In 2022, 3,100 persons experiencing domestic violence made use of services available within this area. Of these, 77.2 per cent were females.
Services targeting persons experiencing domestic violence
When compared to 2020, the number of persons using services for support on domestic violence increased by 6.2 per cent, from 2,919 to 3,100. During 2022, 70.1 per cent of the persons making use of such services made use of one service, 21.1 per cent of persons made use of two services, and 8.7 per cent of persons made use of three or more services.
In 2022, as in previous years, the main services used by persons experiencing domestic violence were the Domestic Violence Unit (DVU) within Aġenzija Appoġġ (2,093 registered cases) and the Police Department (2,046 individual reports).
Shelters (including Dar Merħba Bik, Dar Santa Bakhita, Dar Emmaus, Għabex and Il-Milja) dealt with 173 cases while the NGO Victim Support Malta saw 70 cases during the year under review. The emergency health services at Mater Dei Hospital and at Gozo General Hospital recorded 69 cases during 2022.
In 2022, more than half of the total cases registered across all services involved persons aged between 30 and 49 years old (52.5 per cent). The majority, 84.4 per cent, were cases involving Maltese nationals, while 13.8 per cent were cases involving non-Maltese nationals.
Services targeting perpetrators of domestic violence
When looking at the unique number of persons using services targeting perpetrators, 268 individuals used one or more service during 2022 – 245 were males and 23 were females (91.4 per cent and 8.6 per cent respectively). During 2022, the Department of Probation and Parole dealt with 141 cases related to domestic violence, while the Stop! programme saw 100 cases – the majority of cases dealt with by these two services involved persons aged between 30 and 49 years old (64.7 per cent and 68.0 per cent respectively). All the cases seen through the ‘Child To Parent Violence’ service offered by Aġenzija Appoġġ (31 cases) were under 30 years of age.
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