016 is the free telephone number which can be accessed by women victims of gender violence and all citizens to know how to help these people. It is an anonymous and confidential service that leaves no mark on the dialing or the telephone bill. Provides information and legal advice on sexist violence. When calling, a voice-over is heard saying: “So that gender violence never leaves this signal again, society has this other one… At the first sign of abuse, call. Telephone 016 can mean another life.”
016, the telephone number to report abuse in Spain
In the summer of 2014, there were 12 deaths due to machismo, 6 more than last year in the same period (June-August), which represents a 100% increase. 80% of the murdered women had not reported abuse by their partner. Of the total number of fatalities during 2014, only 11 had filed a complaint for abuse, the rest had normalized what is not normal, but criminal.
In this article I do not intend to analyze the phenomenology of these crimes, their motivations, or even their consequences. I would like these letters to serve as urgent notice to society: to families, friends, neighbors and institutions so that victims of gender violence do not suffer alone an unbearable existence that, like a snowball, goes in crescendo to the precipice of death.
Help in case of abuse
Women should not accept submission, docility, slavery, psychological and physical blows that undermine their freedom to live under false pretexts such as united until death do you part, blackmail of children or families. Unfortunately, the murder definitively separates hundreds of women from life in Spain, where the neighbors of a battered and/or murdered woman claim that they had never observed any abnormality. Have you ever observed the look, the tone of voice of fear of that neighbor, sister…? Anyone close to the victim should be aware that your help is key when you suspect that a person is being attacked or hear frequent noises or screams. Only in this way can empathy materialize with the victim, not leaving them alone in front of the abuser.
Telephone 016 for help against abuse
Calling 016 will not change a life of abuse nor will it provide answers to all the questions, but it will will help the victim see a way out, It will provide information about the resources and steps to take to start a life away from the abuser. Surprisingly, calls to this number to help victims of gender violence have decreased this year compared to 2013.
Various factors have been able to influence, one of them the cuts, which bring insecurity to women, who no longer feel that they can be cared for in risk situations, due to the lack of professionals or the closure of centers, or even worse, who have suffered secondary victimization; They have been treated by non-professionals, not experts on the subject, by people who, although with the best of their intentions, believe they are capable of advising or treating victims, solely because they have at some point considered themselves victims as well.
Conclusion
as citizens We have a moral, social, and legal duty to protect victims in general and abuse in particular. It is preferable that in some cases an error occurs than to remain impassive and oblivious to the pain and suffering of any abused woman.
It is our duty to call 016 when we believe that our neighbor, friend, sister is being mistreated; It is our duty to denounce those false associations or resources that do not offer the services for which they receive subsidies or these are not carried out by those who should be carried out; It is our duty not to let violence remain in our environment in an impassive manner.
As Soledad Murillo, former Secretary General of Equality Policies, expressed in 2007, “Silence is impunity for the aggressor and risk of death for the woman.”
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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