The delegate of the Government in La Rioja, Beatriz Arraiz Nalda, has specified that from January to September 2024, a total of 625 complaints of male violence were filed in La Rioja, compared to the 620 complaints that were registered in this same period in 2023.
The delegate, together with the head of the Coordination Unit against Violence against Women, Noelia González Pastor, presented this morning the balance sheet with the statistical data corresponding to the first three quarters of 2024 in the field of male violence.
According to data from the State Security Forces and Corps, 339 of the complaints were filed with the Civil Guard and 286 were filed with the Superior Police Headquarters. These data include new reports of repeated episodes and breaches of measures.
For her part, the delegate of the Government has pointed out that “it is 20 years since the approval of the Comprehensive Law against Gender Violence. Since then, many women have denounced and made it clear that they do not allow intolerable behaviors that are machista signs towards them by their partners or ex-partners.”
In this sense, Arraiz Nalda has explained that on many occasions it is very difficult to take this step because of the circumstances surrounding them, because of fear that they will harm their children, because of economic dependence or because, simply, women normalize certain behaviors that they suffer.
Therefore, he added that, as shown in the awareness campaign ‘Are you going to do something?’ of the Ministry of Equality, the whole society must be aware of the need to act in any case of gender violence because “a small step by each one of us can be decisive in the lives of many women”.
As the delegate has reported, only 1 in 4 people act in the face of a sign of male violence. That is why I have insisted that it is important that family members, friends, neighbors, professionals with whom the victim interacts are attentive and support them when they take the step of seeking help.
In addition, he has specified that “if society is committed to the fight against male violence, we show the aggressors that they are alone because the victims have the support of all their environments.”
For her part, the head of the Coordination Unit against Violence against Women, Noelia González Pastor, has stressed that while there are still women who suffer from male violence, we must continue working on social awareness.
“This serious attack on the dignity of women remains present in society and, unfortunately, also among the youngest,” he said. In this sense, he explained that young people are somewhat more tolerant than the whole population with behaviors related to violence of control. In addition, the misuse of new technologies only aggravates these situations of violence.
Likewise, González Pastor has explained that adolescents, at younger and younger ages, access pornography and it means that they normalize violent attitudes against women, thus disappearing empathy towards the other person, which is replaced by power relations. They are exposed to explicit, violent, dehumanized pornographic content that perpetuates humiliating patriarchal gender stereotypes towards women.
“Porn reinforces a violent and dominant masculinity and a complacent, cosified femininity, always at the disposal of male pleasure. Preventing violence against women also means that young women and men receive quality affective sexual education,” he said.
To this end, the head of the Unit for Coordination against Violence against Women has stressed that we must make an effort to eradicate, through awareness raising and prevention, the abuse and use of force as a model of relationship, and to promote the prevention of situations of risk and intolerance towards all types of abuse.
Data on male violence in La Rioja
Regarding the data on male violence recorded by the State Security Forces and Corps in the first nine months of this year in La Rioja.
In this way, the cases with active police follow-up as of September 30 amounted to 893, with 863 victims: 334 with unassessed risk, 315 with low risk, 220 medium risk and 22 with high risk. No woman was at an extreme risk level on that date.
Of the cases assessed as male violence and, therefore, those that comply with Law 1/2004 on which VioGén is based, 165 situations were considered of special relevance, 84 minors were in a vulnerable situation and 94 minors at risk.
In total, there were 452 cases involving minors in charge of the victim.
Age of victim and aggressor
The age group with the most victims is between 31 and 40 years, with 212 complaints filed (33.9%). It is followed by women between 41 and 50 years of age with 168 complaints (26.9%) and from 21 to 30 years of age with 152 complaints (24.2%).
With regard to the age of the aggressor, the age range of the aggressors between 31 and 40 years is the highest percentage (34.5% with 216 complaints), followed by aggressors between 41 and 50 years (28.5% with 178 complaints) and between 21 and 30 years (17.4% with 109 complaints).
Relationship type
Taking into account the type of victim/aggressor relationship, the most frequent in complaints of violence against women was the affective relationship with 236, followed by the affective relationship with 208 in complaints.
Type of complaint and injuries
296 of the complaints (47.9%) were for physical abuse: 66.9% for the first time and 33.1% for habitual abuse.
Of the physical abuse reported by women, 377 were without injuries, 197 with minor injuries and 1 with serious injuries.
It should be noted that, among women ' s complaints of physical abuse, other types of criminal acts are common, such as those known as " against women ' s freedom " (266 complaints of threats and coercion - 42.5 per cent) or psychological abuse (197 - 31.5 per cent).
Request for Protection Order and arrest of the aggressor
47.5% (297) of victims of male violence requested a protection order during this period from January to September, a slight increase of 1.2 points more than in the same period of 2023.
In addition, there has been the arrest of the aggressor in 81.3% of the reported cases, a figure lower than the same period of 2023, which was 84.8%.
On the other hand, in 86.4 per cent of the cases, a speedy trial has been held. There is an increase, since in the first three quarters of 2023, rapid trials were held in 76.6% of cases.
From January to September 2023 there were 161 breakdowns - 81 at the level of the National Police Force and 80 at the level of the Civil Guard - 32 more than in the first nine months of 2023.