Yunlin County last year reported the second-highest ratio of males reportedly targeted by domestic abuse compared with females, according to government statistics.
Last year in Yunlin, 1,085 out of the county’s 3,580 reported cases of domestic abuse involved men as the victim, 30.31 percent of the total.
Only Taipei recorded a higher ratio of male victims of domestic violence, at 30.47 percent.
In Taiwan as a whole, the proportion of domestic violence cases where men were the complainants was 28.05 percent.
That so many men in Yunlin reported suffering domestic abuse has surprised some, as the county has long had a reputation for machismo and is also infamous as a hot spot for organized crime.
However, the figures do not mean that Yunlin men have become weak, Yunlin Social Welfare Department Director-General Ting Yen-che (丁彥哲) said.
While the numbers were “shocking” to department officials, the data also showed that there was no significant uptick in the total incidences of domestic violence in the county, he said.
Instead, analysis of the figures indicated that the high proportion of male victims might reflect Yunlin men’s greater willingness to acknowledge and report such cases, which suggests that the county’s social outreach and education programs are working, Ting said.
In the past, men typically refused to inform authorities that they had been subjected to abuse at home and the Social Welfare Department has for years targeted this reluctance with outreach programs, he said.
Yunlin police officers now actively inform all involved parties about their rights and the resources available to them in cases of suspected domestic violence, he added.
Another interpretation of the spike in cases is that some Yunlin men have reportedly been targeted by foreign-born women in fraudulent marriages, Ting said.
There had been cases of foreign women presenting themselves as brides and after acquiring Taiwanese citizenship, provoking or initiating violence to obtain restraining orders that lead to them suing for a divorce on favorable terms, he said.
Although such cases are believed to be unconnected, the Social Welfare Department has instructed law enforcement agencies to be alert, Ting said.
Yunlin Social Welfare Department division head Chen Yi-chun (陳怡君) called on men who have suffered abuse to seek refuge in any of Yunlin’s five emergency shelters, adding that the county government might also provide arrangements for the man’s family and an emergency cash stipend.
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