35.6% of women between the ages of 15 to 49 had been victims of domestic violence in the las 12 months

On the occasion of the International of the Elimination of Violence against Women, the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI) reveled that according to the Demographic and Family Health Survey (ENDES 2022), 35.6% of women between the ages of 15 to 40 had been victims of domestic violence in the last 12 previous months of this survey. The 34.8% stated that in the las 12 months has been victim of psychological and/or verbal aggression, 8.1% of physical violence and 2.2% of sexual violence.

According to the survey, 55.7% of women between the ages of 15 to 49 had suffered at least once of some way of psychological and/or verbal, physical or sexual violence from husbands or partners.

The most common way of violence is the psychological and/or verbal, with a 51.9% of the cases. By age groups, this type of aggression is more common among women between 45 to 49 years of age (58.5%). In addition, by place of residence, Junín is the department that registers the greater proportion of this type of aggression towards women (63.6%).

For its part, the number of complaints registered of domestic violence between January and September of the current year is 175,528, according to the Office of Planning and Statistics of the Ministry of the Interior. By department, Lima Metropolitan area registers the greater number of complaints (55,770) followed by Arequipa (10,618) and Piura (10,439).

In terms to the complaints registered of sexual violence, according to data of the Ministry of the Interior, between January and September of 2023, were registered 7,998 complaints in the country. The majority of cases of sexual violence happened in the household of the victim (3,434 cases). By department, Lima Metropolitan area registered the greater number of complaints (1,847), followed far behind by Junín (575).

When women suffered physical violence, 45.7% sought help in close persons and 29.1% sought help in some institution, according to ENDES 2022. Moquegua is the department were more women, which were abused, sought help in some institution (40.4%). While Pasco is the department where it registers the lower percentage of women that sought help (21.5%).

Regarding the institution to which women between 15 to 49 years of age, sought for help when they suffer physical violence, the five most frequently visited according ENDES 2022 were the police station (79.9%, after a decrease of 0.6 percentage points compared with 2021), Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations (8.4%), DEMUNA (7.7%), Prosecutors (6.9%) and the Courts (5.7%).

In addition, when women sought help in a person, the persons most frequently mentioned were the mother (37.1%), a female/male friend or a female/male neighbor (19.4%), sister (17.6%) and the father (16.6) among others.

According to ENDES 2022, among the most common reasons for not seeking help after being battered 44.1% of women stated that it was not necessary, 17.0% feelings of shame, 11.0% because they do not know where to go or do not know the support services, 8.5% because they fell fear to be assaulted again to herself or to their children and 6.4% because they were afraid to cause problems to the persons that had assaulted them, among other reasons.

In 2022 were registered 147 victims of femicide, according to the information of the Inter-institutional Statistical Commission on Criminality (CEIC). The greater part of the cases involved women between 18 to 29 years of age (51 cases).

The most common place where the assaults occurred is the household of the victim (57). Meanwhile the main aggressors were usually the couple or live-in partner (41 cases) boyfriend (23), ex-couple or ex- live-in partner (22) among others.

By department, of the 147 cases of femicide of 2022, the greater part of them were registered in Lima Metropolitan area (37), followed by Cusco (13) and Arequipa (11), according to CEIC.