Portugal: Specialized police office for victims of domestic violence

The victim assistance offices are foreseen in the legal framework applicable to the prevention of domestic violence and the protection and assistance to its victims. In this regard, each security force and service has its own network of assistance offices, endowed with adequate conditions, namely privacy, to attend to victims. In the PSP, these offices are called victim support rooms and consist of a police rooms where especially vulnerable victims should be attended, namely victims of domestic violence and abuse, and also victims of crimes against sexual freedom and self-determination. This rooms guarantees a differentiated, quality service, ensuring the victim's privacy and comfort.

Considering the complexity and multi-causality of the problem of domestic violence, the PSP has created the structures for police assistance to victims of domestic violence are rooms for specialized subsequent assistance and accompaniment to victims of domestic violence, duly equipped to meet the expected service needs. In these structures we have multidisciplinary domestic violence teams, which bring together police from the outreach and victim support teams and criminal investigation brigades, to jointly promote the most appropriate response to the victims.