Domestic violence on the rise

DOMESTIC violence complaints in Spain are up by 3.1 per cent.

There were 30,411 complaints lodged with the police in the first quarter of 2014. In other words, each day 388 women decide to come forward and denounce the abuse they have been subjected to by their husbands or boyfriends.

Of all complaints, 70.7 per cent were filed by the victims themselves, while only 0.2 per cent by their family members.

As reported by the Observatory on Domestic Violence, protection requests from abused women have increased by 1.5 per cent.

Of the complaints filed, 18.24 per cent were in the Balearic Islands, 16.27 per cent in the Valencian Community and 15.09 per cent in Andalucia.

The Observatory on Domestic Violence also said 12.5 per cent of women decided to drop the complaint.

Continuing a trend that started in 2013, 2,490 lawsuits were filed for harassment and assault. Of all complaints, 72.2 per cent ended in a sentence, 64.5 per cent for abuse and 7.9 per cent for crimes against personal freedom.

Data show that perpetrators of domestic violence have been victims themselves at some point, especially when they were children, or have witnessed domestic abuse. Psychologists agree that oftentimes the behavioural pattern of violence is unfortunately transmitted from one generation to another, meaning an abused child is more likely to become a perpetrator later in life.