Raw violence against people who rescue others - a disturbing thought. Is our society getting more brutal? Should the state change the laws or punish the culprits harder?

Michael Krämer, 55, department director at the Malteser in Rheinbach, is responsible for their rescue stations in the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis. „Is the question if the level of violence grew a problem description or are we talking about the Zeitgeist?“ For 35 years he is working for the emergency services, many of those in the „Bonn hole“ near the main station, where call-outs to look after drug addicts or heavily drunk were his daily business.

„If you work here, you chose the rescue service of the Maltese“, he explains. „It’s a extreme job, we are handling very difficult matters.“ Severely injured people in accidents, bloody fights and domestic violence, heart attacks and strokes - matters of life and death.

„If drugs and alcohol play into these extreme situations, violence is never far off“, explains Krämer. But he cannot answer the question, or won’t, if brutal force against emergency forces happens more often than 20 years ago, like the media reports suggest.

The case of the 23-year-old paramedic in Swisttal-Heimerzheim, who was attacked and severely injured while looking after a patient, made headlines. „Heimerzheim was a work accident“, explains Michael Schäfers, who supervises the Maltese services nationwide from Cologne. „I cannot say if work accidents increased. The problem is that our statistics don’t alway show if a violent attack preceded the accident.“ Also in Henenf, paramedics were attacked during a call-out. „We have to investigate this on a countrywide level and agree to common definitions.“

The Ruhr University in Bochum tried to shed a light on the phenomenon last year. Criminologist Thomas Feltes who led the project had to admit that the response rate of 18 percent - of the 4,500 approached emergency personell - did not offer a representative nature of a study. Probably only those responded who were somewhat affected directly. „We don’t know how many call-outs get taken. The numbers are hard to judge.“

Also, the scientists combined all kinds of violence - physical and verbal - in the study. „We didn’t previously mention verbal violence but it always existed“, says Krämer. How often drunk patients at the „Bonn hole“ called him an „asshole“ - countless times. „But we didn’t pay any heed to that.“ Once or twice he was kicked or hit. „But I was probably on 20,000 call-outs in my life - so over all, very little happened to me.“

That relatives lose their poise and attack a paramedic, like happened to Tagliafierro, can be attributed to sheer despair, for example when a baby dies. „Imagine a paramedic tries to resuscitate the child and it dies nonetheless. It cannot be expected that mother or father remain calm“, says Schäfers.

In a different situation, a paramedics team gets called to an apartment in which a woman lies on the floor, unconscious. She is wearing a head scarf, a devout muslim woman. Should the paramedics remove the scarf before treating her, they might be hit by the husband who is hurt in his pride.

Schäfers admits: „We have a heightened public sensitivity for the phenomena of violence against emergency forces.“ And it might be related to more women in the job. 30 years ago, there might have been maybe one woman on a team, today nearly 40% of all paramedics in the Rhein-Sieg area are female.

Krämer: „The team communication changed - things get discussed openly. Women admit making mistakes more easily too.“ And they have a de-escalating effect on their colleagues too.

Emergency psychologist Clivia Langer considers it possible that women „judge“ violence differently, that they don’t just accept it as normal.

The Ruhr University study showed that emergency personell would like the matter of violence on the job to be more of a subject during apprenticeship and further training. Prevention would be better and to be informed more on cultural differences. And to learn about simple protection methods - like keeping „a good old arms-length distance“ for example, says Schäfers. „And how not to block escape routes.“

Everybody agrees though that tightening the laws will not have any real effect. Criminologist Feltes: „I doubt that that would change the human behaviour.“

(Original text: Ulla Thiede Translation: Mareike Graepel)