An estimated 44 percent of married and single Taiwanese have been on the receiving end of some form of violence from their spouses or companions, the results of an online survey released yesterday showed.
A total of 11,626 valid samples were collected in the survey, which was jointly conducted by the Modern Women’s Foundation and Yahoo Taiwan News between July 24 and Sunday.
Lai Fang-yu (賴芳玉), a lawyer and foundation board member, said at a press conference unveiling the results that the survey revealed three major findings.
First of all, the survey showed that most people’s awareness of violence in a relationship has increased, with 52 percent of the respondents saying that the definition of “violence” is not only restricted to physical violence and intimidation but also includes verbal abuse and insults, controlling another’s behavior and emotional harm, Lai said. Only 4.9 percent of the respondents said they thought violence was defined only as physical abuse.
Second, she said, the survey found that men and women have different feelings regarding violence in a relationship, with men saying that what they fear most is being insulted or degraded by their partner, while women said they most feared bodily harm and physical threats against themselves or their family members.
The third major finding was that women were more conscious of violence in a relationship, Lai said, adding that 46.1 percent of female respondents said they had been the victims of such violence, compared with 39.7 percent of the male respondents.
The survey also asked respondents how they would react or did react the first time they felt like the victim of violence in a relationship. In response, 39.3 percent chose trying to communicate with their partner to try to improve the situation, 24.4 percent chose breaking up with their partner, 18.3 percent chose to ignore the problem while trying to find some form of escape, 12.5 percent opted for assistance from a third party and 5.5 percent said they chose to respond with violence.
Among those who were victims of violence in a relationship, 22.6 percent said they had been successful in putting an end to it by using one of the above mentioned methods, 43.7 percent said they had broken up with their partner and 33.7 percent said they continued to endure the violence.
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