What is vicarious violence and how is it related to the case of the girls in Tenerife?

This Thursday the worst of the omens was fulfilled after the kidnapping of little Anna and Olivia at the hands of their father, Tomás Gimeno, on April 27. The search teams have located the body of Olivia, six years old, as confirmed by the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands and the Civil Guard. As a result of this case, it is of special interest to know what vicarious violence is .

It is the most cruel form of mistreatment towards a woman. The Junta de Andalucía was the first institution in Spain to define vicarious violence, and it did so in the following way: “Violence exerted on sons and daughters and used as an instrument to harm women .” It also includes the instrumentalization of other vulnerable groups of which women who are victims of gender violence have custody and custody, such as people with disabilities, in a situation of dependency or the elderly.

It therefore consists of converting the vulnerable people closest to the female victim of gender violence to increase their pain to unimaginable limits and provoke in her a feeling of guilt for not being able to protect them. Experts point out that there are many types of vicarious violence, and the most extreme and savage of all is the murder of minors.

Another example of this type of violence in Spain was the one that took place in 2011, when José Bretón murdered his own children , Ruth and José. The Provincial Court of Córdoba finally sentenced José Bretón to 40 years in prison on July 22, 2013.

Since official data were recorded (2013), 39 minors have been murdered in our country, 36 of them at the hands of their biological parents .

Learned helplessness and gaslight, other forms of abuse

In addition to vicarious violence, there are many other forms of abuse .

Learned helplessness is how a psychological state is known in which the person begins to feel that he is not capable of changing a certain situation, state or behavior.

The psychological abuse known as gas light is one of the most difficult to detect, both by the person who suffers it and by the people around them. It is a technique used by the abuser to annul his victim, causing him to believe that he is going crazy.