The Government shields children and women against vicarious violence with a pioneering law

The Government will approve this Tuesday in second reading the law against vicarious violence, a norm long demanded by victims' associations, jurists, and child professionals. The text will give this form of gender-based violence its own place in the Penal Code and will strengthen civil measures aimed at protecting children, women, and other people in the family environment used by the aggressor to cause harm.

The initiative reaches the Council of Ministers after months of negotiations between Equality, Justice, and Youth and Childhood. The first version was approved in September 2025, but differences over the definition of the crime, visits, parental authority, and listening to minors forced a review of the project before sending it to Congress.

Tuesday's approval will open the parliamentary process. The text may still change through amendments, although the Government intends to preserve its two central pillars: recognizing vicarious violence as a specific manifestation of gender violence and improving the response before the harm reaches its most extreme expression.

A specific crime against the moral integrity of women

Vicarious violence occurs when the aggressor uses children or other close people to control, punish, or cause suffering to a woman with whom they have or had a relationship. It can take the form of threats, detentions, manipulation, aggressions, instrumentalization of visits, or non-compliance aimed at maintaining dominance after a separation. Murder constitutes its most brutal outcome.

The proposed definition expands the circle of people who can be used as interposed victims. It includes children and descendants, minors subject to guardianship, custody or foster care, ascendants, siblings, and other partners of the woman, even without cohabitation. The legal key will be to prove that the crime was committed with the purpose of causing her pain or suffering.

The project incorporates a new article 173 bis into the Penal Code to configure vicarious violence as an autonomous crime against moral integrity. The known text contemplates penalties of between six months and three years in prison, in addition to the deprivation of the right to possess and carry weapons for a period of three to five years.

This punishment would be added to the corresponding penalty for the crime committed directly against the person used to harm the woman. A murder, a sexual assault, injuries, or threats would maintain their own criminal reproach, to which the vicarious purpose would be added.

The norm also incorporates early detection protocols, coordination between administrations, specialized care, and periodic training for judges, prosecutors, and other professionals involved in gender violence, family, or child protection procedures.

Parental authority, visits, and the right to be heard

One of the main modifications affects parents convicted by a final judgment for gender violence, vicarious violence, or sexual violence against a partner, ex-partner, or children. The new draft contemplates the withdrawal of parental authority, a historical demand from associations that argue that the parental relationship cannot be maintained automatically when there is a conviction for violence.

The General Council of the Judiciary has generally supported the measure, although it has recommended that it can be subsequently reviewed when there are justified reasons linked to the best interest of the minor. This possibility aims to prevent deprivation from functioning as an irreversible decision in any circumstance.

The project also reinforces the right of children and adolescents to be heard before deciding on their guardianship, custody, communication, or stay with their parents. When direct listening is impossible, their will must be known through representatives without conflicting interests or through professionals and people of special trust.

The exposure of a minor to situations of vicarious violence will also expressly appear as a risk indicator. In this way, social services, Justice, and administrations will be able to activate protection measures before irreparable physical damage appears.

These provisions connect with the reform of the Comprehensive Child Protection Law that the Government has already promoted. This project establishes that a minor's refusal to maintain contact with one of their parents must be investigated and that any decision to ignore it must be motivated. It also prevents the aggressor from vetoing the psychological, social, or legal attention necessary for the child's recovery.

A response to the José Bretón case

The text incorporates a specific penalty to prevent convicts from publishing or disseminating messages, images, stories, or other content related to the crime when such exposure may undermine the dignity of the victims or prolong their psychological harm.

The measure responds directly to the controversy caused by El odio (The Hate), the book built around the testimony of José Bretón, convicted of murdering his children Ruth and José to cause their mother the greatest possible suffering. The publication was finally withdrawn after the opposition of Ruth Ortiz and a widespread social reaction.

The Government seeks to prevent an aggressor from using media, publishers, or social networks to exploit their crime, disseminate intimate details, or revictimize those who survived. The prohibition could exceed five years and reach up to two decades in the most serious cases contemplated by the Penal Code.

The Bretón case made vicarious violence a recognizable reality for a large part of Spanish society, although this type of abuse encompasses many behaviors prior to murder. Associations have been warning for years about the use of threats, custody, and visits to maintain control over women after a breakup.

68 minors murdered and more than 1,500 at risk

Official statistics count 68 minors murdered in contexts of gender violence since 2013, the year these crimes began to be recorded. Three have died during 2026. The figures include sons and daughters, but leave out other relatives or close people who may also be attacked to harm a woman.

The latest data from the VioGén system also reflect that Spain maintains 103,746 active cases of gender violence, of which 53,495 correspond to women with minors in their care. The Interior Ministry has identified 1,583 children and adolescents at risk of being assaulted by their mother's abuser. Three appear at extreme risk, 145 at high risk, and 1,435 at medium level.

These figures show that the legal response will also have to function in prevention. The challenge will be to detect danger, listen to minors, and prevent the routine maintenance of contacts or visits from leaving victims under the control of the aggressor.

A law delayed by its own cracks

The processing suffered a halt in February when Youth and Childhood distanced itself from the project. The department led by Sira Rego considered the guarantees insufficient regarding parental authority, visits, and child listening and shared several of the warnings conveyed by feminist organizations and mothers' associations.

More than twenty entities questioned that the first draft configured a neutral crime that could be committed indistinctly by men and women. In their opinion, that formula blurred the sexist component of violence already recognized as part of gender violence and could generate legal uncertainty for reporting mothers.

The objective included by the Government in its 2026 Annual Regulatory Plan corrects that approach and expressly defines vicarious violence as a manifestation of gender violence. The version that comes out this Tuesday will allow us to know how far the changes agreed upon between the three ministries have gone and what claims remain pending for parliamentary debate.

The associations will continue to focus on the actual application of the suspension of visits, risk assessment, and the listening of children and adolescents. They also demand that specialized training reach psychosocial teams, social services, prosecutors' offices, and family courts to prevent violence from being treated as a simple dispute between parents.

The Council of Ministers will approve the project this Tuesday, July 14, and will then send it to Congress. There, the period of amendments, appearances, and parliamentary negotiation of what is called to be the first state law specifically dedicated to combating vicarious violence will begin.