Prevention of violence against women : policies and actions on gender violence

Abstract

Violence against women is a public health problem that must be addressed from a preventive, multidisciplinary and comprehensive scope. Despite the large number of measures implemented and existing resources, there are, even today, few studies examining the effectiveness and impact of such resources on victims and society in general. The objective of this paper is threefold: (1) to assess the impact of legislative measures and preventive actions from the Organic Law 1/2004 on Comprehensive Protection Measures against Gender Violence, (2) to determine the degree of utilization of these resources and (3)to  identify potential needs for intervention. To this end, a detailed analysis of the resources available after the adoption of the Law is performed, taking into account the level of prevention to which these resources are targeted. We have used the Statistical Site of the the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality  as information source. The differences between complaints of gender violence and 016 calls between 2004 and 2015 are (Ley Orgánica de Medidas de Protección Integral contra la Violencia de Género, 1/2004 de 28 de diciembre)analyzed . Finally, we conclude about the social impact of the measures developed from the approval of the Organic Law 1/2004.