Comprehensive Assistance System for Victims of Gender-Based Violence

*Miguel Á. Domínguez, Raquel Pérez-Aloe, Bruno Pérez, Javier Lozano and Juan M. Carrillo*

### **Abstract**

The system presented in this work is intended to be used by women who live with the domestic aggressor and therefore do not have a restraining order or judicial mechanisms that can protect them. It is based on the use of small wireless electronic devices, using a Bluetooth connection to send a message to a smartphone. One of the main features of the device is that it can be hidden in different accessories of the victims, such as brooches, necklaces, watches, bracelets, and belts. In this way, it can be customized according to the victim's personal preferences so that it can go completely unnoticed by the perpetrator. Besides, an application developed in Android and iOS is responsible for transmitting the alarm message to a central server, along with the *GPS* geolocation and the victim's identifier. A web service is run on the server that manages the entire alert system and, if necessary, notifies the police or protection services of this emergency. Several designs of electronic devices with panic button have been developed, along with the applications for the mobile phone and the programming of the web server.

**Keywords:** gender-based violence victims, assistance system, camouflaged electronic device, mobile apps, web service, control center

#### **1. Introduction**

In a society that is increasingly connected by new technologies at the service of communications, commerce, transport, entertainment, industry, or even things (*Internet of Things, IoT*), paradoxically, there is a serious problem of social isolation. Indeed, women who suffer harassment, aggression, and injuries that even eventually lead to death, often hide these circumstances, avoiding requesting the necessary help that would alleviate this serious situation of vulnerability and loneliness. Violence against women, especially intimate partner violence, is a human rights violation and one of the most serious public health problems. According to research by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, released on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, a total of 87,000 women were intentionally murdered in 2017. Around a third (30,000) were killed by their present or former

partner [1]. Recent research published in the journal Lancet has further revealed that more than one in four women in the world is estimated to have experienced genderbased violence by a partner or ex-partner in her lifetime. These new estimations indicate that, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 27% of women aged 15–49 who had ever been in a relationship, had suffered physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime, and one in seven (13%) had experienced recent intimate partner violence [2]. All these data show that violence against women is unfortunately an extremely common practice. So much so that the United Nations (UN) even referred to it in 2013 as "a global health problem of epidemic proportions". Intimate partner violence can have major short-term and long-term physical and mental health effects, including injuries, depression, anxiety, unwanted pregnancies and abortions, and sexually transmitted infections among others, and can also lead to death [3].

Most international organizations have developed mechanisms to tackle the eradication of violence against women. It is worth mentioning the UN's contribution, within the framework of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of December 10, 1948, which enshrines the right to equality, as well as to the achievement of fundamental rights and freedoms without any discrimination because of gender [4–9].

Similarly, within the Council of Europe, numerous approaches have been taken to deal with all forms of violence against women [10–13]. Spain, for example, had already focused its attention on this problem since the 1980s. At present, Spain has a wide range of regulations that provide, from a comprehensive point of view, for the prosecution and elimination of any form of violence against women, from a criminal, procedural, welfare, police, civil, administrative, educational, labor, health, and other approaches, with the aim of protecting and supporting women who have suffered violence in their recuperation. Also, these regulations promote the necessary changes in society to prevent it, reject it, and place it beyond the private sphere, making it a social problem [14–17].

Since its implementation, many countries around the world have been interested in this system and have been inspired by it to develop similar legislation in their respective legal systems. In 2014, institutions such as the UN, the World Future Council, and the Inter-Parliamentary Union acknowledged Spain's Organic Law 1/2004 as one of the most effective regulations in the world for combating gender-based violence.

Despite the different legislations, plans, and strategies approved for the eradication of violence against women, from 1 January 2003 to this day, 17 January 2023, 1186 women have been murdered by their partners or ex-partners. The annual reports issued by the Observatory against Domestic and Gender Violence highlight the need to keep on acting, through the coordination of police agents and the personalization of victim assistance. The Delegation of the Government for Gender Violence has been carrying out statistics since 2003, which provide information on women killed by gender violence. Within these victims, there were those who had previously denounced their aggressor and those who had not, victims who lived with their aggressor, etc. The collected data provide a profoundly social vision that endorses the necessity for everyone to become aware of the problem to try to eradicate it.

In relation to the complaints made, around 75% of the victims had not filed a complaint against their aggressor and 64.9% were still living with him at the time of the death. Regarding the resources used to provide an effective response to this problem, it is worth mentioning the "Protocol of Actions for the Monitoring by Telematic Means of the restraining orders prohibiting approximation to the Gender Violence Victim" [18]. The remote monitoring system makes it possible to supervise

#### *Comprehensive Assistance System for Victims of Gender-Based Violence DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110562*

compliance with precautionary measures and restraining orders prohibiting approximation to the victim imposed by procedures against gender violence in cases where the courts approve their use for this purpose. Their main purpose, therefore, is to increase the safety and protection of victims. It provides permanently updated information about issues that affect compliance or noncompliance of precautionary measures or sentences, or any possible incidents, whether accidental or deliberate, in the operation of the equipment used.

The monitoring system consists of two essential elements: the devices for the victim and the perpetrator and the control center that is responsible for installation, maintenance, and removal of the devices, as well as handling any events they indicate (alarms, alerts, etc.). The electronic devices that are part of the monitoring system, as shown in **Figure 1**, are the following:

1.Devices for the perpetrator:


The alerts can be generated for the following causes: entrance into an exclusion zone, detection of the *RF* signal by the victim's *2Track* unit, low battery, breaking or distancing of the *2Track*-bracelet unit, panic button press, and entrance into a proximity zone.

When an alarm occurs, the control center carries out the communications established in the Protocol of Actions for each type of alarm and prepares a report that will be sent to the police unit responsible for the protection of the victim, the judicial

**Figure 1.** *Telematics system devices: for the perpretator a) and b), c) is the device for women.*

authority, and the public prosecutor's office. It should be noted that when the panic button is pressed by the victim, the control center contacts her to verify whether it is an accidental call or whether it is due to a situation of danger. If communication is not achieved or if a situation of danger is confirmed, the control center communicates the incident to the police forces, maintaining permanent communication with them to facilitate the location of the victim, and activating immediately the police protection operative.

Other resources 24-7-365 accessible to victims are the 016 service, which offers information and legal advice on issues of gender-based violence, and *ATENPRO*, which provides the victims immediate remote assistance by a mobile terminal that enables them to be in permanent contact with a support center that responds quickly to cope with any situation that may arise.

Although, as we have just seen, there are multiple mechanisms currently available to victims of gender-based violence to protect themselves and ask for help, the fact is that the number of fatal victims is not decreasing and remains very high. It is worth noting that in 2021, 48 women were murdered in Spain, of whom approximately 57.4% lived with the perpetrator and 80.9% had never filed a complaint against their aggressor. Therefore, the current concept of monitoring of the aggressor is insufficient for the real prevention of this kind of violence.

### **2. Proposed system**

In an attempt to provide a possible solution to the above-mentioned problem, one of the nonprofit associations committed to eradicating gender-based violence, *Asociación ALMA Contra la Violencia de Género (ALMA Association Against Gender Violence)*, carried out a study to detect possible weaknesses in the resources provided to a woman by the government [19]. The methodology followed in this study was, first, to interview women victims of gender-based violence who had filed a legal complaint, some of whom had a monitoring system, to find out what should be the most appropriate characteristics that the alarm devices ought to have. The study also focused on the fact that the number of complaints dismissed for lack of evidence is approximately 50% [20]. The two main characteristics highlighted by the victims were that the device could be easily concealed in some of the victim's accessories so that it could remain unnoticed by the aggressor and that the threats could be recorded to be used later as possible legal evidence. The next step was to examine existing alarm devices on the market, as well as those available through the legal system to determine whether they fulfilled the specifications demanded by the women. Regarding existing pocket alarms on the market, such as *flic* [21], *HelpySafe* [22], *Minew SOS emergency button* [23], or panic button bracelets such as *Kwema* [24] or *Safelet* [25], none of them met the requested requirements. These commercial devices are not miniaturized and therefore cannot be adapted and camouflaged in the victim's accessories to pass undetected by the aggressor.

Concerning the resources available under the laws, some features should be included so that they could meet the specifications most requested by the victims. Thus, it was concluded that it would be necessary to develop a new device that would widen the present coverage that is, currently provided to potential victims. For example, to use this new device, it would not be necessary to cohabit with the aggressor or to have filed a previous complaint. **Figure 2** shows a comparison of the characteristics of the main governmental resources available to victims of

*Comprehensive Assistance System for Victims of Gender-Based Violence DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110562*

#### **Figure 2.**

*Comparative characteristics of different systems for the prevention of gender-based violence.*

gender-based violence and the proposed new system. To implement this new system, *ALMA Association* contacted the Electronic Technology Group of the Department of Electrical, Electronic, and Automatic Engineering of the University of Extremadura. As a result of this collaboration, a *comprehensive assistance system for victims of gender violence* has been proposed.

The objectives to be achieved by the system to be developed were defined around six fundamental points to meet the required features:


**Figure 3** illustrates the block diagram of the proposed system that fulfills the objectives described above. As can be seen, it consists of three elements: one of them is called the camouflaged alarm device, which would be concealed in some of the victim's accessories in order to hide its true function, other components would be a smartphone, in the case that the victim had access to it, or another concealed device (modem) that would allow connection and sending of information to the third element, which is a control center in charge of monitoring victims. In this way, if the victim did not have a mobile phone (which is very common in this context), another camouflaged device could be provided to carry out the mission of launching the emergency call.

Therefore, the main functions of the proposed system are:

