Incidents of domestic violence have been continuously increasing in recent years, the vast majority of which involve women, according to data from the Hellenic Police (ELAS).

It is indicative that in 2020 there were 5,413 incidents, while from January 1 to October 30, 2023, 9,860 incidents have been reported to the authorities throughout Greece, of which 8,409 involve women.

On the occasion of her International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Womenas well as the alarming, increasing cases of incidents of domestic violence, the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency spoke with head of the department dealing with domestic violence at the ELAS Headquarters, Anesti Sapounas Policeman B’, who analyzed what the relevant data of ELAS shows about this sad phenomenon, as well as the actions of the Police to deal with it.

According to Mr. Sapunas, the above figures do not necessarily mean that there are more incidents of abuse, but they show that more and more women are finding the courage and strength to file a complaint at the expense of the perpetrator.

As Mr. Sapunas pointed out to APE-MPE, the phenomenon of domestic violence has a “very large dark number”, as there are quite a few incidents which are never reported to the Police. “It is a crime that takes place at home and the victim feels fear and often feels guilty to report another member of his family” he emphasized.

This was one of the reasons why the Police proceeded in 2021 to establish the domestic violence officesinitially with six offices and then in 2022 another 12 were added. In total there are 72 staff offices throughout Greece and 18 operational offices in Athens, Thessaloniki and other major Greek cities, which are the offices where victims are addressed.

All police officers serving in the operational offices have passed a special training program on dealing with domestic violence, while the staff are mainly women.

“We preferred the staffing to be done with professionals, who hold degrees in humanitarian studies, such as psychology and sociology, while of course ongoing training takes place” as Mr. Sapounas mentioned.

When asked by APE-MPE about how this initiative of the Police is progressing, Mr. Sapounas noted: “We see that there is a response as the offices are configured in such a way as to offer peace and security to the victim. Also, because the staff of the offices are mainly women and most victims of domestic violence cases are also women, they feel more secure to go to these offices knowing that the staff there are qualified.”

Another reason why more and more victims of abuse make complaints is the increasingly frequent prevention and awareness-raising actions carried out by the competent state and non-state agencies, which, as Mr. Sapounas underlined, “help victims of domestic violence to speak more and thus to make more complaints”.

At the same time, a very important role in the increase in the number of women making relevant complaints is, as Mr. Sapounas pointed out, that “in recent years, many efforts have been made by state agencies to ensure that a woman who gets out of the cycle of violence will be protected in many ways.

When a woman does not know this, she obviously cannot report as she fears the uncertain future. However, when there is a specialized service to deal with domestic violence from the Greek police, then there are the structures of the general secretariat of Equality and Human Rights for psychological support as well as hostels where abused women can be accommodated, but also non-governmental organizations that will help the victim. A woman gets power and can denounce her abuse.”

Panic button

Regarding the panic button, Mr. Sapounas explained that it is a technology tool to prevent secondary victimization, as the application is installed on the mobile phones of women who have been victims of abuse and have filed a relevant complaint with the Police. Essentially, the panic button helps the victims to feel a sense of security and to prevent a second incident from happening again, Mr. Sapounas explains.

Regarding its operation, Mr. Sapounas emphasized that as soon as a woman presses it, a special message is sent to the immediate action services where they rush to help the victim wherever she is. It is noted that so far the application of the panic button is only available for Athens and Thessaloniki, but it will gradually be extended to the rest of Greece.

Since the launch of the panic button in March 2023, 738 women victims of domestic violence have registered with the application and so far it has been activated 120 times.

As Mr. Sapounas from the Greek Police pointed out, in recent years there have been many attempts to prevent the phenomenon of abuse of women and domestic violence, but also to deal with it. “Now this is also evident to citizens as, in addition to specialized services such as domestic violence offices and the panic button, relevant talks are also held in schools. We also do a lot of collaborations and actions with other agencies because the most important thing is intersectorality and this is what we are constantly trying to achieve and based on this we work”.

“It is a multifaceted phenomenon in which the woman should have correspondingly multifaceted support. It’s not just the Police, it’s all the state and non-state agencies that must intervene in order to have a substantial disengagement from the cycle of violence,” concluded Mr. Sapounas.