“Why Doesn’t She Press Charges? Understanding and Improving Women’s Safety and Right to Justice (Wosafejus)”

The project aims to contribute to the development of community policies and best practices related to women’s human rights protection and improve women’s – with specific attention given to migrant and ethnic minorities groups – rights to justice and protection targeting the criminal justice system professionals (magistrates, judges and police forces), lawyers and women’s advocates. The problem is addressed through a range of different project activities is the unwillingness of women to press charges and the failure of the criminal justice system in providing them protection and justice. This results in a high level of impunity of violence committed against women especially by partner and ex-partners and in the escalation of violence. The specific problems addressed by the project are: the lack of understanding of abused women’s reluctance to press charges against partners and ex-partners who perpetrate violence against them; the absence or inadequacy of quantitative and/or qualitative data on the implementation and impact of criminal law in the targeted regions and countries; the lack of awareness about the functioning of the criminal justice system in practice, and the consequent stigmatisation of women who do not press charges against their aggressors, amongst professionals, criminal justice system personnel and the general public; the lack of guidelines and training packages designed on the basis of context-specific, relevant, and reliable knowledge of “justice in facts”, drawn from qualitative and quantitative research results, and on lessons coming from innovative experiences developed in the European context. Project activities take place in 5 urban areas belonging to: Italy (Bologna and Catania); Romania (Bucharest and Cluj Napoca) and Spain (Barcelona). These countries are all characterised by inadequate statistical data and qualitative research on the topic. Besides the coordinator, Istituto Carlo Cattaneo Research Foundation, project partners include Dipartimento di Analisi dei Processi Politici Sociali e Istituzionali, Università di Catania; Scuola Interregionale di Polizia Locale, Modena; Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona; Standing Together Against Domestic Violence, London; School for Policy Studies - University of Bristol; Social Work Department Sociology and Social Work Faculty, Babes-Bolyai University, Romania; Casa delle donne per non subire violenza, Bologna.