A particular increase in the incidents of domestic violence offenses in the first ten months of 2024 compared to the corresponding period of 2023 show the data of the Greek Police.

Specifically them in the first ten months of 2023 there were 9,860 incidents while in 2024 18,427. The difference in arrests is correspondingly large, where 6,453 people were arrested in the whole of 2023, while from January to October of this year, 11,308 have been arrested.

As ELAS data shows, the majority of victims of domestic violence are women and the perpetrators are men. In particular in the first ten months of 2024 we had 5,583 male victims of domestic violence offenses and on the contrary 15,571 female victims. Also in the same period, the male perpetrators of such offenses were 15,413 and the female 3,565.

However, as the Minister of Citizen Protection has noted many times publicly, Michalis Chrysochoidisthe increase in incidents does not mean that they are happening more often lately, but that “mouths have opened” and more complaints are being made.

On the occasion of tomorrow’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency visited the Piraeus Police Department in one of the first six domestic violence counter offices that operated in Greece in 2021.

As explained by the head of the Domestic Violence Office of Piraeus, Chief Constable A’ Christos Kostasthe offices are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. “Our doors are open to any victim of domestic violence, the vast majority of whom are women, who wants to come either to be informed or to report an incident to us.”

At the same time, he emphasized that the Offices for Dealing with Domestic Violence cooperate with all the structures that have to do with domestic violence and with all those public or private places, mainly public, where a person, a woman, a child can turn to for incidents of domestic violence violence.

Most of the incidents that arrive at the domestic violence office are those that require the Police to intervene procedurally, pre-investigatively and repressively, explains Mr. Kostas, however, there are also women who come to be informed.

“We give a big fight every day and the maximum in all the cases and all the women who need us. We are not going home until we arrest the perpetrator. We try in every way, we note the addresses of his home, his business, the places he frequents and we go everywhere, always in the legal way of course. In the event that we do not find the perpetrator, we ensure the safety of the victim,” said Senior Constable Christos Kostas.

In a question about the social or educational characteristics of the victims Mr. Kostas emphasized that “certainly depending on the regions of Attica where the domestic violence office is located, we also see different social and educational backgrounds”. “Specifically for the region of Piraeus, which our office is responsible for, we will see popular families, families with a different cultural character, also belonging to our jurisdiction and the hot spots in Schistos, where there are immigrant families. So there are many incidents from many social classes,” he pointed out.

Regarding me the profile of the victims according to Mr. Costa in most cases the victim has low self-esteem, has a lack of competence created by the partner or spouse and has a low ability to exercise control and authority in his life. At the same time, he noted that they have usually suffered domestic violence in their childhood or witnessed such incidents.

“They are also financially and psychologically dependent on the perpetrator, something we often see in cases where the woman regrets making a complaint or wants to return to the abusive environment,” he continued, noting that “no matter how much help we give her or what we say to her she will turn back, until she inevitably comes to our door again” and added: “But there we keep in touch with her either by contacting her a few days later after the incident or even the next day.”

As for the perpetrators incidents of domestic violence usually, as Police Officer 1 said, have psychiatric problems while their dependence on substances, alcohol, gambling plays a big role in combination and of course they show aggression and violence, in whatever form it may take towards the victim.

About it panic button Mr. Kostas noted that it is “a preventive tool, a tool that has really helped a lot the women who have installed it, as they can quietly press a button and be there immediately to prevent worse situations.

We try to inform in detail about the panic button to every woman who comes to our office and we judge that she needs the app, and then we try to convince her to install it on her mobile phone.”

Most victims are positive about the panic button, as the head of the Domestic Violence Office of Piraeus said, and agree to its installation.

In response to a question about how many female victims of incidents of domestic violence decide to go to one of the safe houses that ELAS has, Mr. Kostas said: “When an incident comes to our office and reports crimes that lie in the autoforo, then we immediately try to draw up the case file in a very detailed way and immediately police forces look for the perpetrator to be arrested so that by arresting the perpetrator we can immediately ensure his safety victim. In these cases, the woman does not immediately go to a structure, but we give her some space and time so that we can help her mentally and so that such a radical change in her life does not become overwhelming. However, in cases where we do not manage to identify the perpetrator in the context of the car accident, then we try to approach the victim with empathy and convince her to go to a safe house. Each case is also different. It has happened that a woman came a week after the incident and while at first she refused to go to some structure, even though it had been suggested to her, she then changed her mind and asked for it herself.”

Finally, when asked if the police officers who work in domestic violence offices are affected by the situations and incidents they experience, he answered: “For sure our profession is very difficult, it has complexity, it has vigilance, it has high levels of stress. Related research, which I did and published in an English magazine, on stress and burn out (also known as Burnout Syndrome) in police officers serving in domestic violence offices showed high rates of stress. First, there is the stress of taking immediate action to protect a victim of domestic violence when a complaint is made. At the same time, this multitude of incidents and the toxic everyday life are logical to cause you a mental burden”.