A Feminist Law Meets an Androcentric Criminal Justice System: Gender-Based Violence in Spain

• Author: Jenny Cubells,Maria Carmen Peñaranda,Pilar Albertín Carbó,Luz María Martínez
• Published date: 01 January 2020
• Date: 01 January 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1557085118789774
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1557085118789774

Feminist Criminology

2020, Vol. 15(1) 70 –96

© The Author(s) 2018

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/1557085118789774

journals.sagepub.com/home/fcx

Article

A Feminist Law Meets an

Androcentric Criminal Justice

System: Gender-Based

Violence in Spain

Pilar Albertín Carbó1, Jenny Cubells2, Maria Carmen

Peñaranda3, and Luz María Martínez2

Abstract

This article discusses how practices in the Spanish criminal justice system relate

to Organic Law 1/2004 on measures against gender-based violence. We examine

the predominant construction of the problem and the secondary victimization1 of

women. Data were collected from two sources: participant observation at police

victim support units and courts dealing with violence against women,2 and in-depth

interviews with abused women and legal and psychosocial professionals. Our analysis

has uncovered a lack of institutional resources for detecting psychological violence

and negative stereotyping of female victims. We conclude that a gender perspective

should be incorporated into criminal justice system practices.

Keywords

gender-based violence, criminal justice system, feminist perspective, secondary

victimization, Spain

Introduction

Since the turn of the century, the Spanish government’s policies concerning violence

against women have come in line with its neighboring European Union (EU) member

states. These measures are fourfold. First, legal reforms were enacted to recognize and

declare violent actions against women unlawful and punishable under the Criminal Code.3

1Girona University, Spain

2Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain

3Complutense University of Madrid. Spain

Corresponding Author:

Pilar Albertín Carbó, University of Girona, Pl. Sant Domenech, 9. Girona 17071, Spain.

Email: pilar.albertin@udg.edu

789774FCXXXX10.1177/1557085118789774Feminist CriminologyAlbertín Carbó et al.

research-article2018

Albertín Carbó et al. 71

Second, information championing women’s rights was promoted and disseminated

among the public. The third aspect involved research focused on violence against women

and the collation of vital statistics. Last, resources and support were made available to the

victims of violence and their families. Their safety and well-being was ensured by the

opening of battered women’s shelters and the provision of support services.

Franco’s fascist, right-wing, and authoritarian regime (1936 to 1975) was notably

antifeminist. Franco’s policies perpetuated the image of Spanish women (in personal

and social spaces) as homemakers and mothers. Not surprisingly, this limited their

rights and opportunities, hindered their participation in public and social decision-

making processes during that time, and stalled any progress until later years.

Under Franco, women’s groups were active but had very little power to influence

reform. After his death in 1975, these groups began to surface, instigating and organiz-

ing acts related to feminist activism in bookstores, bars, and family-planning centers.

The first National Women’s Liberation Conference was held in Madrid in December

1975 (Gallego, 1983), and within this context emerged the first real feminist move-

ments (Muñoz, 2003; Pujal, 2005).

Legal Reforms After the Franco Government (1975)

In 1981, Spain legalized divorce and gave women the freedom to escape abusive and/

or violent relationships for the first time. In line with the new divorce laws, the “for-

giveness for the offense” clause (the victim forgives her attacker, who cannot be tried

and convicted) was also removed from the Criminal Code (Valiente, 1996a).

The issue of violence against women had not been a priority for activists in the

women’s movement up to the late 1970s or early 1980s. At that time, certain feminists

accidentally discovered the problem of violence against women in certain cases. For

instance, feminists from the Association for Separated and Divorced Women

(Asociación de Mujeres Separadas y Divorciadas), who provided counseling and legal

advice to women who wanted to initiate separation and/or divorce proceedings, found

that the main objective of many of their clients was to escape situations with high

levels of domestic violence (Valiente, 1996b).

In 1982, Spain began intervening directly in cases involving victims of gender-based vio-

lence. The women behind this effort were working under the government’s newly formed

Commission to Investigate the Ill Treatment of Women (Comisión para la Investigación de

los Malos Tratos a las Mujeres). Subsequently, in 1983, the Institute of Women (Instituto de

la Mujer)4 began opening Women’s Rights Information Centers (Centros de Información de

los Derechos de la Mujer) in key cities across Spain to address the issue of women’s rights.

Spain had now established its first social service resource to recognize and support women’s

rights, especially female victims of gender-based violence.

Policies Concerning Violence Against Women From 1982 to 1995

Among the policies implemented in Spain to address violence against women from

1982 to 1995, Article 425 of the Criminal Code outlawed domestic violence in 1989.