Domestic violence has become more pervasive in Taiwan over the past decade, with 88,000 cases recorded last year, according to a recent government report.
From 2016 to 2020, the number of domestic violence cases reported to police in Taiwan increased steadily from 66,000 to 88,000, said the report, which was released Dec. 1 by the Academy for the Judiciary following its study of mid-term crime trends and victim protection services in the country.
Citing an analysis by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), the report said that in particular, a larger number of children and elderly people had become targets of domestic violence over the past decade.
While the proportion of female victims in all sex-related crimes in Taiwan had dropped by 25 percent on average over the past 10 years, the downward trend was reversed last year, the report said.
The number of female victims of sexual violence — defined as those subjected to sexual misconduct and offenses against morality– increased in 2020 by an annual 24.2 percent, according to the report.
It also said that in general, violent crimes had dropped in Taiwan over the past 10 years, but cases of fraud and cybercrime had showed no significant decline.
The issue of domestic violence has been highlighted over the past week, after the boyfriend of Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kao Chia-yu (???) was detained for allegedly assaulting her and locking her in a New Taipei hotel room for two days.
The MOHW said Tuesday that one in five women in Taiwan have been subjected to physical or mental abuse at some stage in their life, as indicated by its recent survey on intimate partner violence.
The survey found that that 19.62 percent of women aged 18-74 in Taiwan have been subjected to abuse by an intimate partner, with the most common form being emotional abuse (16.76 percent), followed by physical violence (7.97 percent), financial exploitation (7.2 percent), sexual abuse (4.85 percent), and stalking and harassment (4.8 percent), the ministry said.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel