Plato, already in the 4th century BC, referred to the “violence” that students exercised on newcomers to the Academy. They were subjected to a series of questions of knowledge to decide whether or not they were worthy of their position. Sometimes it was voluntary, but other times it was forced. If they did not reach a high enough bar, they suffered humiliation. The practice spread until the Middle Ages, where it was known as “penalism”, especially in Europe, with beatings, fines and other humiliations. The University of Paris, in 1340, instituted the first sanctions, consisting of expulsion, for those who committed hazing. And, in the 15th century, at the University of Salamanca, there was already talk of the “picaresque” of veterans on new students.
It is September 2024 and the scourge continues, although both at the police and academic levels there is agreement that there are fewer chapters of this type and that, in addition, they are not as brutal. However, from the Corps of Tutoring Agents of the Comprehensive Police Station of the Moncloa-Aravaca District of the Municipal Police, they point out that “the problem is in the student apartments.” They explain that if before the groups of five or six thousand people in the streets of Almansa and Juan XXIII, epicenters of the dormitories and residences of the Ciudad Universitaria, were the scene of most of the hazing, they have now practically disappeared. Something very similar is happening in schools. And, according to the information that the agents have, especially from some students, these humiliations are practiced in shared accommodation, the same ones they have always had.
“By not being on the public highway, by disappearing from the sight of passers-by and making the houses inviolable, we can only enter if we know that a flagrant crime is occurring,” explains police officer Carlos O. ., a guard. an agent of the university neighborhood par excellence. “In a park, you can witness it or have a citizen warn you, but in an apartment it is very difficult to know what is happening. So the danger of hazing is transferred to these grounds. But we are not sure because the law of silence prevails in this matter. We think that they happen, but few in number,” he adds, while comparing them, with an understandable distance, to cases of gender violence: “Often we do not know it because the victim reports it, but because the woman’s neighbor calls because she hears it. “In hazing, they do not speak, they do not complain to us.”
Since the beginning of September, tutor agents have been giving prevention talks in schools and residences, in addition to having static and dynamic points in the Ciudad Universitaria, with labeled and uniformed and camouflaged indicators. A series of meetings that have been taking place for four years and thanks to which, they explain, “hazing has decreased a lot”: “It is a subjective perception. One of the novelties of this course is that we end the talk by distributing an anonymous questionnaire to fill out. We have already had more than a thousand students in two weeks. This work is a great source of information, because – Carlos insists – the law of silence prevails, in many cases due to coercion or a poorly understood tradition.
Very few complaints
The few complaints that exist are anonymous or do not exist, because the people concerned do not dare to do so. In this questionnaire, they have added a QR code in which, while maintaining discretion about their identity, the student can provide more information about possible cases and report them. The idea is to go through 19 colleges, including Elías Ahuja, for men, and Santa Mónica, for women. In 2022, they starred in an unfortunate episode that went around social networks and was reported by the Public Prosecutor’s Office: a video was leaked in which the men, from the windows of their rooms, uttered sexist insults against the schoolgirls who reside in the building. . opposite. A “tradition” from years ago that has not been repeated after the national scandal that was generated and that led to the expulsion of the leader of the men. “There will be more places where we will go as part of the prevention work. “All or almost all of these centers have a negative view of hazing,” the agent explains. And what is more important: most of the freshmen are not willing to do them. When they occur, they are of low intensity. “We have been doing the questionnaire for two weeks, because now in September is the peak of hazing. We plan in June with the management of the centers these days and the cohabitation, before the first years meet up with other seniors,” he adds.
The Vice-Rector of Students of the Complutense also launched its QR code, for psychological support, while that of the Municipal Police is more focused on collecting anonymous data. They can also be consulted on the website of the residence association. Among these data comes information that points to centers other than those of the complainant. The truth is that “in some they are completely eradicated and in others there are residues, so the involvement of the management is essential.”
Hazing has criminal and administrative consequences. The latter are the most common and in the short period of the 2024/2025 academic year, some sanctions have already been taken, with temporary expulsions. The cases that have occurred mainly concern people who have forced children to put their heads in the toilet. On the other hand, criminal consequences are very difficult to obtain. But the sanctions (temporary or permanent expulsions) also have an exemplary and dissuasive effect.
Serious psychological damage
There are currently no statistics on hazing. It is true that, when it comes to crimes, the most serious cases can be due to injuries or moral integrity: blows, humiliation, humiliation… And the latter is the worst, because the psychological damage inflicted is apparently invisible, but it lasts over time. Being subjected to so much pressure for two weeks or a month can sometimes cost a lot. Last year, a student jumped from her dorm, although it was not revealed that it was due to this pressure from her environment. For this reason, it is now insisted that freshmen do not go upstairs, “because they do not need to interact with those from higher years.”
“All these integration processes at the beginning of the year in high schools are precisely intended for the new students to create their own groups and not be forced to follow the second or third year students,” who are generally “torturers,” depending on the tradition of each center. “We raise awareness and recommend, because we can’t do anything else. All parties think that the problem lies in these floors. “95% of university residences participate in their eradication, but there is a minority that sees it as something traditional and does not see it as a bad thing if it does not get out of control,” police sources add.
In everyday life, those who bully their fellow citizens may be the nicest people on campus, but at this time of year, it’s as if they put on a devilish mask. “As for the victims, when alcohol, peer pressure, this hierarchy in which it doesn’t really exist… There is a lack of capacity for perception that eliminates the possibility of confronting the other: these are circumstances in which they lose control of the other. who carries out the hazing and the one who suffers it.
In some residences there is the figure of the “resigner”, that is, someone who has passed the course and decides not to do them and becomes someone trusted by the younger ones and the management teams.
