The government is setting up a sexual assault response team earmarked to start operating in 2014, Social Policy Minister Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca said this morning.
Speaking during a seminar on domestic violence, organised by the Commission on Domestic Violence, she said that the team will be a public private partnership and its aim would be to provide timely action and early intervention.
It should also collect scientific information and local data about domestic violence and encourage young people at university to carry out research in this field.
Ms Coleiro Preca noted that there was no data in Malta on the correlation between domestic violence and bullying.
According to an international report carried out in 2011, 42 per cent of Maltese students interviewed reported never experiencing bullying but 36 per cent experienced bullying at school on a monthly basis and 22 per cent on a weekly basis.
This, she noted, could be a result of violence or bullying at home but there was no scientific data.
Ms Coleiro-Preca said that what Agenzija Appogg came across could be just the tip of the iceberg. She called on the National Commission for Domestic Violence to carry out research about this correlation.
The minister also welcomed the recently set up Man Against Violence Coalition saying this would result in a stronger voice of unity and in a more compact front against violence on women.
In the first six months of the year, she said, Appogg received 400 reports of domestic violence but no reports of rape were received since 2001.
Commission chairwoman Yana Micallef Stafrace described domestic violence as a public health issue.
Both men and women, she said, were subject to domestic violence
“We need to focus on this scourge because how can I be happy knowing there are women and children out there living in hell,” she said.
She said that because of the lack of data, legislators and policy makers were only guessing that they had the right approach.
REPORTED CASES OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE DOUBLE IN THREE YEARS
Senior university lecturer Marcelline Naudi said that last year the police received 1,028 reports of domestic violence including 351 on psychological violence and 592 of slight bodily harm.
A total 848 reports were received by the police in 2011, 659 in 2010 and 543 in 2009.
Although the numbers said something, they did not give the whole picture.
“We have pieces from a puzzle that do not fit together and it would be lovely to have a complete picture,” she said.
Ms Naudi urged for more intensive data collection for a clearer picture of the situation.
When she was giving data about Appogg’s Domestic Violence Unit, she said that in 2012 this had 300 new cases out of a total of 668. In December, there were 30 cases on the waiting list..
“It is shocking and demoralising for social workers that a waiting list exists” she said as she called for more resources to be provided.