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Cases of violence in private relationships increased in the last year. Experts now fear a further worsening of the situation due to corona stressors.
By Corinna Emundts, tagesschau.de
“The figures are shocking,” Federal Minister of the Family Franziska Giffey (SPD) commented on the findings: in 2019, statistically speaking, a woman died almost every three days as a result of the act of her partner or ex-partner. Every 45 minutes a woman is injured or assaulted by her partner.
The numbers have been increasing since 2015. It was then that police statistics on violent crime in relationships were first searched for. Since then they are listed annually.
As a result, 117 women and 32 men were more recently victims of deadly intimate partner violence. Last year, 301 women and 93 men had tried to kill in or after a relationship. According to statistics, there were in total more than 141,000 victims of crimes committed and attempted intimate partner violence, 0.7 percent more than a year earlier.
Four out of five victims of dating violence are women
Approximately four fifths of those affected were women and one fifth men. Experts agree that the figures probably only show a small part of the actual violence: “The dark field is considerable,” said Holger Münch, president of the Federal Criminal Police Office.
However, the increase in the number does not necessarily have to mean an increase in violence, but could possibly also be due to a greater willingness to report. But you just don’t know, Münch admits. That is why the so-called dark field study is needed: a comprehensive study of this violence, which is mostly directed against women, that Giffey and Münch have announced for 2021.
Known crimes of psychological or physical violence in relationships range from stalking to rape, murder, and homicide. Since they usually take place in secret, in their own apartment, according to experts, between 75 and 80 percent do not register because the victims do not dare to report it: either out of shame, fear of more violence or financial dependence. Projected, the assumed number of unreported cases, together with the crimes reported, would mean more than half a million cases of domestic violence each year.
Corona stress allegedly fuels violence
The crisis in the crown in the current year is likely to have exacerbated the problem of violence, Münch said in presenting the statistics for 2019. Although there are no significant figures yet. But we know from research on violence that stressors promote violence. There is definitely one in the corona pandemic.
Spatial confinement, caused for example by unemployment, school and home office closures, is part of this, as well as psychological stressors due to financial concerns. According to the head of the Federal Criminal Police, “it cannot be ruled out that such psychological stressors cause an increase in family violence that we cannot see.” Because the social environment of those affected, as well as co-workers and doctors, would be less noticeable.
The study reached a similar conclusion
A first representative study from the Technical University of Munich reached this result in early summer: the number of victims was higher, both among women and children, when respondents were quarantined at home. The researchers were even able to record the effects of short-term work as a risk factor for violence, as well as depression and anxiety. Most of the cases were not officially reported, the spring survey showed.
This could have been due to the isolation circumstances due to the corona measures. Since then, offers of help have moved to the Internet and helplines have been publicized with greater intensity. “It can be expected that those affected will now make greater use of the offers of help that have been expanded over the summer,” says Janina Steinert, professor of public health responsible for the study in an interview with tagesschau.de.
“There is no place to ask for help”
However, the Council of German Women fears, in the current “closing light”, a worsening of the situation of women affected by domestic violence. Telephone advice centers are currently recording up to 20 percent more calls than in the same period last year. According to the international organization for women’s rights “Terre des Femmes”, the figures have not increased in all federal states, but this could be explained: “In isolation, women do not have space to ask for help because their partner is there permanently And therefore they exert even more can control. “
The fact that there are still more calls could also be a good sign, that is, not for more cases of violence, but for more attention and willingness to report. Petra Söchting, head of the “Violence Against Women” helpline, expresses this hope: her team has also registered an increase in calls from the victims’ social environment.
