Sexist violence without limits – LA NACION

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MADRID.- Seven minors have been murdered by their parents in the first four months of this yearwhich raises 57 the number of boys and girls who have lost their lives since the count began in 2013 because it was understood to be a form of sexist violence. The term was then coined vicarious violence to define the damage that a violent man exerts on a woman through other people, especially her children, to cause her the greatest possible pain. This includes, many times, leaving the woman alive so that her suffering lasts a lifetime. In other cases, after murdering her children, he kills her too.

Also the episodes in which the murder of the mother and children is part of a man’s plan to end everything that is part of his life, including himself, They are sexist crimes, since they imply a degree of possession that does not conceive that they can or should survive without it.

We are facing the highest concentration of cases since the count was made and the fact that five of the seven infanticides have occurred in Catalonia might suggest some kind of imitation effect. This possibility will have to be analyzed in more detail, but it is common in phenomena that have a strong emotional component. News about a sexist murder is not interpreted the same by an abuser as by the rest of the population.

It will also be necessary to analyze whether some type of change is occurring in the behavior of the abusers that leads them to have more destructive reactions aimed at amplifying the violence; How the neo-sexist discourse is having an impact on young people who have not been educated in accepting limits and who do not tolerate frustration.

Vicarious violence has been included since 2015 in the Comprehensive Law against Gender Violence and in the State Pact of 2017. In addition, the child protection law empowers judges to suspend parental authority or visitation if they detect risk for minors. But As in so many other matters, having a legal framework is not enough to avoid harm. What must be determined now is whether all the planned mechanisms work and what gaps need to be filled.

In five of the seven murders there was no prior complaint. For two years, police station protocols have included inquiring about the risk to children. But if the hidden pocket of sexist violence is estimated at 80%, the protection of minors is much more difficult. That’s why Surveillance campaigns and protocols in the educational and health system must be reinforced, and the deployment of specialized research and prevention units provided for in the law must be accelerated.

A point of vulnerability is the mutually agreed agreements that parents sign regarding their children’s visitation regime. Greater coordination and unification of criteria between family courts and criminal courts would be desirable if there is a situation of abuse. The concentration of cases in recent months requires us to act quickly.

THE NATION

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