Domestic violence: every four weeks a woman is murdered by her partner in this country – News

• Its own four walls are not always a haven of peace and security.
• Last year, the police registered almost 20,000 cases of domestic violence, a good 6.2 percent more than the previous year.
• According to the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), a woman dies within society every four weeks.

The home feud ended fatally for 29 people in 2019. According to federal statistics, this means: two-thirds of all homicides were due to domestic violence in the last year. A third of the cases of domestic violence were assaults, followed by threats, verbal abuse and simple assault.

Half of all recorded domestic violence crimes occur in an existing partner. It was slightly less that ex-partners committed psychological and / or physical violence.

Large number of unreported cases

Women were injured in about 70 percent of the cases. Men were victims of almost 30 percent of domestic violence. According to federal statistics, these numbers have been stable for years.

Alarming numbers

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Of the 29 homicides in the home, 15 occurred as a couple, in which 14 women and one man were killed. “This means that every four weeks a woman dies within a society,” writes the FSO.

The number of homicides has averaged around 25 in recent years. On the FSO’s 10-year list, one number is out of the ordinary: With 36 homicides, 2015 was the black year for statistics.

For counseling centers, police statistics are just the tip of the iceberg. Because only some of the cases of domestic violence are registered by police statistics. Susan Peter, who heads the coordinating organization for women’s shelters in Switzerland, puts it this way: “If we assume that one in four women is affected by domestic violence, these figures would have to be much higher.”

You know a lot of the affected women wouldn’t go to the police, so Peter. There is, for example, the fear of more violence, the fear of having children together or the fear that the reputation of the man known to the public will be damaged, with unforeseeable consequences.

Consequences of the confinement uncertain

The situation for the current year is not yet included in the statistics. After the close of spring, there were great fears that domestic violence, as in other European countries, could also increase in Switzerland.

But he remained calm, recalls Peter, who is also the manager of the women’s shelter in Zurich: “We can only explain it by the fact that the women were unable to organize aid during the confinement.” Because in view of the overcrowded conditions with husband and children at home, they would hardly have been able to make phone calls undisturbed, Peter suspects.

That is why a nationwide information campaign had been started, targeting offers of help in pharmacies, for example. Offers have been adapted in the regions. “They were attempts to reach women who had suffered domestic violence in ‘difficult conditions’ at home. In our opinion, however, that did not have a direct impact on their behavior. “

In summer, the cantons tried to get an idea. They found that the situation was very different from region to region. There was more consultation from victim counseling centers and women’s shelters, for example in the Zurich and Basel areas, as well as in the central and eastern Swiss regions.

Regarding the current situation, Peter says: “After the lockdown was lifted, there were more contacts. Nowadays, practically all women’s shelters are full again. “Even in normal years, places are better filled in the winter months than in the warm season. So the experts cannot give the go-ahead.