Elisabeth Moiron-Braud, secretary general of the Interministerial Mission for the Protection of Women against Violence and the Fight against Trafficking in Human Beings (MIPROF), presented a report on domestic violence during confinement on July 29. This 80+ page report on the effects of confinement on domestic violence that France Bleu has procuredindicates that the confinement revealed acts of violence within the home, which did not exist before.
Rise in calls for help and April and May
3919, the dedicated listening number, has received 45,000 calls for the duration of the confinement, from March 16 to May 10. Average per day? 800 phone calls. According to the platform’s graphs, the months of April and May were marked by unprecedented peaks in calls for help. In April, 29,400 phone calls for domestic violence were received, compared to 9,700 in March, 8,400 in February…
That said, during the confinement, the calls coming directly from the victims tended to decrease. It was mainly relatives (neighbors, colleagues, friends or even family) who contacted the aid services: indirect reports were 24.9% in March and rose to 31.3% in April.
2,900 acts of domestic violence recorded by the courts
116 006 is a number for victims of criminal offences. If the reasons are various, the platform all the same underlined that the requests for reasons of domestic violence were three times greater than in 2019 at the same period. Same observation on the side of the platform for reporting gender-based and sexual violence: the report of intra-family violence was multiplied by 17 compared to the previous year.
The ephemeral reception points set up in shopping centers and pharmacies, for their part, supported 412 women, 52 men and 33 children. The police had to intervene at home in many cases during the confinement due to family disputes, with an increase of 42% compared to 2019. All these statements suggest that the confinement revealed new facts of domestic violence. 2,900 facts of this type have been brought before the courts.
Domestic violence: medical secrecy lifted in the event of “immediate danger”
In the event of immediate danger, doctors will no longer be bound by medical secrecy for victims of domestic violence. In 2019, 149 women lost their lives as a result of violence inflicted by their spouse. “We cannot remain inert in the face of these human tragedies“, declared Elisabeth Moreno, Minister Delegate for Gender Equality. The Assembly gave its approval to this bill from La République en Marche, following the Grenelle of November 2019, informs AFP in a dispatch taken up by Le Monde.fr.
For health professionals to report a victim of domestic violence, they will have to meet a number of criteria discussed last December. The victim must bein immediate danger to life“, under the influence of his spouse, and the report must be made to a “domestic violence attorney“. In addition, support measures will have to be put in place. The medical personnel will be authorized to make this report, without the consent of the victimbut will not be required to do so.
Harassment more severely punished
These conditions had been required by the National Council of Physicians. The main fear of medical staff is to see the trust between caregiver and patient broken by this bill. The objective of the proposal is to allow doctors “to be able to report a woman who may never come back alive“, according to the rapporteur of the project Bérangère Couillard.
The latter includes other measures. Especially for fight against harassment and cyber domestic violence. If the harassment leads to suicide or attempted suicide, the prison sentence is increased to 10 years. The non-consented geolocation of the spouse, as well as the violation of his electronic correspondence will also be punished. In addition, parental authority may be suspended by judicial review.
Read also:
- A Grenelle on domestic violence
- Domestic violence: HAS recommendations
