The police will assess the specific risk of the children of machismo victims | Society

More security measures for the victims of machismo and their children. The new protocol for the police assessment of the level of risk of women victims of gender violence, prepared by the Ministry of the Interior, will come into force tomorrow with the aim of "identifying the most serious cases and potentially lethal to avoid them, "according to details to EL PAÍS, Commissioner Marina Rodríguez, head of the Gender Violence Unit of the Secretary of State for Security. It is the fifth document of these characteristics that elaborates Interior since it wrote the first one in 2007. The last was of 2016. So far this year, they are already 12 women murdered by their partners or ex-partners, the last three last weekend. Since 2003, the first in which statistics exist, the figure rises to 987.

The document, which was distributed yesterday to police and civil guards and to which EL PAÍS has had access, includes as one of the main novelties specific instructions for agents to pay special attention to the risk that, in addition to women, have the minors who live with them. Since 2013, 27 minors have died in cases of violence against their mothers. For this, the agents should ask the victims if their children have been threatened by the aggressor or fear that the aggressor may exercise violence against them.

Interior also aims to increase control measures over the aggressors. To do so, he proposes placing more telematic control wristbands after "the excellent dissuasive result they have had," says Commissioner Rodríguez. For this, the agents must propose to the Office of the Prosecutor that their use be extended to the men involved in the cases that, after the police assessment, are classified as "medium" risk. Until now, they were only used in cases of high or extreme risk. As of January 31, 1,186 of the nearly 1,300 bracelets available were active. The Government Delegation against Gender Violence wants to increase its number by 20%.

In this sense, the document refers on several occasions to the need for agents to have a more active role when proposing measures to the "judicial and fiscal authority". "This is intended to the Justice Administration is also involved in the assessment of women's risk so that, in this way, judges and prosecutors complement or contradict what the State Security Forces have done," says Marina Rodriguez.

The new protocol has been prepared after analyze in the last two years the circumstances that surrounded hundreds of murders of gender violence with the aim of creating a useful instrument so that the police officers who receive the complaints can identify the most serious cases. For this, the form that must be completed includes 35 indicators, 11 of which are specific to detect the real risk of murder. None of them will be made public by being part of confidential investigation techniques.

Professional criterion

"We do not intend to create an automated system in which simply filling in these parameters in the VioGen System [Sistema de Seguimiento Integral e los casos de Violencia de Género] conclude what level of risk exists. The agents must use their professional judgment to determine the real risk and raise the one that throws the system if it considers that it does not fit the ones he perceives, "adds the head of the Unit of Domestic Violence of Gender. In addition, the new The protocol seeks to reinforce the involvement of the victims in their self-protection, after the study revealed that they do not always do so.

Thus, a Personalized Security Plan will be delivered to all of them after the first Police Evaluation of Risk Evolution - the second step after the initial assessment - regardless of the level of risk. The protocol contemplates that these plans have up to 42 measures that will adjust to the circumstances of each one. Some of these measures already existed in the protocol of 2016, but new ones have been added "to adopt it to the new times", points out the Police station.

In the security recommendations that the police will present to the victims, more emphasis will be placed on the use of social networks. If in the previous document they were simply recommended to "select carefully what personal information they upload to them", they are now invited to "avoid spreading personal information in their profiles". Also, ask your environment to refrain from uploading their data that could put them at risk.

Special attention to digital aggression

The new police action protocol against gender violence makes for the first time express mention of the so-called "digital gender violence", in reference to the threats, coercion or episodes of harassment suffered by women through new technologies. Although these events were already included in the police reports, Interior wants that from now the agents put "special attention" so that the digital evidences of this abuse are collected with all the guarantees so that they can be used in judicial processes as evidence .