Over the past five years, our women's helpline has received 11,016 calls (excluding old cases, proxy cases, and cases from repeat callers), of which 913 calls involve domestic violence. Victims were trending younger, the majority of which was housewives.
Besides, between March 2016 and March 2017, the HKFWC has interviewed 39 women suffering from domestic violence, 87.2% of which involved bodily abuse, 56.4% of which involved mental abuse, and around 5% of the victims suffered from more than a type of abuse. The abusers were mainly husbands. 65% of the victims have reported to the police, half of which have called the police more than once. In the most serious case, the victim has even called the police for over five times. Seven abusers were prosecuted by the police, four of which were successfully sued and were all given binding over orders.
Recessive domestic violence becoming more serious
The police have divided "family conflict cases" into three categories by their levels of severity. But almost 85% of the cases are categorised into "family cases" where are of less severity. Under the classification of the police, the number of domestic violence cases has dramatically fallen. The police also fail to follow guidelines when handling domestic violence cases. Many women who have reported to the police told us those frontline policemen had not provided active assistance. Instead, they would attempt to settle the dispute, claim that there was not enough evidence, or even recommend the victims dropping the case since using the abuser would 'affect the family and the children'.