Half of Domestic Violence Victims Take No Action... "Maybe It's My Fault Too"

Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Announces 2022 Domestic Violence Survey Results

More than half of those who suffered violence from their spouse or partner have never taken any specific action, according to a survey. Most showed signs of gaslighting (emotional abuse through repeated brainwashing), such as believing the violence was not severe or thinking they were at fault.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced the results of the "2022 Domestic Violence Survey" conducted on over 9,000 men and women aged 19 and older on the 5th. This survey is a statutory investigation conducted every three years since 2004 under the "Act on the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Protection of Victims."

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First, the proportion of people who experienced at least one type of physical, sexual, economic, or emotional violence from a spouse or partner (including non-marital cohabitation) in the past year was 7.6%, down 1.2 percentage points from the 2019 survey. The rate decreased from 6.6% to 5.8% for men and from 10.9% to 9.4% for women. Among such domestic violence cases, 24.2% involved children living together who were aware of the violence, which is relatively high.

By type of violence, among women, emotional violence was 6.6%, sexual violence 3.7%, physical violence 1.3%, and economic violence 0.7% (including multiple responses). Among men, emotional violence was 4.7%, physical violence 1.0%, sexual violence 0.8%, and economic violence 0.2%.

The timing of the first experience of violence was most commonly "after 5 years of marriage or cohabitation" for both men and women, at 57.3% and 37.4%, respectively. This was followed by "between 1 year and less than 5 years after marriage or cohabitation," accounting for 24.7% of men and 36.0% of women.

When asked about their response after experiencing violence, 53.3% answered that they had "never taken any specific action," an increase from 45.6% three years ago. Reasons for not taking action included "thinking the violence was not serious" (25.6%), "believing it was partly my fault" (14.2%), "because it was my spouse or partner" (14.0%), and "thinking I just needed to get through that moment" (12.9%).

Additionally, when asked about seeking help after experiencing violence, 93.2% responded that they had "never sought help externally." Among those who did seek help, the recipients were "family or relatives" (3.9%), "neighbors or friends" (3.3%), "Women’s Emergency Hotline 1366" (1.2%), "police" (0.8%), and "domestic violence counseling centers or shelters" (0.3%), indicating that requests to government offices or victim support agencies were not common. The reasons given were "thinking the violence was not serious" (36.9%), "just needing to get through that moment" (21.0%), and "believing it was a matter to be resolved between spouses or partners" (20.5%).

The proportion of those who experienced violence after separation, such as divorce, separation, or end of cohabitation, was also relatively high at 50.8%. This is nearly four times higher than the lifetime experience rate of violence among those currently married or cohabiting (14.3%). The percentage of respondents who reported direct stalking victimization after separation was 9.3%, slightly down from 20.1% in 2019.

Among respondents raising children under 18, 11.7% reported having committed violence against their children, a decrease from 27.6% in the 2019 survey. However, among those who experienced violence from a spouse or partner, 25.7% reported having committed violence against children, more than twice the 10.5% rate among those who did not experience such violence.

The proportion of respondents under 65 who reported having experienced violence from parents or siblings was 3.3%, slightly down from 4.7% in 2019. Conversely, the percentage reporting having experienced violence from children, sons-in-law, or daughters-in-law was 4.1%, an increase from 3.8% in 2019.

The perception that domestic violence is a private matter to be resolved personally has somewhat increased, indicating a need for improvement.

The response rate to "Domestic violence is not a personal issue to be resolved within the family" was 79.5%, down 2.0 percentage points from 81.5% in the 2019 survey.

Among all respondents, 95.5% agreed that "it is natural to report child abuse witnessed in the neighborhood," and 87.9% agreed that "it is appropriate to report witnessing violence between spouses."

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family plans to use these survey results as basic data for establishing policies on domestic violence prevention and victim protection and support. They will also increase awareness of victim support agencies through domestic violence and stalking prevention campaign promotions and expand existing housing support, such as rental housing for stalking victims, to include victims of dating violence.

Additionally, to protect children exposed to domestic violence, the ministry will strengthen cooperation with specialized child abuse agencies and develop additional support policies. They also plan to integrate and link statistics with similar survey items, such as the Women’s Violence Survey, to expand sample sizes and improve statistical quality.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.