The Secretary of State for Security of the Ministry of the Interior has expanded and tightened the control measures that the State Security Forces and Bodies adopt in the case of repeat offenders of women, in order to improve the preventive strategy and avoid both the increase of the violence they exert on their partners or ex-partners as well as that in the future they may add new women as victims of their criminal behaviour.
This new catalogue of preventive measures is included in Instruction 8/2021 signed this Tuesday by the Secretary of State for Security, Rafael Pérez, and which has been sent to both the National Police and the Guardia Civil for immediate compliance.
The Gender Violence Area of the Secretary of State for Security, which manages the Comprehensive Monitoring System in cases of Gender Violence (VioGén System), has verified that the aggressors of women with a history of similar acts are not only capable of more damagingly assaulting the woman with whom they have a romantic relationship, but also other new partners throughout their lives.
They are persistent aggressors whose antecedents show prior violations of the judicial protection measures or previous physical and sexual assaults, aspects that double the chances of breaking another future judicial measure compared to other aggressors reported for crimes of gender violence who lack those antecedents.
To prevent the risk posed by these repeat offenders, the instruction expands and details the catalogue of measures aimed at preventing the highly damaging circle of violence that they represent and improving monitoring, supervision and prevention strategies.
In this sense, the police officers acting in each complaint of gender violence will have to pay special attention when the aggressor registers previous complaints with the same or different victims. In these cases, in addition to the measures already provided for in the current action protocols, the agents must, among other things:
- At the time of informing the accused that his case of gender violence is subject to police monitoring, inform him that the control and protection measures adopted may be extended to other previous victims of his aggressor action.
- In cases of request to the Prosecutor’s Office for compulsory monitoring of the aggressor through a telematic control device, the agents must make explicit in the police report that there are complaints of other victims in the VioGén System, as well as highlighting that the accused presents a notable specific risk of commission of new criminal acts with the same victim and with others.
- In Cases of Special Relevance with an assessment of the level of high or extreme risk, the agents must carry out a periodic updated assessment of the risk with respect to the other victims active in the VioGén System linked to the same denounced, as well as contact with victims in a situation Inactive Case of less than 90 days. The Security Forces will be extremely vigilant of compliance with the agreed judicial measures, given that these aggressors have greater probabilities of violating them.
- In the file that exists for each case in the VioGén System, it must be stated that it is a Persistent Case, note that it must also be included in any other documentation that is made available to the agents for the victims’ safety tasks.
MORE INFORMATION
In the case of persistent aggressors, the Viogén System will generate an additional automated report addressed to the judicial and tax authorities regardless of the level of risk detected, which will be included in the police report and which will include both the characteristics and implications of this type of aggressors such as the specific circumstances of each case and the dangerousness of the controlled aggressor to improve the quality of information available to judges and courts when making their decisions.
In addition, when the police officers execute the measures included in the Personalized Security Plan (PSP) generated by the VioGén System after the first follow-up assessment of each victim, they will inform you of the special risk that the condition entails for them, repeat offender of his aggressor.
In this sense, the instruction of the Secretary of State for Security aims to improve the perception of the risk that victims of persistent aggressors have and facilitate them to make the best decisions regarding their protection and, therefore, prevent their re-victimisation.
For this, the agents in charge of the protection of a victim of a persistent aggressor will transmit this information the first time they make contact with her, as well as in subsequent interviews if they consider it appropriate, to avoid that the risk they run may go unnoticed. .
This instruction completes the current protection mechanism for victims of gender violence established in Instruction 4/2019 of the Secretary of State for Security, which established a new protocol for the police assessment of the level of risk of gender violence, expanded through Instruction 5/2021 on the protocol of first police contact with victims in a situation of vulnerability (Zero Protocol).
