Officials take their licks over domestic violence

As the Ministry of the Interior marked the third anniversary of the Anti-Domestic Violence Law (家暴法) yesterday, women's groups said that law enforcement officials continue to blame the victims for abuse they suffer and that much remains to be done to curb domestic violence.

"The police and judges still don't observe the concept of equal rights between men and women, which seriously affects the way they handle domestic violence cases," said Liao Hsueh-chen (廖雪貞), an official at the Garden of Hope Foundation (GHF), a charity that assists young prostitutes and orphans.

Liao said, "Most policemen and judges give the impression that female victims deserve the domestic violence they suffer and should take responsibility for it."

Lai Shiu-ling (賴淑玲), lawyer for the Women's Rescue Foundation (婦女救援基金會), agreed with Liao's remarks, saying that police and judges do not handle such cases professionally.

"There isn't even a special court to deal with domestic issues in Taiwan. Most victims are given a really rough ride, while most judges are not professional and frequently ask the victims to drop court injunction applications," Lai said.

The Anti-Domestic Violence Law (家暴法) came into effect on June 24, 1998.

The MOI has since established the Family Violence Prevention Commission (FVPC) called for under the law.

The commission was set up under the MOI to provide assistance to victims of domestic abuse and promote an awareness of, and a means of identifying and preventing such abuse.

According to the commission's statistics, 33,075 victims sought restraining orders or court injunctions over the past three years. It said 20,859 of the applications were approved by the courts. Some 2,480 cases connected to domestic abuse are reported to the commission's local bureaus every month.

During yesterday's ceremony, a national database of victims and accused perpetrators of domestic violence was also launched.

The new system will integrate all of the information about reported cases of domestic abuse from the three main agencies, to help the authorities' handling cases in the future.

The agencies are the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Justice and the Judicial Yuan.

"There are various of kinds of domestic abuse. We hope we can handle such cases better in the future, now that the database has been established," said Lee Hui-er (李惠兒), an official from the Judicial Yuan, speaking at the ceremony.

Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容), director of the GHF, said that the database is significant to them and to the authorities.

"Violent abusers will not have much of a chance to repeatedly commit offenses after the system is fully established," Chi said.

Women's groups, on the other hand, emphasized that the government should force convicted perpetrators of domestic abuse to undergo treatment programs, as it does drug abusers.

Lin Chiou-yi (林秀怡), an official at the Taipei Association for the Promotion of Women's Rights, said that such a move should be the next important step by the government.

"Of the 8,693 applications for court injunctions between July 2000 and March last year, only 72 individuals responsible for domestic violence were required to undergo treatment, although studies have shown that treatment is a significant means of reducing abusive behavior.