Lima: 21% of women experience daily domestic violence

A study carried out by Peru’s National Mental Health Institute has revealed some disturbing statistics about domestic violence in the nation.

According to Andina news agency, 21% of women in Lima are exposed to “systematic violence,” which means that they experience violence on the part of their partners on a daily basis.

The study investigated rates of domestic violence across the country, and discovered that women in Lima experience more daily violence than women in any other region, reports Andina. Furthermore, data from the study also revealed that 46.9% of women in Lima have experienced domestic violence at some point in their life. The numbers from other regions are indeed lower, but still worryingly elevated: 42.7% of women in Ayacucho, 36.7% in Puerto Maldonado, and 35.8% of women in Puno have been victims of domestic abuse in their lifetimes.

Humberto Castillo Martell, the director of the National Mental Health Institute, told Andina that “Violence isn’t just manifested through abuse, or sexual or physical aggression, but also through psychological abuse that attacks the psychic and emotional identity of someone, which created low self-esteem, fear, dependence on the abusive partner, anxiety, depression, as well as physical consequences and death in some cases.”

Castillo Martell also cited changing society dynamics as possible reasons for the high rates of abuse in Peru. Andina writes that, as women become more educationally and economically independent, some abusers feel the need to re-assert their power on women through physical abuse.

References

Chase, R. (2013). Lima: 21% of women experience daily domestic violence. Peru This Week. Retrieved from http://www.peruthisweek.com/news-lima-21-of-women-experience-daily-domestic-violence-101019

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