Incidents of domestic violence more than doubled in Macao last year, with 81 cases reported to the Social Welfare Bureau (IAS), 43 more than in 2020.
According to the bureau, the reasons for the 113 per cent increase were put down to more time being spent with family, strict parenting, arguments between wife and husband on how to teach their children, or the increased awareness of reporting domestic violence cases to the authorities.
The IAS said that domestic abuse between married couples accounted for 38 cases, while violence towards children accounted for 30 cases. The bureau noted that over 65 per cent of the cases involved causing bodily harm, while 10 per cent were mental abuse cases and 8.6 per cent fell into the realm of sexual abuse.
The IAS said that in order to strengthen the support work for “families at risk”, the bureau has recently held a meeting, involving 11 family service centres and four specialists from related fields, to discuss how to tackle such cases, The Macau Post Daily reported.
