Intimate domestic violence

Intimate domestic violence is the term used in Spain to refer, among other events, toacts of violence by a woman against a maninvolving a partner or former partner, in which the man dies. In 2021, there were 6 in Spain. None occurred in the Basque Country. The term does not include acts of violence by a man against a woman, since they are recorded separately as gender violence.

According to the State agency which registers them, a notable percentage of such cases of violence by women involve retaliatory violence, in which there had been previous episodes of violence by the man against the woman. If such retaliatory violence occurs during an episode of maltreatment by the man, it could still be claimed in court as a "legitimate defence exoneration". There are other acts of deferred violence, in which the woman ends her aggressor's life at a time other than during the aggression, but as an act of defence against ongoing aggressions over a period of time.

Many of these women suffer what is known as Battered Woman Syndrome, or learned defencelessness, which prevents them from leaving the abuser or seeking help (an argument used in court to undermine legitimate defence, on the basis that there were alternatives other than ending the aggressor's life, which they did not choose to take). Feminist sectors therefore propose the inclusion of this syndrome in building an appropriate legal framework of legitimate defence for women who are victims of gender violence.

In the third quarter of 2022, 47,955 women suffered gender violence in Spain, 3,327 of them in the Basque Country. In 2022, 49 women lost their life to gender violence.

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