Reports of breaches of sentence for gender-based violence have almost doubled in 13 years.

BarcelonaShe was 11 years old, and her parents already let her return home alone from her English academy. It was a short walk, three blocks. Suddenly, she noticed a strange presence. "Someone was chasing me," describes Junkal, a 22-year-old girl. It was a man who, just as she entered the doorway of her house, lunged at her and intimidated her. "It didn't go any further," she says. However, she experienced it as an assault that she never reported. Like her, it is estimated that only two out of ten women report the acts of gender-based violence they suffer. But reports are increasing exponentially: since 2012, sexual violence has increased by 700% and gender-based harassment by 275%. And the big question is whether behind this isn't just greater awareness and penal changes that have favored it: "It's also worth asking whether the phenomenon is increasing," says Mossos d'Esquadra police commissioner Marta Fernández.

According to the Department of the Interior's latest survey on gender-based violence from 2021, eight out of ten women have suffered gender-based violence at some point in their lives, ranging from a derogatory comment to rape. Some have suffered more than once. Three years later, Junkal went to a neighborhood party with a friend. It was one of her first nights out. In a restroom, a boy she knew sexually assaulted her. According to the same survey, more than half of women between the ages of 16 and 29 say they have been victims of sexual or psychological violence. Six out of ten have suffered digital violence, 10% have suffered physical violence, and almost 5% have been attempted rape. Three out of ten girls under 15, Junkal's age at the time, have suffered gender-based violence.

Commissioner Fernández noted each of these figures during the first session of the Conference on Femicides and Other Forms of Serious Violence Against Women organized this week by the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police), and Junkal recounted the open wounds and suffering behind each figure. A wound that "never heals" and a suffering that doesn't disappear when the assault ends. This time, Junkal decided to file a complaint. She queued at a police station packed with people wanting to renew their ID cards. In a "white, cold" office, she was assisted by a man behind a glass window. Everything got worse when, during the investigation, she felt judged "for changing a detail." "It seemed like it was all my fault," she laments. "We often lack the tools for a comprehensive approach to provide better care to victims. We must improve this support," said the Minister of the Interior, Núria Parlon.

Moment of "recoil"

Commissioner Fernández stated that more attention should be focused on the aggressor and admitted that this is a serious moment, "one of regression." Twenty-three percent of young people consider gender-based violence to be an ideological fabrication, a percentage that also increases among women. Furthermore, 72% of boys between the ages of 12 and 29 are concerned about being unfairly accused of gender-based violence. Behind these figures, in Fernández's words, lies a "denialist" discourse fueled on social media and by certain ideologies. "We need to focus more on the education of young people," she insisted.

Nerea and Martina were 6 and 2 years old, respectively. On September 25, 2018, their father murdered them and then took his own life in Castellón. Their mother, Itziar, wanted a divorce from him; they were in the process of separating, and she had custody of the girls. As a child, Itziar knitted with her grandmother, and when her daughters were taken away from her forever, she revived her hobby. Two purple crocheted butterflies would forever remain hers. These butterflies have flown far beyond: with the help of Isabel Gallardo, they created Latido Mariposas, an association that visits schools and invites children to crochet butterflies to promote "respect and equality."

"We need to talk to the children about violence. Their friends were asking about Nerea and Martina," Itziar stated on the same day. This violence doesn't exist at first, but is like a "honeymoon" and always escalates, reaching "unimaginable" limits. "It takes a long time for the victim to realize they are a victim," she states. And then, they are "prejudged." "Evidence is ignored, proceedings are unjustifiably prolonged," she laments.

Since 2012, the number of offenders' sentence violations has increased by 82%. 34% of offenders committed between two and five sentence violations, and 4.4% committed more than six repeat offenses. "It's important that we ask ourselves what we can do. Why doesn't the current system discourage perpetrators?" Fernández said. Reports of non-consensual distribution of intimate photographs or videos have also increased by 762%. And the crime of non-payment of pensions has also increased by 28%. "A rethink is necessary," the commissioner admitted.

Following the controversy generated in Madrid by a report from the State Attorney General's Office warning of the problems with electronic bracelets, Andrea Garcia, chief sergeant of the central unit for the care and monitoring of victims of the Mossos d'Esquadra, indicated that the Catalan police currently has 127 electronic monitoring measures for attacks. However, she admitted that they are concerned that victims' confidence in this system will diminish.

The black figure

Since 2008, up to 221 women have died at the hands of their partner, ex-partner, or a relative, leaving 54 minors orphaned. On average, the victims were 42 years old, and only 27% had previously filed a complaint against their attacker. Junkal's complaint against the boy who attacked her in the bathroom was eventually dismissed. At first, Karina didn't consider filing a complaint. She lived in Colombia, but had to do everything possible to come to Spain when her pregnant daughter, who lived here, fell ill. "I was about to lose the child," she recalls. And she trusted a friend, a "very good friend," who ultimately betrayed her: with the false promise of a stable job, she ended up in an apartment, where she endured a "hell" of forced prostitution, from which she managed to escape.

But she was afraid, an extreme phobia of being expelled from the country for not having documentation. She escaped and ended up in new "hells." One in a roadside club and another in an apartment in Zaragoza, where the owner ended up sexually assaulting her. "My daughter and granddaughter depended on me financially," she explains. Finally, a woman forced her to report the crime, which made her feel even more insecure when she was questioned several times. It was always men who did it. Now she explains her hell in a packed auditorium and works for a foundation to help women who have suffered like her.

Junkal's suffering didn't end at 15. When she came of age, one day she ordered takeout. At that moment, Junkal can't continue her story. The prosecutor in her case, present at the hearing, has to calm her down. And, with difficulty, she continues: a false rider He sexually assaulted her at the door of her house. "I didn't want to report it; my parents forced me to." It was the third time she had been assaulted, and she was one of four victims of a serial rapist disguised as a delivery man. who ended up sentenced to eleven years in prison. During this process, she did feel supported: "I made peace with the institutions," she says. But the pain "hasn't gone away."

"That day I rejected the pain, but I didn't know they had done me a permanent injury." Asha was 5 years old and still living in Kenya when she was asked to go buy razor blades. Once home, they removed her underwear, immobilized her, and performed genital mutilation on her. "I couldn't cry, they put a rag over my mouth; screaming was a sign of weakness," she recalls. And then came her period and infections, and the "you have to get married" thing. She became pregnant and wanted the child to disappear, and if that wasn't possible, not to have a girl. Now, her daughter is 36 years old, and she leads the Save a Girl organization to prevent more stories like hers. Last year, the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) detected 12 cases of female genital mutilation.