Domestic violence is on the rise with Dubai police receiving 102 complaints in 2010 as compared to 70 in 2009, an increase of 45.7%.
The Indicator of reports of domestic violence vary between assault and verbal abuse with the victims, being mostly women and children, Arabic daily Emarat Al Youm reported.
“The Dubai police departments received 102 tip-offs from people who have been exposed to violence within the family, both spouses or siblings or parents,” said Lt Colonel Jamal Salem Al Jallaf, Deputy Director General of Criminal Investigations (DCI) for Management Affairs at the Dubai Police.
He said most of the problems were resolved amicably by the specialised departments in DCI in order to maintain family ties, and avoid the escalation of the dispute in the family.
Cases of physical abuse that leaves a mark or effect in the body of the victim were referred to the competent judicial authorities to deal with, he said.
“The Dubai Police Commander in Chief, Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim issued a decision to train 27 female criminal investigators to deal with the phenomenon of domestic violence, by subjecting them to intensive training courses at the Police Academy on how to deal with this kind of situations,” Al Jallaf said.
“Most of the reports recorded were from families of Arab or Asian, and rarely among Europeans,” he said.
Most victims of domestic violence were women, although there were reports registered against women,” said Al Jallaf.
“For instance a man reported that his wife hit him on his head which led to injuries while another accused his wife of damaging his car after she was found out that he was involved in a relationship with another woman,” he said.
“Dubai Police is giving the child abuse cases priority because they are the weakest category and are inable to protect themselves,” Al Jallaf said.
He said Dubai Police sometimes receive reports from schools about the presence of children who have been subjected to abuse, because the school concerned were unable to deal with such issues.
“Dubai Police investigated such cases and in case the child was assaulted by one of the parents or relatives, we summon them immediately and deal with them strictly,” said Al Jallaf.
“In one such case, a child from an Asian country was abused by his father, who was under the influence of alcohol. The mother feared reporting the matter, but friends of the family noticed the impact it had on the child and informed the police,” he said.
“We called the father who denied it at first but after that admitted and pledged not to repeat such behavior,” he said.
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