Gender-Based Violence Within Security Forces: An Institutional Reality

• Perpetrators within security forces leverage their authority, access to sensitive information, and professional networks to exert power and control over victims.
• Institutional hierarchies and codes of internal loyalty often undermine safety protocols, making it difficult to address violence committed by colleagues.
• Police officers and military personnel maintain access to weapons, investigative procedures, and private data (such as the VioGén database) even when off-duty, intensifying the threat to victims.
• Despite the existence of a 2021 protocol in the Guardia Civil, the organization still lacks public transparency regarding the scale of gender-based violence within its ranks.

The Specificity of Institutional Violence

• Police and military structures are historically masculinist, built on hierarchy, discipline, and the legitimate exercise of force, which can normalize patterns of abuse.
• Feminist sociologists define this violence as a 'continuum' rather than isolated incidents; professional relationships within these organizations often facilitate harassment rather than preventing it.
• Case studies show that colleagues can weaponize their access to sensitive data, patrol routes, or legal information to monitor and intimidate victims.

Institutional Failure and Accountability

• The murder of Laura Cruz Vega highlights a systemic failure: despite years of legal proceedings, restraining orders, and prior convictions against her aggressor, the institution failed to protect her.
• While the Ministry of Defense has published data showing 316 reports of sexual harassment or sex-based abuse in the armed forces between 2016 and 2024, the Guardia Civil continues to withhold granular data on its internal cases.
• True progress requires more than just protocols; it requires states to subject their own coercive institutions to the same feminist scrutiny applied to society at large.