TIRANA, Dec 7 /ATA/ The General Prosecutor, Olsian Çela, stated on Tuesday that there is an increasing trend of the criminal offense of domestic violence compared to the previous year.
Prosecutor General made this statement at the roundtable “Promotion of legislative-criminal mechanisms in the fight against Gender-Based Violence”, organized by the General Prosecutor’s Office and OPDAT.
“Gender-based violence continues to be the priority of the Prosecution’s institutional activity not only as one of the objectives that are set every year in the fight against crime. We see this phenomenon as a challenge of essential importance that requires a more strategic response in order to deliver a profound and long-term impact on society “, said Çela.
The Prosecutor General said that the measures in response to this phenomenon should include several stakeholders, as well as be coupled with in-depth multilateral analysis of a criminological nature and beyond, on a periodic basis and transparent to the public.
“Unleashing and leveraging the whole social energy that brings real, tangible change, beyond slogans and unfruitful publicity, remains our common challenges and task,” he added.
Çela also touched on statistics about this phenomenon.
“If we were to take a comparative look at the statistical data for the first 9 months of 2021, we will notice an increasing trend of the criminal offense of domestic violence compared to a year ago with 977 criminal proceedings compared to 932 in 2020. Worrisome is the increasing trend is recidivism and commission of this offense in the presence of children. “A slighter increase is observed in ‘sex crimes’, where the comparative figures for the 9-month period show a higher number of prosecutions for these crimes, 116 ones from 106 a year ago,” he said.
He noted that there is an increase in cases of “minor abuse.”
“Serious offenses involving juvenile victims are indicative of a serious problem in society, which necessitates increased institutional attention and beyond. Violence against minors, due to inability of victims to perceive and report crimes, makes it quite awkward and difficult to take effective measures, taking into account the social, economic and cultural factors that greatly affect the approach to addressing the phenomenon. “Minors are the most vulnerable part of society and they need more than anyone our presence and protection”, declared Çela.
He added that the mistreatment of children is more prevalent in an environment where violence against women is present and repeated.
Cela also spoke about the lack of reliable statistical and analytical data on the toll of the pandemic on gender-based violence.
/sm/
