Cases of violence against minors have increased by 40%, according to ANAR
Unfortunately, children suffer violence and abuse in certain environments, ranging from bullying in school to bullying in the home. The most alarming is that it seems that far from solving this problem, grows with the passage of days reaching figures that make us take our hands to the head.
Unfortunately this is what has happened according to the foundation of Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk, ANAR, which states that during 2015 its telephone help to this sector recorded an increase of 40.6% in cases of reporting of ill-treatment . The most repeated events in this sense have been those of physical violence of which a total of 1,229 cases have been attended.
8,569 new cases of child abuse
During 2015, the ANAR telephone number that handles complaints related to minors every day recorded a total of 8,569 new cases in Spain. A worrying fact as it indicates that an increase in this regard since the data for 2014 were located in the 7,100 events. If only the alerts related to violence targeting minors are taken into account, this has increased by 40.6% compared to last year.
In particular of the total number of complaints registered by the ANAR telephone, slightly more than half were directly related to some type of violence towards the minor. This association also points out that not only did the events of this type increase, but also that the seriousness pointed out by the complainants was greater than that which had been seen in previous records.
During the course of 2015, ANAR had to carry out 727 urgent interventions, an average of almost two interventions a day, to put any minor at risk in extreme risk. But perhaps what is most surprising in this sense is that this association has detected a clear breakdown of cases of domestic violence within the family, a context in which there were a total of 2,952 cases that were distributed as follows: 1229 cases of physical abuse, 882 cases of psychological abuse, 435 cases of sexual abuse and 406 cases of abandonment.
School violence and bullying
ANAR also picked up in its report another rise in violence against minors in another context: the school. Unfortunately it seems that campaigns against bulling are not emerging too much effect among students of schools. In 2015, this association attended 573 calls reporting a case of violence in the school compared to 328 registered during the previous year. Nothing less than an increase of 75%.
In this sense, ANAR highlights the importance of social networks as a tool that favors this type of violence, especially in terms of psychological abuse.
Leticia Mata, director of the ANAR telephone, defined this situation as follows: "Adolescent minors have an effective tool to control, threaten and insult, or to approach the victim. * In cases of cyberbullying, the minor offenders act with enough impulsivity, without stopping before to think and taking refuge in the apparent 'anonymity' that new technologies bring. "
Leticia Mata also emphasized that minors are not aware of the damage they can cause with this type of harassment: "They are not usually aware of the damage they are causing and, in many cases, they are not aware that their actions can to have a criminal responsibility. "
React to a case of violence against minors
As in any other context, witnessing a case of violence against minors means that we can not sit idly by and we must react to it. In this sense, it is necessary to bring these cases to the attention of the competent authority or, failing that, associations of care for these at-risk groups such as ANAR. This body offers a free and confidential telephone to report these events and initiate the corresponding procedure.
This telephone number is 900 20 20 10 for all of Spain, although if you are a resident of Aragón, Asturias, the Balearic Islands, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, La Rioja, Navarra, Madrid, Ceuta or Melilla, ANAR recommends calling 116 111. Once this association is aware of the case, it will try to have a psychologist on the other side to listen to the victim for the necessary time and guide her in her problem to find a solution.
Damián Montero
