Domestic violence : couples who are not married are most concerned

lofilolo/Epictura

Published the 31.01.2018 to 12: 30 pm

A A

Keywords :

violence against femmesviolences marital

Jonathann Daval, husband of Alexia Daval, found burned in last October, went to confession yesterday. It is since put in the review for “murder on the spouse” and placed in provisional detention. He incurs a penalty of life imprisonment. According to a study, conducted by the University of Pennsylvania, in the United States, and published in the journal Preventive Medicine, the majority of domestic violence involve, however, pairs of friends and non-married couples.

A woman dies every three days under the blows

In France, the latest figures on domestic violence published by the inter-ministerial mission for the protection of women against violence and the fight against trafficking in human beings (MIPROF) dating back to last November : in 2016, a total of 123 women have been killed because of their partner or ex-partner. The equivalent of one woman every three days, on average. But the report does not compare the nature of the relationship of these couples. Are they married, in a civil partnership, cohabitants, little friends ?

80% of violence do not apply to married couples

According to Susan B. Sorenson, professor of social policy at the School of political and social practices at the University of Pennsylvania, over 80% of acts of domestic violence involve couples of small-friends. It is, therefore, in more than two cases out of three. In order to draw these conclusions, it went further than the official reports by identifying the aggressor. Husband or ex-husband, boyfriend or ex-boyfriend.

In 2011, Susan B. Sorenson has started to collaborate with the police department of Philadelphia. Each agent who answered a call placed by a victim of domestic violence, had to fill out a form with a description of the event, the nature of the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator and his behavior. The descriptions produced by the police showed that among unmarried couples, abusers are more violent. “They were more likely to push, grab, hit, strangle their partner to use a knife, a bat or another type of weapon,” says Susan B. Sorenson. “We did not expect these results”.

How do you explain this trend ?

According to the researcher, there could be several explanations. First, it is possible that, within couples, non-married, the victim calls more easily with the police. A woman involved in an abusive relationship can also decide never to marry the boyfriend who is responsible for it.

Additional Information: Philadelphia is one of the ten largest cities in the United States with the highest rate of adults who are not married (51.5 percent, compared to 49.7 per cent in Chicago, for example). As a reminder: in France, there are a number of listening to women victims of violence : the 3919. In case of an emergency, there are other numbers, outside of 17 of the police.