VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Violence Against Women

Violence Against Women

Introduction

While domestic violence in Spain is becoming more and more visible, the country's laws and justice system are proving weak instruments to fight the phenomenon, according to experts from different fields who are demanding further legal reforms to address the issue. This essay will discuss aspects of the conditions of violence against women in Spain

Discussion

The government of socialist Prime Minister in 2004 passed a Law on Gender Equality appointed women to key positions in the administration, created special courts and issued drastic instructions to crack down on domestic violence. But the violence prolongs between 2001 and 2007, 425 women were killed in domestic violence cases in Spain (Brush 2007) with 71 of the killings occurring in 2007 alone. And this year, 32 women were murdered by May 12. Feb. 27 was a mainly black day, with four women slaughtered (Buzawa 2007, pp 99-190).

Between the formation of the special courts for violence against women in 2005 and the end of last year, 69,400 men were prosecuted and 48,971 convicted. In 2007 alone, 126,293 objections were filed (Buzawa 2007, pp 99-190).

But the courts are snowed under cases and are short-staffed, so tribunals drag on for years. Progress in fighting domestic violence is also destabilized by delays by judges and police in enforcing court sentences or orders, and the lenient treatment received by perpetrators in some cases, activists complain.

Spain's criminal code also consents abusive parents to regain custody of their children (Fiebert 2006). By viewing the current situation of domestic violence in Spain it can be concluded that criminal law takes the view that in some cases rape, aggression or sexual abuse of a child by his or her father or mother may be compatible with the child's care and protection. The delay in dealing gender violence ...