YOUNG AND FOREIGN

One of the areas of specific interest to me and on which I blog frequently is domestic violence. Although I have expressed my concern about the small number of people – men and women – who are falsely accused as acts of revenge – make no mistake I have zero tolerance of any such acts of violence.

That out of the way I was interested to read some statistics released by Spain’s judicial authority – the Consejo General del Poder Judicial. It shows that half of the 55 women who died at the hands of their partners or former partners in 2009 were 35 years old or younger. Furthermore 38 per cent of all such deaths were amongst non-Spaniards.

Living in the southern part of Andalucía the majority of domestic violence deaths that I write about are amongst immigrants. In addition in the special courts set up in Cádiz and Málaga provinces to try cases of domestic violence the number of foreigners tried outnumbers Spaniards. In Algeciras there is a large Moroccan community who have different views on sexual equality from out own. On the Costa del Sol Northern Europeans including Britons often feature.

The study was produced by the Observatorio contra la Violencia Doméstica y de Género. The CGPJ says it is concerned that the findings show that in seven out of ten cases the victim had not reported their partners for previous acts of violence.

If there is good news in the report it is that there was a drop last year in the number of women murdered compared with 2008 when there were 75 although the percentage of foreign women remains very high.

Of the 2009 victims eight were under protection orders at the time of their deaths – obviously their protection wasn’t adequate. Seventy per cent of the slayings took place in the home of the victim or aggressor. In 24 per cent of cases the aggressors committed suicide, in 13 per cent they attempted to kill themselves and in 39 per cent of cases they were detained by the authorities.

I have always taken the view that whilst women account for the largest number of victims men are abused as well. In 2009 nine men died at the hands of women, one was murdered by another man but in two of these cases the male victim had previously been denounced for violence against the woman.