Record domestic abuse in Portugal triggers new risk assessments and funding

Portugal has entered the final weeks of 2025 with a distressing distinction: reports of violence inside the home are rising faster than any other crime, even as the country deploys new tools and record funding to curb it. Officials admit the phenomenon is testing police, courts and social services in ways unseen since the offence was classified as public twenty-five years ago.

An epidemic still growing

The statistics emerging from police commands tell a stark story. Between January and September, the GNR and PSP logged 25 327 domestic-violence occurrences, a seven-year peak. That surge follows a decade-long trend in which the crime never dipped below 30 000 annual complaints. While the overall total for 2023 fell a fraction, the first six months of this year produced 13 homicide victims linked to domestic abuse—most of them women—underscoring how the raw numbers only hint at the human cost.Demographers at the Instituto Nacional de Estatística point out that roughly 1 in 5 Portuguese adults has suffered physical or sexual aggression from a partner at some point in life. Researchers also note a shift that many still overlook: male victims now account for a steadily rising share. According to APAV, the country’s main victim-support NGO, assistance to men jumped 65 % in three years, reflecting both greater outreach and a slow erosion of stigma.

Parliament and police under pressure

Faced with the relentless tide, lawmakers approved an overhaul of the Instrumento de Avaliação de Risco em Violência Doméstica in July. The revised grid grades danger on four tiers—from “low” to “extreme”—and, crucially, tailors the checklist to distinct settings such as fílio-parental violence or abuse of the elderly. Judges say the update, anchored in Portaria 228/2025, helps them justify quicker restraining orders, yet prosecutors insist it will matter only if the justice system sheds its reputation for lenient sentences.Money is no longer the primary excuse. The 2025 State Budget earmarks €25 M for prevention and response, up almost €7 M year-on-year. More than half is channelled to internal-security forces so that every station can field a specialised victim room and trained officers versed in the new risk tool. Meanwhile, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has set a three-year blueprint that puts mandatory training for magistrates front and centre—a nod to repeated censure from the Council of Europe’s GREVIO experts, who faulted patriarchal attitudes in earlier rulings.

Grass-roots networks fight back

While Lisbon debates statutes, local shelters are reckoning with capacity. The Rede Nacional de Apoio a Vítimas de Violência Doméstica housed more than 1 400 people in the last quarter alone—over half of them children escaping with a parent. Tele-assistance devices now safeguard nearly 6 000 high-risk cases, financed in part by the PESSOAS 2030 programme and the FSE+.Civil society has maintained its own drumbeat. UMAR’s intersectional manifesto demands automatic removal of aggressors from family homes and the elevation of sexual assault to a public crime, while the Plataforma Portuguesa para os Direitos das Mulheres has pushed the debate online, warning that cyber-harassment is bleeding into offline violence. On the ground, APAV fielded calls from 14 008 victims between January and August, a record that the organisation reads as both an indictment of ongoing abuse and proof that awareness campaigns such as “Não Há Desculpas” are reaching audiences once silent.

What to watch in 2026

The next legislative session is set to revisit nine separate proposals, from concealing victims’ new addresses in court files to guaranteeing creche places for children forced to relocate. Brussels is also expected to finalise a directive that would classify rape as a public offence, obliging Portugal to transpose the measure by 2027.For citizens, the immediate horizon is more personal: the holidays typically trigger a spike in intimate-partner complaints. Authorities urge anyone in danger to memorise the free 24-hour helpline 800 202 148 or, for discretion, the SMS 3060 line. As one senior inspector put it this week, the numbers tell only half the tale; ending what he called “a crime that hides behind household walls” will require unrelenting scrutiny from every neighbour, colleague and relative in the country.