Victim cooperation and the prosecution of violence against women in Spain

Abstract

This presentation focuses on the role of victim cooperation in the prosecution of intimate partner violence cases in Spain. A total of 582 files classified as IPV from the prosecutor office of Santiago de Compostela (NW Spain). Roughly 81% of the proceedings were initiated by a victim’s report or a police statement with victim’s report. However, the victims didn´t display the same attitude and mentality toward reporting the different types of abuses: 9.8 out of ten proceedings related to habitual violence were initiated by the victims, whereas the proportion goes down to 8.6 in cases of occasional violence. The victims declared as a witness (either called by the prosecution or by the defense) in approximately 85% of the cases. The combination of a police report or a family report increased the presence of the victims (to a 91.66% and a 100% respectively) to testify in the process. The importance of the victim’s testimony in the prosecution of these abuses is confirmed by the fact that 13% of the cases ended with a not guilty verdict on the charges due to the fact that the women availed themselves of their right not to testify. We found that three personal and social factors generate distortions, both in terms of content and expression of victim,s testimony: the socio-economic and family circumstances and the cohabitation with the aggressor.