With an average of 62 calls for help per day, the Canary Islands have reached a grim high point in terms of gender-based violence. The islands recorded 11,625 calls for help in the current year up to the end of July. That was 1,300 more than a year earlier.
Tenerife stands out particularly negatively in this regard. As the largest of the Canary Islands, it accounted for 44.7 per cent of cases – almost one in two. The Canary Islands have performed poorly on the issue of domestic violence for decades. Even by Spanish standards, the number of cases on the islands is considered strikingly high.
In terms of case numbers, the Canary Islands‘ figures reflect their population density. Gran Canaria ranks second after Tenerife, accounting for 35.7 per cent of all cases. It is followed by Lanzarote with 8.1 per cent, Fuerteventura with 6.8 per cent, La Palma with 3.7 per cent, La Gomera with 0.7 per cent and El Hierro with 0.3 per cent of all cases of domestic violence in the Canary Islands.
The Canary Islands stand out in terms of domestic violence
The distribution was similar in July. The month went down in the history of the Canary Islands as the darkest since records began. Never before had there been more calls for help from women affected by violence than in the past month.
Only La Gomera and El Hierro swapped places at the bottom of the table. Meanwhile, the director of the Canary Islands Institute for Gender Equality, Ana Padrón, emphasises that domestic and gender-based violence is a problem that must not be trivialised by tables and statistics. The figures are alarming, said Padrón, and this must be clearly highlighted.
In the vast majority of cases, the ex-partner is regarded as the aggressor. It is far less common for the perpetrator to be a stranger or a relative. Nevertheless, the gender equality expert also sees a positive trend. You can find out exactly what this involves in the following article:
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