“There is a trend towards an increase in the number of domestic violence cases, which we attribute to the widespread discussion of domestic violence as a problem in civil society and the media. And here I am provoking more active action in potential victims to seek help and take a stand against the rampant violence against them. To confirm these words is the total number of pre-trial proceedings (DP) initiated under the qualified offences of domestic violence in the Criminal Code (CC). For 2022, the total number of DPs initiated is 87. For the first 6 months of the current year there were 60. For the period of the current year until the end of October on the territory of the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Interior in Burgas a total of 282 Protection Orders under the Law on Protection of Domestic Violence have been registered and monitored. This compares with 272 orders for the whole of 2022 and 249 orders for 2021.”
This alarming statistic was reported by the Head of the Security Police, Commissioner Marin Dimitrov, during the press conference “Good practices of institutions in response to domestic violence”. It was organized in the framework of the “16 World Days against Violence”. According to him, the role of the police in solving the problem of “domestic violence” is more than key, as it is the state body from which assistance is initially sought on the ground to immediately obtain protection and end the violence. He clarified that in this regard, the police officers have the ability to draw up a “Warning Protocol” which should play a deterrent role regarding the aggressive party. However, this year there have been reports of domestic violence compared to previous periods. He added:
“Under Section 131 of the Penal Code for causing bodily harm in the context of domestic violence – the number of FIRs filed in 2021 is 30 against 33 in 2022. For the first 10 months of 2023, the number of DPs initiated is already 107. Under Article 296 of the Criminal Code for cases of non-compliance or violation of protection orders under the Law on Protection from Domestic Violence, a total of 38 DPs were initiated in 2021, compared to 36 in 2022, and for the first 10 months of this year the initiated DPs are 47. Of interest are the domestic violence cases where the offender is detained for 24 hours for failure to comply with or violation of protection orders – 26 arrests were made in 2021 compared to 30 in 2022 and 36 in the first 10 months of this year. Forcible removal from the cohabitation of the perpetrator of domestic violence in execution of a court order also draws a curious curve – for 2020 there were 15 cases, which increased to 21 for 2021, 70 for 2022 and for the first 10 months of 2023, 81 cases have already been recorded.”
In conclusion, Commissioner Dimitrov also presented the following statistics, “For the period 1 January to 19 September 2022, the number of DPs initiated related to non-compliance with protection orders was 21, with 40 DPs initiated for the same period this year. For the same period of 2022, the number of DPs opened for causing bodily harm in the context of domestic violence was 22, compared to 79 for the same period of this year.”
According to the police chief, more and more victims of domestic violence are seeking help from the institutions involved and are making light of the problem.
There has been a significant increase in the number of prosecutions for these offences, the number of persons arrested, the number of persons charged and the number of indictments filed against such persons. This was confirmed by prosecutor Ginka Chinova from the District Prosecutor’s Office in Burgas. According to her, as a comparison in the two years – the number of convicted persons is 2.5 times more compared to 2022.
“The number of arrested persons is 17 for 2023 against only 5 for 2022. I fully agree that the reason for this, as of course the amendment to the law of 8 August this year, which no longer provides for the requirement that in order for the act to be a criminal offence there must be a systematic pattern for the commission of domestic violence”, said Prosecutor Chinova, adding the other reason, namely the widespread media coverage of several cases in which it was seen that the institutions took very adequate measures, namely the police, the prosecutor’s office and the court. According to her, before the amendments to the law, the hands of the institutions were tied.
Evgeni Uzunov, the chairman of the Regional Court in Burgas, explained that two types of cases are initiated in the court, one under the Law on Protection from Domestic Violence, which is a civil-administrative procedure, and the special texts under the Criminal Code, under which criminal cases of a general nature are initiated – then we are talking about crimes. There can also be duplication in the two cases where the same act is involved.
“We make the difference that we have a higher proportion of applications for protection from domestic violence under the civil-administrative procedure, which we deal with in court than those that are general cases”, he clarified.
Judge Uzunov presented the statistics, which are of the District Prosecutor’s Office in Burgas, namely:
“For 2022. We have only 13 criminal cases of a general nature that have been initiated with us. For this year there are already 19”, said Judge Uzunov, who clarified that the increase is due to the amendment of the law.
Domestic violence is only one part of the violence that passes through the courts and now the statistics are just being compiled. He said:
“Under the Protection from Domestic Violence Act, civil cases – last year there were 129 cases. Since the beginning of this year there have been 143 or the total number so far is 269 such cases filed.”
Judge Uzunov reported another serious problem, namely that of closing these cases:
“Out of these 270 cases – 111 cases or 41% of all cases under this law have been closed with the withdrawal of the application and reluctance to order measures by the court. This is exclusively this problem.”
Diana Videva from Demetra Association reported that the number of signals and complaints to them has increased. According to her, this happened in August after the national marches related to the problem. She also explained what victims of domestic violence should do.
Videva revealed that a Coordination Mechanism under the Law on Protection from Domestic Violence is currently being drafted at the Ministry of Justice. The aim is that through it the institutions will support the victim to go all the way from the signal to the end.
