In 2019, 2,565 individuals made use of services available to those experiencing domestic violence. Of these, 80.2 per cent were females, the NSO said today.

When compared to 2016, the number of persons in 2019 who used services offered to those experiencing domestic violence increased by 41.2 per cent, from 1,816 to 2,565.

In 2019, as in previous years, the services with the highest number of registered cases were the Domestic Violence Unit (DVU) within Aġenzija Appoġġ (1,870 cases) and the Police Department (1,532 cases).

In 2019, more than half of the total cases registered across all services involved persons aged under 40. The majority of service users during 2019 were Maltese nationals. Distributions by age and nationality of service users have remained relatively stable over the period 2016-2019. Table 5 presents data on the type of violence reported by those experiencing domestic violence in 2019. Across the service providers, excluding the Police Department and the Emergency Health Services, persons may report experiencing more than one type of violence per case.

For cases recorded by the Police Department, the main crime category of the report, i.e. the crime that is associated with the gravest penalty as established by relative legislation, is recorded. For the Emergency Health Services, the nature of the service limits cases to physical violence.

Over 90 per cent of cases registered during 2019 by the shelters, Victim Support Malta (VSM) and the DVU were of persons experiencing psychological violence. Of the cases registered by the Police Department, 50.7 per cent were of persons experiencing psychological violence while 47.3 per cent were of persons experiencing physical violence.