Testimonies from adolescent victims of gender violence between 13 and 17 years old collected by the ANAR Foundation:
"He told me I hit you because you're a whore and you deserve it."
"I'd rather him hit me and kill me than be alone."
"Deep down, he's a good person and he loves me a lot... I can't leave him, he's going to change."
“I don't want to report anything for fear of the repercussions…”
"I have had a suicide attempt and I self-harm, because this situation is beyond me."
“What if they don't believe me? What if they think I'm lying? My boyfriend is going to deny everything and that worries me...".
“He has banned me from having social networks and I don't have a phone because he has my phone..."
The most educated generation with the most information does not know what gender violence is. The messages questioning the existence of violence against women, although the data leaves no room for doubt, clearly resonate, especially among minors. Machismo is gaining ground among the youngest, as successive surveys and studies show, with disastrous results for them. Gender violence in adolescents has grown by a whopping 76.2% in just two years (between 2000 and 2022), with the addition that this violence is more serious (74.5% high severity and 57.9% %, high urgency). Gender violence in this population group has increased more than 87% since 2018.
The data are eloquent and worrying. Especially because in the last year (from November 2021 to October 2022) 63.7% of adolescents who requested care for this problem expressed that “No” they were aware of violent behavior that their partners or ex-partners were having with them. "This trend leads us to hypothesize about a possible process of normalization of certain violent behaviors that are beginning to no longer be perceived as such." 70% do not report.
This is indicated by the Longitudinal Study on the Evolution of Violence against Women in Childhood and Adolescence in Spain (2018-2022), prepared by the Foundation to Help Children and Adolescents at Risk, ANAR, prepared based on testimonies from the minors themselves (boys and girls) and within the framework of the prevention campaign that the Foundation is carrying out in all schools in Spain.
It is the first study carried out in Spain from the perspective of the Istanbul Convention, which includes all forms of violence against women, including minors in the environment. The data analyzed covers the period from October 2018 to October 2022, in which ANAR assisted 20,515 girls, boys and adolescents who were victims of violence against women through the ANAR telephone and chat, for which it responded to 382,219 requests.
Regarding the profile of victims of adolescent gender violence, they are an average of 16 years old, the majority live in a family environment with both parents (56.4%) and are of Spanish origin (68.8%). . Regarding associated problems, mental health problems occur in 48.8% of cases, such as suicidal behavior, behavioral problems, self-harm or depression. Despite this, 69% of the victims do not receive any type of treatment or therapy.
The data regarding the intention to report stands out, since 70.3% have not done so nor do they intend to do so, a figure that rises to 78.4% in the last year of the study. The aggressor is the boyfriend in most cases (57%) and of legal age in 3 out of 10 cases.
"The progressive decline in reporting or having the intention to report could be explained either by the decrease in awareness and normalization of these behaviors that are not considered serious enough to resort to the judicial system, or by the lack of trust in the judicial system." judicial system regarding which they doubt whether they will be believed or not, or due to possible negative repercussions that this act may have both on the victims, during the judicial process or later, and on their families," the aforementioned report states.
Among the other types of violence analyzed in the study, gender violence, domestic violence represented 18.6% of the cases attended, sexual violence 11.7%, while other types of physical and or psychological violence 15.9%. %. Sexual violence, after gender violence, was the one that showed the greatest increase in this period, with an increase of 39.4%.
According to data on victimizations for crimes of sexual abuse from the Ministry of the Interior, for every 100 minor boys, this type of violence is suffered by around 400 girls, increasing this ratio in the case of sexual abuse with penetration in which The ratio rises to almost 600 girls for every 100 boys in 2020.
Benjamín Ballesteros, technical director of the ANAR Foundation, calls for a more active role for men in the search for solutions: “This is not a women's problem, it is a social problem and men are part of the solution and we must get involved "Violence against women is a problem that is related to the use of technology in 44% of the cases of gender violence in the environment and 82% of those of adolescent gender violence,” he adds.
In the opinion of Diana Díaz, director of the ANAR Help Lines, “a large number of adolescents who are victims of this type of violence are not aware of being affected by this problem. To reverse the upward trend of this type of violence, we must carry out early detection and care in the victim's environment and train girls, boys and adolescents, families and professionals."
“From the ANAR Foundation we also recommend fully incorporating into our legal system the broad concept of violence against women, recognized in the Istanbul Convention; in addition to creating and consolidating a framework of policies, measures and global programs to prevent, detect and combat this type of violence, among other measures,” adds Sonsoles Bartolomé, director of the legal department of the ANAR Foundation Help Lines.
