Violence against women in Spain: results of a medico-legal and criminological study

Abstract

The purpose of this work was to analyse the characteristics of gender violence from the medico-legal and criminal perspectives. The focus of our attention is on the followings aspects: to analyze the sociodemographic characteristics of victims and aggressors and the prevalence of different diseases associated with the abuse; to determine the prevalence of gender violence in its different varieties; to check the compliance with the protocols relating to the development of medico-legal documents and its impact in the verdict; the correlation between the tiles and damaging consequences described in the reports of injuries and forensic reports and its legal status. Method Files classified as gender violence from the prosecutor office of Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, NW Spain) were examined and analysed from 2007 to 2011. A descriptive statistical analysis, testing the possible association of variables was carried out with the statistical package SPSS. Results Most victims were young adult women, Spanish, married/divorced, with children and living in an urban population, belonging to a middle-low socioeconomic level. The aggressor was frequently a Spanish young adult with a component of violent personality and some type of substance addiction. Assaults usually occurred at night, during the weekends, and mainly took place at home. Many victims had chronic pain and sexual/reproductive problems such as menstrual disfunction, sexually transmited diseases and abortions. Depression was the most prevalent mental disorder. Proven facts and forensic reports showed that women suffered psychological and physical aggressions. Most injuries were superficial, needing scarce days for recovery and no hospitalization, corresponding to minor assaults. This study showed the hegemonic role that victims play in the legal process and the remarkable higher incidence of minor offences. Even though the majority of the examined cases ended in conviction, the number of those with a not guilty verdict was considerable. Victim right to not testify seemed to be a relevant factor in order to explain the rationale of these verdicts. Therefore, it’s essential that the judge can count on forensic reports of high quality in order to impose protection order, determine the legal classification of the facts, to evaluate de civil responsibility, etc. Due to this, we have monitored the compliance with the protocols and recommendations relating to the development of medico-legal documents relating to gender violence. The results have not been very satisfactory.