More than half (55.2%) of the women who were murdered by gender violence in 2023 they had minors in their care at the time the crime occurred, according to the Report on fatal victims of gender and domestic violence within the partner or ex-partnerwhich was published this Friday by the Observatory against Domestic and Gender Violence of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ). AND The percentage of victims who were mothers rises to 74.14% if adult children are also taken into account.
From the report it appears that Of the 58 minors who were orphaned last year, 37 (63.8%) were biological children of the aggressor. Meanwhile, the other 21 were born during previous or subsequent relationships of the victims. The number of people who lost their mothers in 2023, regardless of their age, was 83.
In 2023, according to CGPJ, the profile of the victim is that of a woman with a average age of 42.9 years, mother, of Spanish nationality in just over half of the cases (55.2%), who lives with her aggressor (60.3%) and that they maintain an emotional relationship with him (70.7%), whether marital or another type, at the time of the crime. As in previous years, more than half of the victims (58.7%) were between 26 and 45 years old, although this age group represents less than a third of the population of women over 15 years of age.
Of the total number of victims, 32 were Spanish (55.2%) and 26 (44.8%) came from seventeen other countries: 34.6% located in Africa; 26.9%, in America; the same percentage in Europe, and 11.5 percent, in Asia.
As for the aggressor, the report reveals that he is a Spanish male in 55.2% of cases, with an average age of 47.3 years (more than four years older than that of the victims). It also indicates that 12.1% surrendered after committing the crime, while the majority (56.9%) were arrested and 24.1% committed suicide. Regarding the latter, more than half (57.1%) had a marital relationship with the victim, an average age of 55.3 years and Spanish nationality in seven out of ten cases (71.4%).
The CGPJ also addresses the circumstances of the attack in the report. In this sense, he points out that, once again, the address, common or of one of the members of the couple or ex-partnerwas the place where eight out of ten (77.8%) femicides were recorded. In much lower percentages, other scenarios were the workplace (7%), a hotel (6%) or public roads (5%).
The study also reveals that the method used In 51.8% of the cases it was a knife, followed by a firearm (19.6%), asphyxiation or strangulation (15%) and beatings (10.7%).among others. In the historical series, 64.6% of femicides committed with a firearm ended with the suicide of the aggressor.
In 2023 there was a striking concentration of cases (25 of the 58) in summer: 10.6% in June; 14.9% in July; 17% in August and 21.3% in September. Sunday was the day of the week with the highest concentration of femicideswith 36.2% of the cases.
On the other hand, according to the CGPJ, one in four women murdered in 2023 (25.9%) had filed a previous complaint against their attacker, which represents 15 of the 58 victims. Of them, five were living together with their attacker. This percentage is said to be “notably lower” than that recorded in 2022, the year in which nearly half of the murdered women (40.8%) had reported the situation of violence in which they lived.
The CGPJ also addresses vicarious violence. During 2023, two minors were murdered by their father or their mother’s partner in a context of gender violence. The average age of the two minors murdered in 2023 was 6 and a half yearsvery close to the average age of the historical series, which is 6.8 years. In the historical series, seven out of ten (71.7%) sons and daughters of victims of sexist violence were under 10 years old. In 2024, the number of murders due to vicarious violence has increased considerably, up to nine.
On the other hand, in 2023 there were 11 cases of fatal victims of intimate domestic violence: murders of men at the hands of women and cases of intra-gender violence, occurring within homosexual couples or ex-partners. This is the highest annual figure since 2009, the year in which these crimes began to be recorded.
In any case, 87.8% of murders within a partner or ex-partner last year were committed by men against womenwhile 10.3% were from men at the hands of women, according to the CGPJ. The report also reflects that in two of the 11 cases that occurred in 2023 there is evidence of a prior complaint by the victim towards her aggressor, precisely in those that involved male aggressors.