GEORGE TOWN, April 24 — Penang recorded a total of 343 domestic violence cases last year with a majority of the cases in the north-east district of the island, said state exco Chong Eng.
The Women, Family Development, Gender Inclusiveness and Religions Other Than Islam Committee chairman said 148 cases were on the island while 195 cases were on the mainland.
“These numbers, however, may not reflect the actual situation in our community. We believe that with every one reported case, there may be five to 10 cases that go unreported,” she said in a statement issued today.
She said domestic violence happens to men, women and children, but out of the 343 reported cases last year, a total 332 cases or 96.7 per cent were inflicted by men.
Chong was citing official statistics released by the police for the state legislative assembly on April 17.
According to the statistics, there were 112 cases in the north-east district of the island, 36 in the southwest district, 61 in North Seberang Perai, 86 in Central Seberang Perai and 48 in South Seberang Perai.
Out of the 343 cases, a majority of the victims are aged between 36 and 59 years old (151 cases) followed by 22 to 35 years old (127 cases), 60 years and above (42 cases), 13 to 21 years old (20 cases) and three cases involving children under 12 years old.
A majority of the cases also involved female victims (274 cases) while 69 cases involved male victims.
However, only 10 protection orders were issued last year, where three were intermediate protection orders and seven were protection orders.
Only 105 of the 343 cases were charged in court while 55 were convicted after full trials, 10 had pled guilty and were sentenced, while seven were discharged and acquitted.
A total 63 cases were dropped, 50 labelled as no further action, 33 were discharged not amounting to an acquittal and 20 still pending further action by the police.
Chong said the state government has set aside RM100,000 for non-governmental organisations (NGO) that are providing counselling, intervention, 24-hour helpline, emergency shelters and more to domestic abuse victims.
She said the work the NGOs did were important to support domestic violence victims and stressed the importance of educating the society in understanding gender equality for more effective intervention initiatives.
“I would like to thank NGOs that have tirelessly worked around the clock to support victims and survivors of domestic violence during the current MCO period,” she said.
