The number of victims of domestic violence helped by the Portuguese Victim Support Association has continually increased over the last three years, with more than 31 thousand people supported since 2021 and almost 65 thousand registered crimes.
According to the most recent data from the Portuguese Victim Support Association (APAV), released today, the association helped 31.117 victims of domestic violence between 2021 and 2023, which represents an increase of 22,9% over these three years, taking into account that in 2021 there were 9.275 people, which then increased to 10.442 the following year and reached 11.400 in 2023.
“Between 2021 and 2023, the majority of victims of the crime of domestic violence who were supported by APAV were targets of continued victimization (16.953; 54,5%)”, says the association.
In total, APAV recorded 64.899 domestic violence crimes in this period of time, at the same time that it identified 31.251 perpetrators of the crimes, a number that represents an increase of 22,5% in the evolution between 2021, with 9.336 aggressors, and 2023, with registration of 11.443 people.
“Between 2021 and 2023, the majority of perpetrators of the crime of domestic violence that came to the attention of APAV were the victim’s spouse (6.461; 20,7%)”, says the association, which also draws attention “to the perpetrators of crime of domestic violence who are partners (4.043; 12,9%) and ex-partners (3.587; 11,5%) of the victims”.
It also highlights the cases in which “the perpetrators of the crime of domestic violence are parents of the victims (3.452; 11%)” or “they are children of the victims (2.126; 6,8%)”.
On the other hand, the finding continues to be that “the majority of perpetrators of the crime of domestic violence” are men (21.498; 68,8%), and there are also 11,7% of cases in which the perpetrator of the crime is a woman and represented 3.647 cases.
“The majority of perpetrators of domestic violence crimes that came to the attention of APAV were between 36 and 45 years of age (4.110; 13,2%)”, states the association.
Regarding victims, data from APAV shows that in these three years they were mainly women (25.240; 81,1%), which represents an increase of 19,7%, highlighting that between 2021 and 2023 there was an increase of 47% in relation to cases of male victims of domestic violence supported by the association, which exceeded 5.300.
“The majority of victims of the crime of domestic violence who were supported by APAV were between 36 and 45 years of age (5.515; 17,7%)”, says the association, also highlighting “the number of children and young people who are victims of violence supported (4.962; 15,9%) as well as the number of elderly people who were victims of the same crime who were supported (3.436; 11%)”.
Among the almost 17 thousand people who were targets of continued victimization, 4.895 were in this situation between the ages of two and six, with 294 cases recorded who lived for more than 40 years in a situation of domestic violence.
Half of the victims supported by APAV filed a complaint with judicial or judicial entities, but 11.007 people (35,4%) chose not to file a complaint or make a report.
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