Opinion (Rogério COPETO / Official GNR): HOMICIDE IN retrospective.
According to the new Ordinance No. 280/2016 of 26 October a retrospective analysis of a homicide is the analysis of a murder case in domestic violence rebuild the perception of the victim and the author of the prevention systems, protection, support and repression of domestic violence, the route of use, rejection or aloofness of the responses available, as well as concrete answers given in the case in such systems.
Rogério COPETO
Lieutenant Colonel of the GNR
Master in Law and Security and Homeland Security Auditor
Head of the Education Division / Command Doctrine and Training
As known to Law No. 112/2009 of 16 September is the legal regime for the prevention of domestic violence, protection and assistance to its victims and is constituted from 2009 as the fundamental legal instrument in the protection of victims of domestic violence, having at that time had as main novelty the creation of the "victim status" for victims of domestic violence, wherein said Ordinance No. 280/2016 of 26 October, which came into force last day 27 October, has as its object the regulation of retrospective analysis procedure of homicide cases occurred in the context of domestic violence, provided for in article 4-A of this Law, getting this analysis in charge of "Retrospective Analysis Team Assassination Domestic Violence", having this issue been discussed previously here in LN, in the article entitled "prospective analysis teams in domestic violence".
The said article 4-A, provides in paragraph 1 than "the services of the public administration to intervene in the protection of victims of domestic violence to perform a retrospective analysis of murder cases occurred in the context of domestic violence and have been already ruling object unappealable or closure decision, aiming to draw conclusions that allow the implementation of new preventive methodologies at the level of respective procedures ".
So, We intend to proceed to the analysis of all homicides, by the courts, that have occurred in the context of domestic violence, with the aim of reducing the incidence of homicides related to domestic violence and improve the delivery of support services to victims of domestic violence and rehabilitation of offenders, sustaining this analysis a philosophy of impartial evaluation of the events leading up to the murder, order to uniquely identify and recommend improvements in the responses from the many institutions that make up the network responses to domestic violence, monitoring progress in the implementation of these recommendations, designing and disseminating guidance and good practice.
This model, already implemented in other countries, takes into account that the victims of murder in the context of domestic violence contact several different institutions before the occurrence of death, should the speed and / or quality of the responses of the various institutions of the support network, It should be influenced, taking into account the information provided by the victim, so that the greater or lesser gravity of the first instance does not end in murder, suggesting various studies and experiments gathered, the existence of certain indicators, showing more predictable characteristics than other, such as physical violence. These indicators are called risk factors.
In Portugal there are already exploratory studies that intends to identify risk factors, more is revealed in situations of occurrence of homicides, example being the so-called work "HOMICIDE IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE – Homicide Retrospective analysis occurred in Intimate Relationships" from 1 November 2013, by António Brown, which conducted the analysis 19 homicides between 2009 and 2012, a set of about 55 sent by the District Attorney General Lisbon, and of these 55 cases, 40 occurred in similar relationships to those of spouses or partners (including ex-partners or former spouses), 8 homicides in ascending relations / descendants, 2 LGBT and 5 of the relation is unknown.
This work concluded that the risk factors most recorded murder in the cases studied were first the existence of previous episodes of violence and stalking, secondly, the increase in the intensity or severity of violence during the month before the murder and third access and / or use firearms in previous occurrences, such as threats, checking that the existence of these indicators, They were not always recognized as warning signs, as he points out "sometimes, we are inept, to 'connect the dots' and see only isolated incidents or individual markers, instead of patterns of behavior ".
It is now up to the "Retrospective Analysis Team Assassination Domestic Violence", consisting of a coordinator of the Public Ministry and a "Unit Analysis and Case Studies", propose new procedures or preventive methodologies, knowing that the Unit will be composed of permanent members, not permanent and any, and the six permanent members from the Public Ministry, who will coordinate the Team, the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Solidarity, Employment and Social Security, General Secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality, still composed of a non-permanent member from the jurisdiction of local security force in the area where the murder occurred (GNR ou PSP) and how any members, representatives, that are necessary, public entities of the health and social security, and non-governmental organizations that have taken action in the case study.
This team will have the mission to conduct an analysis to all criminal proceedings for murder occurred in the context of domestic violence (intentional homicide, attempted or completed, directly or indirectly related to the sociological context and or interpersonal relationships referred to in Article 152 of the Criminal Code), by the courts, regardless of the outcome of the same, looking back, with a view to knowing the involvement of all the institutions that played a role in this occurrence, which resulted in one or more fatalities.
But this team will not be responsible for assessing the involvement of those institutions that worked on the case, including the institutions of the support network for victims, the criminal police or prosecutors, but only know the acts or omissions which resulted in the death of that victim, so that they can correct procedures, in order to prevent the killings in the context of domestic violence.
While applauding the creation of this "Homicide Review Team Retrospective Domestic Violence", We reiterate the importance of creating multidisciplinary teams of municipal scope and whose mission is to monitor all instances of domestic violence, whose risk assessment collected through risk assessment form, falls in high risk or high, verifying that the procedures taken or were not the right ones, proposing timely its correction or implementation of new, because the intervention of these multidisciplinary teams can save lives.
