A new case of the use of firearms and, as a result, two dead people. For now, there is no official information about what exactly happened last night in the village of Miričina near Gračanica, except that one person was found dead, and another died in an ambulance. Although scary, news like this doesn’t even surprise us anymore. Is sufficient and adequate work being done to prevent domestic violence, which in many cases leads to femicide?
The Gračanica police station was informed last night that a firearm had been used in the town of Miričina near Gračanica and that there were injured persons. At the scene, police officers found the body of a 68-year-old woman without signs of life and a 68-year-old injured man who later died.
We have not received any more information about this case from the Tuzla Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office. Although everything after the investigation points to murder and suicide, the exact qualifications of these acts will be defined after the report of the expert and the autopsy of the victims.
People who work with victims of domestic violence confirm that in a large number of such cases, if the investigation confirms that it is a case of murder and suicide, some form of violent behavior by the perpetrator precedes it, but that many are not reported.
“There are many educations and laws, but violence still happens. What is important is that we as a society do not remain silent, that we raise our voices, that we do not ignore any conversation where we feel that there is a possible threat or suspicion that violence is happening,” says Amra Muradbegović, a psychotherapist at the Citizens’ Association “Vive žene”.
“The way out should be sought in the timely interventions of the police, the court, the Center for Social Work. I would especially draw attention to the importance of taking a risk assessment, which is the duty of both the police and the Center for Social Work and Safe Houses, in order to reduce this phenomenon,” believes Elmir Ibralić, a psychologist at the Citizens’ Association “Vive žene”.
Journalist Azra Husarić-Omerović has been dealing with the topic of domestic violence for a long time. He believes that much has been done to raise awareness in society in this regard, but that results are lacking.
“We have good changes in the law, which both civil society organizations and we journalists praised at the very beginning, but we see that the system does not follow these changes in practice. The people who work in that system are not sufficiently sensitized to violence. They continue to justify the act of violence or diminish its value, that is, they do not see the consequences that can occur,” Husarić-Omerović points out.
Tuzla Cantonal Court President Muhamed Tulumović participated in the drafting of the law and believes that it could be implemented more efficiently.
“The fact is that the penal policy is still mild, although in the last few years we have trends that show that there has been an increase in the imposition of prison sentences, although suspended sentences still dominate. I think it should be the other way around,” Tulumović opined.
The improvement of good practices in the fight against domestic violence would lead to a reduction in the number of femicides, reminds Tulumović and adds that all this must be dealt with more decisively, by educating society, especially those who communicate directly with victims in order to encourage them to report violence, Federalna writes.
