It is estimated that in Spain, more than three million women over the age of 16 have suffered sexual violence at some point in their lives from someone other than their partner.. A violence that they suffer, for the most part, in silence: only 95% of them report it. Guilt, shame or fear of not being believed are the main obstacles for victims, who do not see a support network in the justice system or in society.
The latest macro-survey on violence against women, published this Wednesday by the Ministry of Equality, shows the under-reporting of this crime and, consequently, the impunity of many attackers. Only the tip of the iceberg is known. According to data obtained from more than 11,800 surveys, 14.5% of women in Spain have suffered sexual violence throughout their livesand half suffered from it when they were under 15 years old. An incidence that is skyrocketing, especially among younger people: around one in four girls between 18 and 34 years old report having been a victim. The prevalence is significant and contrasts with the data on complaints: only 5% of victims contacted the police (a figure which rises to 9.9% in cases of rape).
“Unfortunately, sexual violence is still very stigmatized and the victim tends to feel a lot of guilt and shame. This makes the reporting process very difficult,” he explains to 20 minutes Natalia Ortega, psychologist specializing in mistreatment and abuse. She said many patients doubt whether they will be believed and fear having to go through a long process that will re-victimize them with endless assessments or interviews during which they will be questioned. “It often happens that The entire judicial and forensic process represents higher costs for them. And everything is very marked by this guilt, but also by the lack of support from a social network,” adds the psychologist, specializing in issues of violence against children and gender.
This is demonstrated by the ministry’s macro survey. 36.6% of female victims who did not file a complaint say it was out of “embarrassment”, “in a hurry” or because “they didn’t want anyone to know”. Nearly two in ten people did not make the decision to go to the police because they thought it was their fault.; and 21.4% for fear of not believing her. “Without a doubt, among all forms of violence against women, sexual violence is the most difficult to denounce due to the circumstances that accompany it,” Miguel Lorente, forensic doctor and former government delegate against gender violence, told the newspaper.
“Violence that burdens the victim”
According to him, several causes reinforce this deterrence. First of all, this the attacker is usually someone you know (relatives, friends or men with whom they have had a sporadic relationship, depending on the report), but a social context generally very harsh towards those who report is also influential. “It is violence that weighs on the victim, which makes people think that she is the one who provokes this, the one who facilitates it and the one who is in some way guilty or responsible,” emphasizes Lorente.
The coroner highlights the data from the macro-survey itself, where we see that other types of gender-based violence (such as economic or controlling violence) are reported more and that, however, among victims of physical or sexual violence, shame and fear of not being believed increases. “That is to say, The higher the degree of violence, instead of generating greater rejection and a more critical response to what has been experienced, it generates more fear and insecurity. because it is considered to be violence that is in some way protected by social circumstances. »
Social judgment: to the victim, rather than to the aggressor
Despite the data, progress has been made in recent years. The previous edition of Equality Statistics, of 2019, showed an even greater under-reporting than the current one, of only 2% (compared to 5% currently). Although Lorente attributes this increase in complaints more to the critical awareness generated by the feminist movement – especially after cases like “La Manada” – than to a truly effective institutional response.
Despite this, the victim is still questioned in all spheres of society, which does not happen in almost all other crimes. “I always say that If we are attacked in the street, we do not hesitate to report it and we know very clearly who was the victim and who was the criminal.No? Well, in this case, we should act in exactly the same way”, defends Ortega. Gisèle Pelicot, victim of rape with chemical submission for almost 10 years by her then husband and around fifty other men, was already saying it in France: “Let shame change sides”, she declared, in a sentence which has already become a feminist motto.
The feeling of women, according to psychologist Natalia Ortega, is that they will have to face a very harsh legal procedure and without any guarantee that their attacker will serve a sentence and knowing that, with a high probability, this will force them to demonstrate that they resisted tooth and nail, that they did not resist. Something that becomes complicated when there are no physical indicators of this aggression. “There is still a lot of work to do as a society, because ultimately the impact on the victim does not depend so much on the type of aggression, but also on the relationship they have with the aggressor, the duration, the frequency, the intensity… It seems that if it is touching, harassment, humiliation, it loses less value, when in the end we violate a person’s privacy and sexuality,” he says.
Few cases that result in a conviction
Added to all this is the feeling of impunity of the attackers. According to the Ministry of the Interior, in 2024, 21,159 crimes against sexual freedom, but only 4,486 received a final sentence for sexual offenses (including 550 minors). The proportion of cases that end in conviction cannot be calculated here, because many trials begin some time after the crime was committed, but this figure provides an approximation of the few cases that end in punishment for the perpetrators.
“Impunity is enormous. Studies from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) speak of Around 30% of cases result in convictions, but others even speak of a conviction rate of 5% of cases. of sexual violence”, explains Lorente. Ultimately, many victims choose to reach an agreement with their attackers that avoids, on the one hand, the re-victimization caused by constant questioning; and, on the other hand, the dissatisfaction that the process does not result in a conviction.
The importance of support networks
Data also shows that women who experience sexual violence have more trust in other support networks, such as psychologist, doctor, health center, pharmacy or social services. In total, 13.1% of women experiencing some type of sexual violence contacted a formal helpline, a percentage that is increasing up to 30% in the case of rape victims.
With the law of “only yes means yes”, a very big step has been taken with the creation of centers which make it easier to signal that this is not a necessary step to receive care, 24-hour crisis centers that exist in almost every province. This type of resources, Lorente defends, are “essential” to be able to move forward and change the current model of care and support, “based on complaints” which, he says, has shown that it does not work. “And it doesn’t work because it’s poorly planned, but because the reality we have to face doesn’t correspond to the situation the victims are experiencing. Women are clearly deciding to ask for help instead of reporting. Well, we will have to adapt the response to this social reality until that changes,” she insists. Basically, what women who have suffered sexual violence want is to recover from the damage that this attack caused them.
For the former government delegate against gender violence, this is another of the major outstanding issues in the fight against sexual violence. The current support network, while necessary and useful, is not strong enough. “We isolated things, but there is no network that should be in the health system take care of victims of all gender-based violence, where the approach is health-based. The conviction of the attacker does not resolve his health problem,” he concludes.
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