During the seminar on domestic violence held today at the Police Judiciary building in Lisbon, Maria Cristina de Mendonça revealed that the study titled ‘The Suicide of Domestic Violence Victims, an Underreported Consequence of this Violence Form’ will analyze the past ten years, focusing on the victims of this crime.
“It concerns the suicide of the victim. We will compile data on suicide cases from the last ten years, and this survey will be done by gender,” explained Maria Cristina Mendonça, adding that these data will be cross-referenced with complaints filed with law enforcement agencies.
The study’s initiation followed the signing of a partnership between the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Administration (MAI) and the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, which was signed on May 28.
According to a note published on the General Secretariat of MAI’s website, the study aims to “retrospectively analyze female suicides and associate them, or not, with situations of domestic violence” over the past decade.
During the seminar held today, the Attorney General argued that in domestic violence cases, it should not be the victim who leaves the home and family environment, but rather the aggressor. He urged that changes should be made in this regard.
“I want to raise awareness with the Minister of Justice that, in my view, the aggressor should be the one to leave the house, not the victim. The current situation makes no sense, and we should rethink this situation,” argued Amadeu Guerra.
