The number of domestic violence reports has skyrocketed since figures were first collected in 2007.
Last year the police received 1,046 reports of domestic violence while seven years ago the figure was of only around 150, according to the Annual Crime Review, published yesterday by criminologist Saviour Formosa.
Dr Formosa said the dramatic increase was the result of awareness raising efforts by both NGOs and the government over the past few years. This had given victims more confidence to speak out about the abuse and take action.
Earlier this year this newspaper reported that the police were making an effort to improve the way they deal with victims, who are often intimidated by the prospect of taking their case to the authorities.
In November, the police introduced new facilities to offer temporary shelter to victims as well as rooms in which reports can be filed confidentially.
Police have received training in dealing with victims, who may experience a range of psychological stresses when they need to reveal the abuse to outsiders.
Although the study does not provide a breakdown of the different forms of domestic abuse, another report published last year had found that around a third of cases were psychological in nature while the rest were related to physical abuse.
The news of increased reporting also follows a Times of Malta story last year in which a UK domestic abuse expert gave the island’s support services the thumbs up, highlighting the 24-hour shelters as a major plus.
Reported crimes fell by five per cent overall last year, a significant drop after a 13 per cent spike in 2013, Dr Formosa said.
He added that he hoped this meant the figures had reached their peak two years ago and would not go up any further.
However, he was quick to point out that these were reported offences and did not necessarily mean that fewer crimes were taking place; it could just mean that fewer were being flagged.
Dr Formosa said the police would have to move to an online platform if they were to keep up with the technological shifts occurring in society and keep people reporting crime.
According to the report, bodily harm averaged 1,052 cases per year – three incidents per day – while fraud dropped by a third over 2013.
Computer related crime also saw a nine per cent decrease over the previous year.
Drug related offences went down slightly from 208 in 2013 to 192 last year while prostitution almost trebled from 48 cases to 123 in 2014.
Call for tracking devices
At least one person will go missing every day by 2025 due to an increase in mental health problems, Dr Formosa said yesterday.
Renewing his plea for the use of tracking devices to counter the problem, he told yesterday’s press conference that more than a quarter of the population would be aged between 60 and 70 in the next 10 years. Some 10,000 would have acute dementia, he added.
The statistician said a pilot project was to be carried out in the coming months to assess the viability of using prototype tracking devices for people at risk of going missing.
This, he said, could help mitigate the problems police officers often face when trying to locate these persons.
In one case, about 200 police officers and rescue officials scoured Gozo for two days before locating an elderly man with memory loss wandering confused around the countryside.
Dr Formosa said the project would not be administered by the police but by other stakeholders since this was a wide ranging problem.