An algorithmic system intended to help local authorities across Spain protect women and children from domestic gender violence significantly underestimates the risk of women being subjected to domestic abuse.

According to algorithmic auditors Eticas and gender violence campaign organisation Ana Bella Foundation, only 1 out of 7 women who contacted the police for protection received help in 2021, and that a small minority of women received a risk score of 'medium' or higher, thereby qualifying them for police protection. 

But while risk scores can be changed manually for those perceived to be at greater risk than the model suggests, a 2014 study discovered that Spanish police offficers stuck to the automated outcome in 95 percent of cases, the audit said.

The tendency to over-rely on VioGén resulted in a rash of cases deemed to have 'low' or 'non-specific' risks ending in suicides, physical assaults, and the murder of women and children - something compounded by the low level of human oversight of the system, according to Eticas.