The Violence against Women Observatory of the Spanish State began in 2013 to increase the number of deceased children on the list of victims of male violence. Since then, 47 children have been murdered in the State as victims of vicarious violence. Vicarious violence consists in harnessing their children to harm women and has been addressed in Bilbao by experts from the world of psychology and law.

On the one hand, they wanted to raise awareness of the serious consequences of this type of violence on children. On the other hand, psychotherapeutic and multidisciplinary interventions have been analyzed to treat the effects of physical and psychological violence in children. Finally, from the point of view of justice, the professionals involved in the legal processes associated with cases of male violence have wanted to be formed around this type of violence.

Witness and victim of violence suffered by the mother

Bilgune Feminist from Euskal Herria worked on violence against children in 2016 and stressed that violence against women is violence against their children: “In the case of children who witness the violence suffered by their mother, the law suffers from significant deficiencies, as children who experience situations of violence in their homes are not considered direct victims”. According to experts, this type of violence has side effects on children and can often cause psychological disturbances, aggression or nervousness.

This is how the educator and pedagogue Aitziber Bathtubs spoke: “Children are direct victims of violence suffered by their mothers. Violence does not necessarily involve blows or insults, it does not have to be physical or verbal. The fact that minors grow up in an environment of violence means that they live in an atmosphere of combat, that there is disillusionment and lack of communication. And the lack of communication sometimes maintains a high degree of violence, because there is no weaker violence than incommunication. All non-visible violence is harder to identify and its impact is more negative, especially for those who are unable to differentiate things. If a child sees that it hurts the person who wants the most, who and the other person who wants the most… He is not able to differentiate between good and evil, and what he is learning receives him especially at home. Children are direct victims. To say the opposite would be to take away importance and increase the defenselessness and vulnerability of children.”