On 13th May APAV presented the statistical report of the Support Network for Relatives and Friends of Victims of Homicide and Victims of Terrorism (RAFAVHVT). The report reports to the year 2018 on the support provided by this sub-network of APAV and the work of the Observatory of Homicide Crimes (OCH) – Press Office of Murder Crimes in Portugal and Portuguese Dead Abroad.
In 2018, the RAFAVHVT dealt with 1218 cases, including new support processes and cases that it has been monitoring from previous years, to which 28 attempted murder crimes and 19 homicide crimes in the consummated form were added in 2018
The report concluded that domestic violence resulting in death is disproportionately high in Portugal and in nearly a third of cases reported to the country’s Victim Support Association (APAV) there was an intimate relationship between the victim and the attacker.
“Relationships between spouses, boyfriends and girlfriends, ex-boyfriends and girlfriends, partners and ex-partners, represent 31.25% of all different types of relationships,” APAV said.
Analysing the 38 cases of attempted homicide presented by the support network, the number showed that almost 40% of them (11) resulted from an intimate relationship between the aggressor and the victim, with four cases committed by the spouse, three by a partner and three others by an ex-partner.
In statements to Lusa, the head of the network, Bruno Brito, pointed out that “it is worrying” the issue of proximity between the culprit of the crime and the victim, and how that represents a “fairly large slice” among the reported homicides.
Brito said there were 87 cases of homicide in Portugal last year, 32 (36.78%) of which in the context of domestic violence, 20 (23%) of which with female victims.
APAV said that it continues to establish partnerships with Portuguese authorities while waiting for an official protocol with the ministry of foreign affairs to have a systematic procedure and all the situations of Portuguese murdered abroad may have the same type of follow-up.