia (24) and the Valencian Community (22.3). The national average was 17.5 women victims of gender violence per 10,000 women, 4.6 points below the Canary Islands ratio.
The Observatory's report offers more data: of the 2,511 women victims of violence in the Canary Islands in the period under study, 1,880 were Spanish (seven of them minors) and 631 were foreign. 342 of the victims availed themselves during the processing of the process to the dispensation to the obligation to testify against their alleged aggressor, 4.3% more than in the first quarter of the previous year, when 328 females had not confirmed the complaints.
During the past winter, the Canary Island judicial bodies that judged cases of gender violence issued 681 convictions (3.3% less than in the first quarter of 2023), 35 absolute sentences (5.4% less than in the previous year), 166 free dismissal orders (+34.5%) and 848 provisional dismissal orders of the proceedings (-10.7%%).
The percentage of convictions was 95.1% (+0.1%) and that of termination by provisional dismissal, 84.1% (5.3% less than in the previous year). With regard to defendants, last winter 716 people sat on the bench in the Canary Islands for sexist crimes (5.7% less than in the first quarter of 2023), with 95.1% being convicted (0.1% more than in 2023). 493 were Spanish citizens and 188 were foreigners.
Protection orders
As for protection orders, the Canary Island courts registered 451 requests this winter, 13.3% more than in 2023. Of these, the courts rejected 11, adopted 340 (10.4% more than in 2023) and denied 100 (+11.1).
The Observatory's study offers data broken down by islands for the fourth year. Between January and March 2024, 154 reports of crimes of violence against women were registered in Fuerteventura; in Gran Canaria, 1,326; in Lanzarote, 123; in El Hierro, 7; in La Gomera, 15; in La Palma 60, and in Tenerife, 1,145. In the vast majority of cases, crimes of injury and ill-treatment were reported.
National data
With regard to the data at the national level, the number of reports and victims of gender violence in the first quarter of the year throughout Spain has decreased compared to the same period of 2023, in what is the first decrease since the health crisis caused by COVID-19. The courts of violence against women registered 45,899 reports filed by 43,580 victims, data that are 1.17% and 3.28% lower than a year ago, respectively.
A slight decrease despite which the daily number of women victims in the first 91 days of the year amounted to 479 and the number of reports, to 504. The Observatory against Domestic and Gender Violence has made public this Friday the quarterly data, which show a decrease of 16.44% of women victims who avail themselves of the dispensation of the obligation to testify and figures of protection orders that have barely varied compared to the first quarter of 2023: 1.8% less have been agreed.
As for the sentences, the judicial bodies issued a total of 15,479, of which 79.94% were convictions. The number of civil measures consisting of the suspension of the visitation regime, which the courts of violence against women dictate to protect the sons and daughters of the victims, maintained the upward trend shown since the entry into force of the Organic Law of integral protection of children and adolescents against violence.
Thus, during the first quarter of 2024, 1,014 measures of this type were adopted, 2.5% more than a year ago. During the first quarter of this year, the Spanish courts received a total of 45,899 reports, 1.17% less than in the same period of 2023, in which 46,443 were registered.
The women victims of gender violence were 43,580, 3.28% less than a year ago, when 45,060 were counted. 65.16% of the victims were of Spanish nationality. The number of minor victims under guardianship amounted to 122.
The rate of victims of gender violence per 10,000 women was 15.5 throughout Spain, 0.9 points lower than in the first quarter of 2023. Above the national average were Navarra, 30.1; Balearic Islands, with 27.3; Murcia, with 24; Valencian Community, with 22.3; Canary Islands, with 22.1; Andalusia, with 19.9; and Madrid, with 17.9. The rates below the national average were registered in La Rioja, with 10.6; Castilla y León, with 12; Galicia, with 12.2; Castilla-La Mancha, with 13.4; Extremadura, with 13.5; Basque Country and Catalonia, with 13.8; Aragon, with 14.3; Asturias, with 14.9 and Cantabria, with 17. The proportion of reports filed by the victims themselves, either at the police station or in court, remains constant.
Two out of three reports (33,132, 72.19%) were filed by the victim, a figure that remains much higher than that of reports filed by third parties: family members filed 808 reports (1.76% of the total); by part of injuries received directly in court, 3,319 (7.23%) and by assistance services and third parties, 1,221 (2.66%).
Finally, the reports by direct intervention of the police, 7,419 in total, which represent 16.16% of the total. 9.21% of the victims waived their right to testify against their aggressor The percentage of women victims who availed themselves of the legal obligation to testify was reduced by about one percentage point compared to the previous year. In the quarter analyzed, 4,014 women victims waived their right to testify against their aggressor, 9.21% of the total.
Of these, 2,287 were Spanish and 1,721 were of other nationalities. More than eight thousand protection orders agreed The decrease in the number of reports and victims has barely been reflected in the protection orders. Between January and March of this year, a total of 11,783 protection orders were requested in the judicial bodies, 1% more than a year ago. Of these, 9,907 (84%) were initiated by the courts of violence against women and another 1,876 (16%) by the courts acting as duty courts. The protection orders agreed totaled 8,038, 1.8% less than a year ago. That is, in the quarter analyzed, an average of seven out of ten (68.21%) protection orders requested were agreed.
The courts of violence against women agreed 6,597, 66.5% of the requests they received, while the duty courts agreed 1,441, 76.8% of the requests registered. In 46.2% of the cases, the relationship (spouse or affective relationship) was maintained at the time of requesting the protection order to the court of violence against women or to the duty court. Two out of three women (6,522, 65.8%) who requested protection were Spanish and 2.7% of the total (Spanish and foreign) were minors. Criminal and civil judicial measures of protection The judicial bodies also agreed, derived from the protection orders and other precautionary measures, a total of 14,378 criminal judicial measures of protection of the victims (women and minors).
Of these, 11,212 (78%) were agreed in the context of the protection order and 3,166 (22%), as precautionary measures. In the criminal field, the most frequent measures were restraining orders (5,657), which represented 67.26% of the total protection orders and precautionary measures agreed, and the prohibition of communication (5,591), 66.35% of the total protection orders and precautionary measures agreed.
Likewise, the judicial bodies issued 4,711 civil precautionary measures, whose purpose is the protection of women and minors while the criminal process is resolved. Of these, 4,445 (94%) were agreed in the context of the protection order and 266 (6%), as precautionary measures. The most frequent were those related to the provision of food (1,529), which represented 21.8% of the total protection orders and civil measures adopted, and the suspension of the visitation regime (1,014), 14.52% of the total protection orders and civil measures adopted.
Other civil measures adopted were the attribution of housing (984) and the suspension of custody (537). The courts of violence against women also adopted 17 specific measures of protection of the minor to avoid a danger or damage and in 82 cases suspended parental authority. 3.98% more sentences than a year ago The judicial bodies (courts of violence against women, criminal courts and provincial courts) issued during the first three months of the year a total of 15,479 sentences, 3.98% more than in the same period of 2023. 79.94% of these resolutions (12,374) contained a conviction, which means eight out of ten sentences.
A total of 3,105 sentences were acquittals, 20.06 percent. The highest percentage of convictions of abusers occurred in the courts of violence against women, with 91.36%, and in the provincial courts, with 83.87% of the total sentences issued. The criminal courts imposed convictions in 70.40% of the cases tried. Organ
The courts of violence against women held between January and March of this year a total of 1,962 trials for minor offenses, 3.6% more than in the same quarter of 2023. Of these, 835 (43%) were of immediate prosecution. Of the total minor offenses prosecuted in the quarter, one third (35 percent) were insults and 47 percent, unfair vexations.
These judicial bodies entered throughout the first quarter of the year 61,702 criminal cases, with 63.3% of the crimes investigated being those of injuries and ill-treatment provided for in articles 153 and 173 of the Penal Code. The number of civil lawsuits filed by women victims of gender violence -mostly non-consensual divorces and measures relating to the custody or food of sons and daughters- amounted to 7,047, 9.4% more than in the first quarter of 2023. The Criminal Courts, which try crimes punishable by up to five years in prison, received 8,629 cases in the quarter analyzed and resolved 8,721.
The number of sentences issued by these bodies was 8,388, of which 5,905 (70.40%) were convictions. The Provincial Courts, whose sections specialized in violence against women try the most serious crimes, punishable by custodial sentences of more than five years, issued 124 sentences, of which 104 (83.87%) were convictions.
Juvenile courts
For its part, between January and March of this year the juvenile courts prosecuted for crimes of violence against women 94 minors (a year ago 80 minors were prosecuted by these bodies). Measures were imposed in 86 cases, of which 76 were related to Spanish minors. In the other 8 proceedings no measures were imposed.
Assessments of the president of the Observatory, Ángeles Carmona
The president of the Observatory against Domestic and Gender Violence of the General Council of the Judiciary, Ángeles Carmona, warns that it is necessary to be prudent in the analysis of the data for the first quarter of the year and not to advance conclusions until verifying whether the decrease in reports (of 1.17%) and victims (of 3.28%) responds to an isolated event or the beginning of a downward trend in the figures collected by the statistics.
She adds, in this sense, that hasty conclusions should not be drawn because there are two possible causes that would require different actions: it could be a decrease in cases of gender violence, a situation in which one should be optimistic but without lowering one's guard and without ceasing to invest and develop measures of prevention, comprehensive care for victims and prosecution of crime by the State Security Forces and by Justice; and it could also be a reduction in reports, a very worrying circumstance that would require an in-depth analysis of its causes and the implementation of new measures that would contribute to increasing the confidence of victims in institutions, highlighting the importance of reporting as the only means to avoid impunity for abusers and to provide greater protection to women and their sons and daughters.
Ángeles Carmona stresses that, despite the reduction in reports, civil matters (relating to separation proceedings) entering the courts of violence against women have increased by 9.4% compared to the previous year. A significant fact insofar as it is a proven fact that the mere announcement of the will to separate from the abuser is one of the main risk factors for the life of the victim and also for that of their sons and daughters. For its part, the decrease in criminal proceedings has barely reached one percent.
