Male violence

Male violence is the most brutal sign of inequalities between women and men. It is a kind of violence that women suffer simply because they are women, another manifestation of the patriarchal system that proves that the power relations between women and men place women in a subordinate position.

This section deals with the reality of male violence in the city of Santiago de Compostela. Three main ideas were established in order to understand the gravity and existence of this local phenomenon: level of male violence, areas of violence and institutional response.

In this sense, markers which allow assessing the extent of male violence as well as analyse the response of the local government are created. These markers are set in the form of preventive actions, awareness campaigns and specific resources/programmes which delve into the roots of this problem. The role of the Women’s Information Centre (CIM) and its intervention in cooperation with other local agents is considered to be essential to meet the needs and demands of women who are in a situation of violence.

At the moment this section doesn’t have all the necessary information to allow a comprehensive analysis. Nevertheless, we show those markers which have information below as well as a proposal to lead future studies that analyse the state of the question in the city which were extracted from the qualitative study carried out.

Besides we attach a document that shows the information gathered in the Working Board focused on gender violence, which took place on October 2016.

Methodological note:

  • All the quantitative markers whose source is the Government Delegation on Gender Violence and the Judiciary of Spain respond to the level of Judicial Districts of Spain. This data comprehend information about the town councils of Ames, Boqueixón, Santiago de Compostela, Teo and Vedra. The official bodies don’t offer disaggregated information at municipal level.
  • The analysed information dates from 2014 to 2016

Level of violence

From 2014 to nowadays one woman was murdered in Santiago de Compostela. It was specifically a 30 years old woman who was murdered on 18 December 2016 by her ex partner (Santiago de Compostela, 2016).

The woman who was murdered in 2016 in Santiago de Compostela had not filed a report previously (Santiago de Compostela, 2016)

Data source: Government Delegation on Gender Violence, 2016.

The number of reports in 2016 follows the same pattern than in 2014 and 2015.

By analysing the cause of report we can see that the tendency is that most of them stem from police statements with victims’ reports (2014: 87.30%, 2015: 77.33% and 2016: 73.71%), followed by those which arise from injury reports (2014: 2.46%, 2015: 12.96% and 2016: 20.26%). The reports filed directly by the victim represent a very low percentage (2014: 0%, 2015: 4.86% and 2016: 3.88%).

Data source: Judiciary of Spain, 2016

The total number of female victims (with protection order or precautionary measures) in the last three years was 70 in 2014, 71 in 2015 and 79 in 2016.

The tendency in these last three years is that the highest percentages focus on the cases where the offender had or had had a romantic relationship with the victim.

Areas of violence

This section aims to assess the extent of violence as an issue that comprises different areas. The qualitative research stresses the need to quantify molestation, harassment and sexual assault offences: the victims of human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation; the victims of female genital mutilation and the cases of sexual harassment and sex-based harassment in the work place.

Institutional response

The need to assess the response which is being handled from different areas is pointed out in the qualitative research in order to detect the cases of male violence identified in the regulated educational institutions of compulsory and secondary education, in free time and leisure schools.

On the other hand, it is considered essential to assess the number of women who are treated in the public health system, in primary health care, in specialist healthcare and in the emergency services due to violence.

So far, we have information about the judicial and municipal actions, as well as about the prevention driven by the Department of Equality, Economic Development and Tourism.

Data source: Judiciary of Spain, 2016.

Most of the protection orders are asked for at request of the victim (2014: 92.85%, 2015: 88.73 %, 2016: 93.33 %). In the second place, the highest percentages according to the officer who applies for the protection orders are those which are driven by the prosecution service (2014: 5.63 %, 2015: 7.04 %, September 2016: 5.00 %). A minor part of these are required ex officio (2014: 1.42 %, 2015: 4.22 %, September 2016: 1.67 %). The percentages of denied protection orders vary significantly, although in no case do they become too high (2014: 2.85 %, 2015: 23.94 %, September 2016: 14.28 %).

Data sources: Judiciary of Spain, 2016.

86 men were accused from 2014 until 2016 in the Judicial District of Santiago de Compostela, of whom 80 were sentenced. In particular, 35 men were accused in the last year, of whom 32 were sentenced.

Data source: CIM, 2016

The Information Office for Women (CIM) of the City of Santiago de Compostela has a legal aid, employment assistance and psychological care service for women. In 2016 the CIM assisted 102 women.  

Data source: Department of Equality, Economic Development and Tourism, 2016.

The campaign against male violence “Compostela En Negro” (Compostela in Black) was undertaken. Its main aim is the establishment of a network of social and economic agents of the city which works towards the condemnation of any gender-based violent action. The sector which shows the highest level of involvement and commitment is the trading sector: up to 250 establishments take part in this initiative. The second edition of this campaign took place in November 2016 and on this occasion, 16 town councils from all of Galicia and 2735 establishments and social agents joined the campaign.

“Recicla o Xénero” (Recycle the gender) is a local project which was initiated in trial format in 2015/16 in order to promote the detection of the needs and requests of the city’s secondary education schools and to analyse the response of the students to an awareness programme in terms of equality. The project was carried out in three of the city’s secondary schools (IES Pontepedriña; IES Antón Fraguas; IES Fontiñas; IES Xelmírez).