Only 8.04% of all cases opened by the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) regarding suspicions of crimes related to the law on preventing and combating domestic violence have resulted in charges, official statistics published by the MP show.
According to the judiciary body, since the law came into force, a total of 734 suspected breaches of the domestic violence law provisions have been opened and investigated, resulting in a total of 59 formal charges.
Over the past seven years (2017-2023) an average of 105 cases were opened per year, while only 8 resulted in formal charges.
The discrepancy between the number of cases open and the number of charges over this type of crime has motivated several inquiries to the Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak.
More than once, Wong has justified the numbers by saying that besides the cases in which the MP did not find enough evidence for the accusations against the suspects and those in which the alleged victims have not pressed charges, there were several cases initially classified as “domestic violence,” which resulted in severe injuries and even death. These last cases were ultimately charged under the criminal provisions for aggravated bodily harm or murder because those crimes have a more severe penal framework than those for domestic violence, he said.
Nevertheless, in the activity report for the year 2023, the MP praised the drop in the number of cases opened for domestic violence, noting a drop of 7.63% when compared year-on-year with 2022 (- 9 cases). The MP added that this “highlights the effectiveness of the implementation of specific prevention and combat measures, as well as the reinforcement of law enforcement by police services and administrative services.”
According to the annual report from the Social Welfare Bureau (IAS), the number of suspected cases of domestic violence in Macau in 2023 totaled 40, including 26 cases in which the victims were the marriage partner, 11 where the victims were children, leaving the other three to be related to other family members.
The same IAS report also noted that the type of domestic violence acts involved 23 acts of physical violence, eight cases of psychological violence, five cases of sexual abuse, and four other cases involving multiple offenses.
In 2023 IAS investigated a total of 1,781 notifications for suspected cases of domestic violence, which resulted in only 40 confirmed cases; that is, only 2.25% of the suspected cases.
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