The Government Delegation in the Canary Islands has published today the first episode of What do you know about gender-based violence?, the new audiovisual campaign to inform and raise awareness of this social scourge launched by the Government Delegation in the Canary Islands, through its Coordination Unit against Violence against Women.
In the first of the seven chapters that make up this series, the head of the Service against Violence against Women of the Delegation of the Government in the Canary Islands, Evelia Déniz, and the journalist David Perdomo go out on the street in Gran Canaria to raise with the citizens different questions about sexual violence, one of the types of violence that is exercised on women and that it is estimated that they have suffered in one way or another about 3 million Spanish people over 16 years of age.
Specifically, the people interviewed in the center of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, belonging to different age groups, have answered questions about whether they considered that sexual violence is only those that leave visible lesions or whether rape with penetration is the only way.
The head of the Service against Violence against Women of the Government Delegation in the Canary Islands has explained that there are also psychological violence, which are invisible, and also those sexual violence that occurs in the digital field or in the misuse of artificial intelligence. And he has insisted that, in order for a woman to be considered a victim of sexual violence, it is not necessary for her to defend herself vigorously.
One of the questions that generates the most doubts among the interviewees is whether the majority of sexual violence occurs on the part of acquaintances and the environment of trust of the victim, this being a reality demonstrated by the fact that 75% of the male aggressors belong to the considered safe and known environment of the victim.
When the question arises about the percentage of denunciation of these cases, it is also surprising among the people interviewed that only 8% of women who suffer sexual violence outside the environment of the couple file a complaint, as highlighted by Evelia Déniz.
The Last Quarterly Crime Balance published by the Ministry of the Interior shows how in the first half of 2025 crimes against sexual freedom have increased in the whole country by 5.3% over the same period of 2024, but in a percentage lower than the year-on-year increase observed in previous years (crimes against sexual freedom with penetration have increased by 7% in the first half of this year).
The sustained increase in this type of crime must be related, in part, to the active policies of raising awareness and reducing social and personal tolerance in the face of this type of crime, which translates into a greater willingness of the victims to report them and to place their cases in the hands of the Security Forces and Bodies, which reduces the levels of infraction existing in relation to these types of crime.
In the case of the Canary Islands, in the first half of 2025 crimes against sexual freedom were reduced by 10.1% year-on-year, from 597 to 537, being even greater the decrease in sexual assaults with penetration, which were reduced by 15.4%, falling from 117 in the first half of 2024 to 99 in the same period of 2025.
In the first episode of What do you know about gender-based violence? The Government delegate in the Canary Islands, Anselmo Pestana, highlights the importance of the Pact of State against Gender Violence and the adherence to it of the “immense majority of political forces represented in the General Courts”, being also the fight against male violence one of the main policies of the Government of Spain.
For her part, the deputy delegate of the Government in Las Palmas, Teresa Mayans, shares her professional experience as a psychiatrist, denouncing how sexual violence against women “is a subject that was not even talked about in the Psychiatry consultations”, due to the revictimization that led many women to believe guilty of the aggressions they were subjected to.
Seven episodes, seven themes
In What do you know about gender-based violence? A team led by Evelia Déniz travels through the seven Canary Islands where the Government Delegation has an island headquarters to ask different questions and offer answers to people who are in the street, issues that address issues directly or indirectly related to violence against women, such as the myths of love or the use of pornography.
The head of the Service against Violence against Women of the Government Delegation in the Canary Islands will respond to doubts, but, above all, to erroneous approaches, placing special emphasis on the existence of a whole series of assistance resources for victims and their daughters and sons, sponsored by the State Pact against Gender Violence.
The campaign, funded by the State Pact against Gender Violence and also distributed to the media, will be extended until the week before the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, 25N, two months in which the media channel will acquire particular prominence. YouTube of the Government Delegation in the Canary Islands and its new profile in Instagram, in addition to their accounts in X, Facebook and LinkedIn.