The research project The Treatment of Gender Violence in the Administration of Justice. Implementation and Effectiveness of LO 1/2004 general objective is to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the successive legal reforms on gender violence including the LO 1/2004, of 28 December, on Integral Protection measures against Gender Violence. A perspective of 10 years from the passing of the LO 1/2004 will assess the progress of its implementation, in particular its effectiveness in the fight against gender violence.

The LO 1/2004 incorporates objectives and mechanisms that go beyond judicial intervention. The law especially focuses on the importance of primary prevention and develops public policies for early detection, secondary and tertiary prevention and comprehensive protection of victims. In short, it is a law in which various forms of prevention that lead to an intervention system of great complexity overlap; however, judicial intervention and, in particular, the criminal one remains the central axis of intervention. Consequently, the evaluation of the implementation of the reforms in the judiciary is one of the central points of the project, in order to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the legal changes. On the other hand, the research team experience is very high in this field. It possesses research data since 1999, so time series can be developed in order to evaluate the judicial practice evolution on the field.

These reasons made the research team focus on the implementation and effectiveness of 1/2004 in the field of Administration of Justice. More specifically, the research team shall address the evolution of data related to the treatment of gender violence in the Administration of Justice from a comprehensive approach that will integrate both judicial decisions and the activity of the various organizations and people that work in the implementation of the law in this area. With regard to the methodology, the project approach can be considered as socio-legal: the legal perspective is integrated with the methodology of the social sciences and the contributions of sociological theory and criminology. More specifically, the methodology will integrate theory and empirical research. In relation to this latter dimension, both quantitative and qualitative methods will be used. In relation to the quantitative methods the research team will re-analyze the data that is available from previous research (1999 to 2006). That information will be supplemented by data from secondary sources, since statistical progress in the evaluation of gender violence in recent years has been considerable (CGPJ, Observatorio Estatal de Violencia contra la mujer, etc.). Furthermore, a large sample of sentences will be submitted to content analysis in order to analyze the facts of cases adjudicated in several instances, and in particular the discourse of arguments included. Finally, qualitative research will be completed with 8 focus groups and 24 semi-structured interviews.