INVITED AUTHOR: Rosa M. Patró Hernández

Intimate partner violence against women:  prevention and intervention strategies in Spain.

The experience of having suffered physical and/or sexual violence by their partners reaches 30% of women around the world (WHO, 2013). It affects around two out of ten women in Europe. This figure doubles if we consider psychological violence (EUFRA, 2014).

Only a few additional data: 38% of the homicides of women are committed by their partners; 42% of women who have suffered physical or sexual violence by their partners suffer injuries of clinical severity as a result of the violence; the victims have 2.16 times more probability of abortion, 1.41 times of preterm childbirth, between 1.52 and 1.81 times of present a sexually transmitted disease and two times more likely to have depression than women who have not suffer intimate partner violence (WHO, 2013).

In the 21st century, it is a fact that too many women continue to suffer this form of violence and that physical, psychological and social consequences that may suffer their victims, make it a serious social and health problem of global scale. But, is it possible to put an end to this long-standing form of violence against women?

According to the recommendations of United Nations Women (UN Women, 2015), the study and design of effective measures and strategies of prevention and intervention on violence against women implicate the need to take into account both a human rights-based approach and also an approach from a gender perspective. From this perspective, an analysis of violence against women should examine how it is experienced and how it affects men and women differently. Likewise, the analysis should also look at the different ways in which gender roles, gender bias and gender-based inequality influence violence against women.

The chapter “Intimate partner violence against women: prevention and intervention strategies in Spain” attempts to highlight and contextualize some key concepts, and provides a summary of the main strategies that have been proposed to combat this problem by different international and European organizations, with particular attention to the specific application that has been carried out in Spain, regarding the most relevant prevention strategies and the basics that guide intervention and psychological treatment of perpetrators and victims from a gender perspective.

For more information see: Patró-Hernández, R.M. (2017). Intimate partner violence against women:  prevention and intervention strategies in Spain. In M. P. Sánchez-López & R. M. Limiñana-Gras, The Psychology of Gender and Health. Conceptual and Applied Global Concerns. San Diego: Elsevier.