Mallorca News Top Story: Almost 3,500 cases of gender violence in Palma de Mallorca

THE City Council have revealed that there were 3,497 reports of gender violence in 2018 in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
As revealed by the Council’s Department of Comprehensive Attention to Gender Violence, 64% of the cases were against Spanish women. Of the 39,176 court protection orders that were requested in Spain in 2018, 398 were in Palma.
According to the report, the Balearic Islands leads the ranking of women who are sexually assaulted in Spain, with an average of 94 complaints filed for every 10,000 women. This is high above the national average of 70.
In response to the increasing number of complaints, the Council has launched an Attention to Gender Violence Service, whose objective is to support not only victims of gender violence, but to also assist children who are affected by the crime and then men who carry out the violence.
From January to September of this year, the service has already assisted 480 women, 226 children and 104 men who have committed gender violence.
Earlier this month, the Local Police revealed that the number of reported cases of gender violence in the capital had doubled since last year.
According to data from the Family Protection Unit, 493 complaints resulting in criminal proceedings have been filed this year, an increase from the 226 cases reported in 2018.
As well as establishing a programme for victims of abuse, giving them 24-hour assistance from the Local Police, the Consell de Mallorca implemented initiatives aimed at improving the care for victims of domestic abuse. This included a 20-training course for police officers from different municipalities, which covered topics such as intervention protocols against discriminatory violence in the police field, police mediations with victims of domestic abuse and good practices to avoid victimisation.