What happened

Despite Lobna Hehmid providing evidence of regular attacks by her husband to Spanish authorities, the country's VioGén algorithm classified the risk to her safety as low. 

Seven weeks later, Lobna was violently stabbed and murdered by her husband in their apartment outside Madrid. Her killer then took his own life. 

The New York Times discovered that a judicial review of 98 women killed by their current or former partner since 2007 after being assessed by VioGén found that at least 55 were scored by VioGén as negligible or low risk for repeat abuse.

The NYT also discovered that victims rarely knew about the role VioGén played in their cases, and that the government had not published comprehensive data about the system’s effectiveness and refused to make the algorithm available for outside audit.

Why it happened

The VioGén algorithm is seen to have failed to accurately assess the risks to Lobna Hemid and others killed due to factors including: 

• Algorithmic limitations. The system may not adequately account for all relevant factors in domestic violence cases.

• Information gaps. Victims may be reluctant to disclose critical information due to fear or other circumstances, leading to incomplete data for the algorithm.

• Over-reliance on technology. Spanish police tend to accept 95 pecent of the algorithm's risk scores, potentially overlooking human judgement.