Domestic violence is not only a
problem of the developing or under developed countries, but Domestic violence
is a reflection of how is our society. There is no place of violence in the
civilized world. But the number of cases that are reported every year raise a
high alarm. And this is not the complete picture, because most of the cases go
unregistered or unnoticed in everyday life. This is a very dangerous trend in
our society and has to be dealt with care.
A significant number of deaths are
taking place on daily basis, as a result of domestic violence only. Illiteracy,
economical dependency on men folk and otherwise male dominated society is
some of the attributing factors to the problem.
The study of domestic violence in the Dominican Republic has several
difficulties. There aren't any records of reports of domestic violence prior to
1997, because it was not even a crime. We don't have any records in the “Policia
Nacional” before that. Even today, many women don’t know about laws against
domestic violence and many current crimes go unreported. Each statistic
presented regarding murder or acts of violence do not reflect the large quantity
of crimes that continue happening, not only unreported, but ignored by the
Policia Nacional or by the society.
In the last year authorities have issued over 15,000 protection orders,
made more than 1,000 arrests. It is not surprising that domestic violence
levels remain so high in the Dominican Republic in comparison with other
countries of the region given that the “ley contra la violencia domestica: 24-97”,
was only established in January 1997.
Roxana Reyes it’s a woman who works for the rights of the women and is
trying to change the statics she has a program which provides free counselling
and legal representation. The situation in the Dominican Republic is indeed
shocking. The latest data from the “Procuraduría Fiscal del Distrito Nacional” puts
the number of complaints of domestic violence in the past two years at over
15,000, with this type of crime making up 23% of total offences reported in the
capital itself – the single most reported offence. Of the 199 femicides in the
past 12 months, 46% were as a result of domestic violence.
Violence against women penetrates all levels of society. Even upper
class, richer Dominican women are not immune, and some cases that happened
recently are the proof of that.
By: Victor Hilario
