Barcelona investigates cases of sexist violence without a woman’s complaint

The Barcelona Urban Guard It has an agent specialized in detecting cases of sexist violence in each of the ten districts of the Catalan capital. They are policemen trained in the Institute of Public Security of Catalonia (ISPC) and that they have the task of coordinating situations of risk of mistreatment for women detected by patrols in ordinary services. According to data from Ministry of EqualityIn Spain, 84% of the victims murdered in 2020 by their romantic partner – or by their ex-partner – had not gone to the police. The objective of the plan that this Monday has been presented at the Barcelona City Council, under the name of ‘We accompany you’ It is to act preventively, to try to reach these cases that are not reported and that are more hidden inside the homes.

The Deputy Mayor for Safety and Prevention, Albert Batlle, and the Deputy Mayor for Social Rights, Global Justice, Feminism and LGTBI, Laura Perez, have explained that the agents of the Urbana have orders to attend to the services they receive during their day – be they cases of sexist violence or others unrelated to this crime, such as excessive noise or a neighborhood dispute – with an eye on detecting possible situations of abuse. They will, they have stressed, despite the fact that the woman does not file any complaint. Actually, that is the main reason for a project that has been underway since March: to act when justice cannot.

The Indicator Guide

The intendant Sergi Amposta has detailed that the agents on the ground – and that means all the patrols in the city – have orders to look at indicators such as the role that the man plays – if he commands, if he addresses her from a position of descent – and that of the woman – if she is afraid, she is submissive. That they will also ask the neighbors if they have heard recurrent arguments, or have witnessed any situation of physical violence against the victim, or of discriminatory or humiliating treatment. They will check to see if the couple has a police or criminal record and look at the home for symptoms of a recent fight, such as broken objects thrown on the ground. They will also look at minors, if the couple has children, to assess whether or not they dress properly to protect themselves from the cold during winter or suffer hygienic neglect. All the above indicators are included in a guide – a form, actually – that, once filled in by the agents who have acted in the service, will end up in the hands of the district’s leader in sexist violence. This person in charge will assess the case and report it to a coordinating table in the same district.

There will be a table for each of the districts and social services and specialized agents in the fight against sexist violence will gather around it. Currently six tables have already been formed and in the coming months it is expected that the remaining four will be created. In these ten commissions will be present agents of the Grup d’Atenció a la Víctima (GAV) of the Mossos d’Esquadra, which will allow to know if the woman has filed complaints in the past or if the man has a history of having abused another previous partner. These experts will be in charge from that moment to evaluate each case and see how to act. The information collected by the police and social workers will be provided, an attempt will be made to establish some type of contact with the woman or her environment, and an attempt will be made to confirm that it is a case of sexist violence or to discard it.

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Since March, of the 208 cases detected by the Urban Guard, 78 women continue to be cared for by municipal social services, 6 have rejected this help and the rest have been discarded as cases of sexist violence or a conclusion has not yet been reached about.

The objective, Pérez and Batlle emphasize, is to act preventively, without the need for a complaint. Because as the data from the Ministry of Equality reflects, most sexist crimes occur before women have been able to gather the courage to file a complaint against those who end up being their murderers.