Why are there who is able to better identify than others a situation of gender violence? What has to do with a person is more or less willing to intervene in what is being a witness? What depends on someone deciding to report to the Police or social services something that knows what is happening? Are all violence, physics, psychological, sexual, economic? Is there greater or lesser possibility of being exposed to one of these situations?
There are thousands of studies on victims for decades, but not so many about those who see or know that violence that is one of the world’s biggest public Health problems and a structural issue that affects, according to WHO, one in three women on the planet. Now, the study Identification and knowledge of situations of violence against women. Potential witness profile analysis, Promoted by the Social Observatory of the La Caixa Foundation, it focuses on them to examine who has the most possibilities of witnessing one of those situations and how they perceive it depending on the typology of violence, individual circumstances and characteristics.
And yes, there are. For example, the possibility of meeting a woman who suffers or has suffered physical violence varies “significantly,” says the study, according to sociodemographic characteristics; especially depending on gender, nationality and income level. While 36% of surveyed women declared to meet a victim, 24% of men did; Among foreign persons, 43% affirmed against 29% of Spanish people; If income is seen, 39% of those who enter less than 500 euros per month and drop 22% of people with income greater than 2,000.
If these variables are expanded, they are “the younger people, between 18 and 27, the single ones, who collaborate with feminist associations, regularly attend the Church or have a political orientation of the left” who declare in greater proportion recognize situations of physical violence in their environment.
To obtain these data, three researchers from the Public University of Navarra ―Ariadna García-Prado, Rebeca Echavarri and Sara Martínez de MORENTÍN-and one more from the University of Oviedo, Fernanda Gutiérrez-Navratil, interviewed 969 people between 18 and 48 years of the Regional Community of Navarra. A very concrete sample “which is extrapolable to the national population,” says García-Prado, the principal researcher.
On the one hand, because the participants were chosen so that it was, and on the other, because also, a posteriori, the data resemble, corroborate and complement each other with other statistics such as the macro -conformation of violence against the woman of 2015 and 2019 or that percentage of the World Health Organization. “30% of the people surveyed reported, because we left them a space for this, knowing or having witnessed a situation of violence,” says García-Prado, which also explains that this analysis is part of a major study that is already in the second review in a European scientific journal.
The Economic: The most complicated to identify
In general, most are able to identify all types of violence, however, there are some more complicated, and that, says the researcher, “is crucial for analysis, because the first step in violence is to be able to recognize it.” In all, yes, women are the ones that best identify it.
By types, the economic one is with the one that there is greater difficulties, although they identify it by 77%, “foreign people and with a low educational level” have more problems to do so, as also the control, in which the identification percentage rises to 87%. In sexual, 96%, 97% in psychological, and 98% in physics. It is in the latter where there is less difference between the profiles that are able to perceive it. In the psychological, García-Prado explains, something “worrying” happens: it is not perceived as “so serious.”
This issue points because when you go from perception to intervention, it is seen that it is one of the least denounced, although it is not only highly identified violence, but is the most widespread. According to the European Survey of Gender Violence of 2022, of the total number of women residing in Spain who are between 16 and 74 years old, and who have had a partner, 27.8% (more than 4.6 million) have suffered psychological violence within the scope of the couple at some time in their lives.
“It is important to promote the early denunciation of psychological violence to avoid becoming physics. Although the recognition of psychological violence is high, complaints are low, 14% about the total (those of physical and psychological aggressions add up to 53%), the study details.
“Although they identify psychological violence, this violence is expected to climb,” says García-Prado. The report, in its conclusions, points out the need to “explore which other factors can promote more complaints by people who know situations of violence.”
The victim’s environment as a strut against violence
In September 2023, a dozen men murdered their partners or ex -partners and made it one of the worst of the historical series – since 2003, only another 10 months have registered the same victims. After the analysis of these crimes, the then Secretary of State against Gender Violence, Ángela Rodríguez, launched a clear message: “It is essential to abandon the denialism of sexist violence. And break the silence, silence is complicity with the aggressors.”
That day, from the Ministry of Equality, the “environment, which knew the situation; to the neighbors, who knew what was happening,” said Rodriguez, so that the violence suffered every day women did not climb until the last stadium: the murder. But also to end this physical, psychological, sexual, control and economic abuse suffered by millions of women.
In the study, the investigators mark the objective in that line: “Among the factors that contribute to the persistence of violence is the low complaint rate. According to Spanish surveys, 65% of the victims do not report their situation. The complaint by witnesses is even lower, since violence is mainly denounced by the victims.” And García-Prado delves into that “the complaint is vital to be what gives access to the victim to protection, accompaniment and services that without her could not have.”
According to the macro -convention of violence against women of 2015, 55% of victims of violence reveal their situation to a friend or friend, therefore, “the victim’s social environment plays a crucial role, not only because it can report, but also because it can encourage and help the victim to do so. In addition, the increase in complaints of witnesses can transform into a deterrence, since the potential aggressors can be discouraged if Someone of their environment is likely to denounce them, ”says the study.
For this, García-Prado concludes, we must work so that society understands that the problem of violence is a problem of society and that affects the whole society: “Because many times, even identifying it, many people close to the victim or the aggressor do not act by the consequences that these complaints may have, both for women who are suffering violence and for them service”. That is, silence is perpetuated.
The telephone 016 serves the victims of sexist violence, their families and their surroundings 24 hours a day, every day of the year, in 53 different languages. The number is not registered on the telephone bill, but you have to erase the device call. You can also contact via email [email protected] and by WhatsApp in the number 600 000 016. The minors can go to the telephone of the Anar 900 20 20 10. If it is an emergency situation, the telephones of the National Police (091) and the Civil Guard (062) can be called at 112 OA. And in case of not being able to call, the alertcops application can be used, from which an alert signal to the police with geolocation is sent.
