Domestic Violence: 2023
- In 2023, 3,589 individuals reported experiencing domestic violence or made use of services available within this area.
- Of the persons making use of services offered to persons experiencing domestic violence, 75.4 per cent were females.
- During 2023, 390 persons made use of services available for perpetrators – 90.3 per cent were males.
Domestic Violence: 2023
Domestic Violence: 2023
Just over three quarters of services users (75.4 per cent) in 2023 were female, while 24.6 per cent were male. The majority of persons (59.3 per cent) used any service only once during the reference year, with 23.6 per cent using one or more services twice, and 17.0 per cent using one or more services three times or more. 41.4 per cent of females used any service more than once, compared with 38.5 per cent of males (Table 1, Chart 1).
Chart 1. Distribution of persons reporting experiencing domestic violence or making use of services available by sex
No Data Found
Notes:
1. Figures refer to the total number of individual persons making use of services during the reference period (refer to Table 1, methodological note 3 and 5).
2. Services included: Dar Emmaus, Dar Merħba Bik, Dar Santa Bakhita, Domestic Violence Unit (Aġenzija Appoġġ), Emergency Health Services (A&E), Għabex, Il-Milja, Malta Police Force, Victim Support Agency, and Victim Support Malta.
Table 2 presents data on cases registered across the different service providers, cases counted within and across services may involve the same person more than once. During 2023, a total of 6,050 cases were registered by the different entities providing a form of service to persons experiencing domestic violence. In 2023, as in previous years, the main services used by persons experiencing domestic violence were the Domestic Violence Unit (DVU) within Aġenzija Appoġġ (2,557 registered cases) and the Malta Police Force, which received 2,244 reports during the year under review (Table 2).
1Shelters include Dar Emmaus, Dar Merħba Bik, Dar Santa Bakhita, Għabex, and Il-Milja. Refer to methodological note 1.
Note: Individual cases are recorded by the service provider each time a person accesses the service during that reference year. Therefore figures may include persons making use of services more than once.
Table 3 breaks down cases registered with domestic violence service providers by the age group of the registered service user. In 2023, 28.5 per cent of the total cases registered across all services involved persons aged between 30 and 39 years old, while 26.8 per cent involved persons aged 50 years old and over (Table 3, Chart 2).
The majority, 83.4 per cent, were cases involving Maltese nationals (Table 4). The services with the highest number of foreign service users were domestic violence shelters at 44.0 per cent, and the emergency health services at 30.1 per cent (Chart 3).
1Shelters include Dar Merħba Bik, Dar Santa Bakhita, Dar Emmaus, Għabex, and Il-Milja. Refer to methodological note 1.
Note: Individual cases are recorded by the service provider each time a person accesses the service during that reference year. Therefore figures include persons making use of services more than once.
Table 5 indicates the types of violence reported in cases registered with domestic violence services, with users being able to report more than one type of violence, except for reports registered with the Malta Police Force. Nearly three quarters of cases (73.4 per cent) reported across the different services providers involved psychological violence, while 41.3 per cent involved physical violence. 13.9 per cent of all reported cases involved either sexual, economic, and/or another form of violence (Table 5).
This news release also covers services targeting perpetrators of domestic violence. Data for 2023 includes the ‘Stop!’ programme and the ‘Child to Parent Violence’ service both provided by Aġenzija Appoġġ, the Department of Probation and Parole, and the Correctional Services Agency. The majority of users of perpetrator services were male, with ‘Stop!’, the Department of Probation and Parole, and the Correctional Services Agency recording over 92 per cent of their service users being male perpetrators. The ‘Child to parent Violence’ service saw the largest number of female service users at just over a third (34.6 per cent). When looking at the unique number of persons using any service targeting perpetrators, 390 individuals used one or more services during 2023 (Table 6, Chart 4).
Chart 4. Distribution of persons using services for perpetrators by service and sex of service user
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Note: Total figures represent the number of individual persons registered at the respective service, and, therefore persons accessing different services are counted more than once.
Tables
Tables
Methodological Notes
• Police reports (Map 2): Number of cases registered by location where incident occurred per 1,000 mid-year resident population.
Map 1. Number of individual cases registered with the Domestic Violence Unit at Aġenzija Appoġġ by district of residence of service user (rate per 1,000 resident population)
Map 2. Number of individual cases registered with the Malta Police Force by district of incident (rate per 1,000 resident population)
Notes:
1. Individual cases are recorded by the service provider each time a person accesses the service during that reference year. Therefore figures include persons making use of services more than once.
2. Data recorded by the Domestic Violence Unit at Aġenzija Appoġġ includes the district of residence of the service user.
3. Data recorded by the Malta Police Force includes the district of incident reported.
4. Rates are based on mid-year population estimates which may be subject to revision.
