Crisis Intervention and Community Networks

Accompanying without Judging: The Role of the Community

Domestic violence has ceased to be a "private matter" and is now recognized as a public health and public safety issue.

This implies a radical change in the role of the social environment: we must move from being "silent witnesses" to "active spectators".

Isolation is the aggressor's most potent weapon; therefore, the breaking of that isolation by the community is the first step towards liberation.

Neighbors, friends and co-workers have an ethical responsibility to intervene in a safe way: not necessarily by confronting the aggressor physically, but by interrupting harassment situations, offering support to an isolated neighbor or calling the police in the face of unequivocal screams.

The silence of the environment is interpreted by the aggressor as complicity and social permission.

An environment that does not judge the victim for "putting up with", but condemns the aggressor's behavior, creates a safe space for disclosure of the abuse.

Social validation ("I see what he is doing to you and it is not right") is often the first "reality mirror" that allows the victim to question the normality of her suffering and begin to disable the brainwashing of coercive control.

Institutional Gaps and the Fight against Revictimization

Despite legislative advances, there are serious structural flaws that constitute "institutional violence".

This occurs when the State, through its operators (judges, police, doctors), harms the victim through ineffectiveness, dehumanizing bureaucracy or lack of gender perspective.

A critical gap is the disconnection between criminal and family courts: while a criminal judge issues a restraining order for dangerousness, a family judge can force a visiting regime, granting the aggressor direct access to his victim.

Secondary revictimization, where the woman must recount her trauma repeatedly before various skeptical officials who question her account based on myths ("what did you do to provoke him?"), acts as a powerful deterrent to reporting.

Proposals for improvement should focus on "One Stop Shop" models or comprehensive centers, where in one place the victim receives legal, psychological and social assistance, avoiding institutional pilgrimage.

The real and mandatory specialization of operators is the only way to ensure that the written l