TWO PER CENT IS TOO MANY

The Spanish government’s delegate for domestic violence, Miguel Lorente, has confirmed a list of those who have mistreated their partners could be published. He said the objective was to have them rejected by society but stressed that whilst the proposal was being studied it implementation would not be immediate.

Speaking to the TV channel Telecinco he said there was always a series of turns in the evolution of the crime of domestic violence. He was referring to the 36.8 per cent rise in the number of deaths so far this year compared with the same period in 2009.

Lorente also criticised the recent concentration on false reports made against people for acts of domestic violence blaming a section of society that is against social equality. He said that according to figures presented by the judicial body, CGPJ, these accounted for just two per cent of reported cases.

Readers of my blog will know that I am 100 per cent against domestic violence – no ifs, no buts. However the legislation that was passed has served a purpose but is not perfect and needs adjusting. The battle lines have been drawn – you either support the legislation and social equality – or you highlight abuses of justice which means you are a reactionary harking after the male macho society. Oh if life was so simple!

A couple of years ago I reported on a meeting held in Algeciras attended by men and women who had been unjustly accused of domestic violence largely as an act of revenge by their former partners. I have also reported on recent protests by those who have been held in jail or separated from their children after being falsely accused. Lorente says they only account for two per cent of cases as if that justified the errors. It does not.

Those two per cent are as much victims of domestic violence as the people who suffer at the hands of their partners. The law needs to be amended to protect all threatened by “violence” of this type. By his remarks Lorente shows himself to be part of the problem, not the solution.