Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Domestic violence in the Dominican Republic


Last year 66,000 women were murdered in the world. Significantly less women than men, but nonetheless a high figure, and this little Caribbean island unfortunately is one of the places where femicide is much higher than it should be, ranking at 24 in the world. Interesting Latin America, South Africa, and Russia and surrounding countries all feature highly.





Many of the femicides here, well over 50%, are due to domestic violence, and domestic violence was amazingly not a crime here until 1997 – hard to believe that before then men could beat their wives as often as they wanted without fear of legal reprisals. According to Oxfam data, nearly a quarter of all women between the ages of 14 and 49 have suffered abuse, and according to the women in my barrio, it is more like 90% here.


The numbers of women killed have been slowly rising in the Dominican Republic from 190 in 2005, to 230 last year, and in the first five months of this year there have been 80 deaths, with 10 in 6 days a couple of weeks ago. To put it another way, every 36 hours a woman is murdered in the DR.


The majority of the women killed, and their murderers, are Dominican, but every year expat women are killed too, usually by Dominican men. Last year a German, Venezuelan, Italian, Canadian and Swiss woman were murdered.

Most murders of women happen in the large conurbations, which one would expect given that that is where the most people live, with Santo Domingo taking top spot. It is followed by Santiago, the second biggest city, and then San Cristobal, San Pedro de Macoris and then La Altagracia.
The big question is why is femicide and specfically men murdering their wives, partners, lovers, ex partners, so prevalent?

The main reason appears to be jealousy.  Dominican men are known as being macho. Their machismo reflects in all aspects of male behaviour but importantly they view themselves as conquerers of women and women are often expected to play a submissive role in the household. In addition extramarital affairs are extremely common as men feel it is their right, and in some cases their duty as men, to seek the companionship of other women. But women of course don’t have this same right.

Many of the reasons for murder have been that the woman refused reconciliation, or she had another man, or she didn’t want the man who killed or, or he thought she had another man.
Often the machismo plays out in a different way as the woman may be younger than the man, and she may be brighter, be studying at university or have a better job, and the man will feel emasculated and jealous of her success.

This body is mine. Don't touch it, don't rape it, don't kill it.
There can be no doubt that many of the murders are fuelled by alcohol and economic problems. If the family are hungry and the woman fights with the man because he has not provided enough money to feed them, or is keeping another woman, then that can escalate. In my experience many Dominicans, especially the poorer ones, have not had the education to be able to discuss issues within a relationship in a mature and calm manner. So any discussion quickly dissolves into a full on screaming and physical battle from both sides. In those cases where the woman is killed and the man then commits suicide, which also happens frequently, I am sure it was often an argument which ran way out of control, and often started by the woman.

Most of the murders are carried out by shooting – yet another reason to limit gun ownership, followed by stabbing. This being the DR, Google searches on domestic violence bring up horrendous pictures of women having been murdered with kitchen knives sticking out of their backs. I have spared you this.

The other, in my mind incredible, reason for the abuse, especially in the campos, is that the women have said to me that they would be concerned if their husband did not hit them, as by hitting them he is showing her that he loves her, as if he didn't care if she looked at another man then it meant he did not love her.




Do not think, however, that the country is doing nothing about this. There are marches in the street, and all over the country women are saying No More. Just this last week the Ministry for Women (yes there is one) has launched a hotline for women to call if they are being abused. It has been found that those who have been killed have usually been abused before so it is better to nip it in the bud if that is possible.


Hopefully there will be a reduction in the figures, but there needs to be a fundamental change in the attitude and behaviour of some men towards women here, which I don’t think will happen overnight.

17 comments:

  1. En 1997 se creo el codigo intrafamiliar para los conflictos de violencia dentro de la familia, pero eso no signigica que si matabas a tu mujer no ibas preso, de hecho es un crimen por el cual tenias que pagar 30 anios de carcel por lo que no pagabas carcer era si tenias alguna pelea con tu pareja pero si la matabas era un crimen penalizado por las leyes dominicana, pero si abofeteabas a tu mujer o ella a ti no existia legislacion para eso

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  2. De hecho si la mujer demonstraba en el tribunal que habia sido agredidad habia prision para el hombre lo unico que no tenia el nombre de violencia intrafamiliar.
    nota: respuesta consultada con una abogada que vive en mi casa

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    1. If I understand this correctly, the lawyer in your house is saying that if a woman showed the court that the man was aggressive towards her, then he would have gone to prison anyway, although it was not called domestic violence. But, I assume that not many women actually went to court against their husbands?

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  3. Yes you are right Miguel. Up until 1997 there was no law for domestic violence, but if you killed a woman you did go to jail, with the maximum sentence of 30 years. Now,however, you can be arrested and sent to jail for hitting a women as well. Which I think is a good thing.

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  4. If a woman showed the court that the man was aggressive towards her, then he would have gone to prison anyway, although it was not called domestic violence?
    exactamente, iba derecho para la carcel

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    1. Miguel is right! Law 2497 was passed in 1997 but it doesn't mean that before that a man could just hit his wife as often as he wanted without any fear of the law. Before that, if you were battered you could still go to a Medico legista and he could issue a certificate about your bruises and injuries and you could stil go to the police and get him arrested.

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    2. I wonder how many women do this though, but thanks for clarifying it.

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  5. Por supuesto, el texto da la impresion de que viviamos en un estado primitivo como iran irak o afganistan, pero el codigo penal dominicano es viejo, de la era de trujillo

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    1. I take your point Miguel, but the figures for Domestic Violence are worse in the DR than Afghanistan or Iraq. The women here have good jobs - vice president, lawyers, politicians, senior industry positions, but the violence in the home is a serious issue.

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  6. Glad something is being done about it. Shocking figures!

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  7. El caso de violencia intrafamiliar aqui es serio muy serio no tengo dudas de eso, pero tambien es cierto que esta violencia no es apoyada por la sociedad, en cambio en afganistan si y en irak donde los mismos imanes o lideres religiosos instan a los seguidores a golpear a las mujeres e incluso si son adulteras las pueden matar a pedradas aqui no, la mayoria de las veces cuando el hombre mata a su mujer incluso se mata el, o sea no queria hacerlo o lo hace por el castigo que recibira de la sociedad lo cual te dice que como sociedad es algo mal visto lo que no ocurre en paises como irak y afganistan donde la mujer es muy mal tratada, no tiene derecho ni a casarse con el hombre que ella quiera, si la violan se tienen que casar con el hombre que la violo lo sabian?

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    1. Yes you are right Miguel that in Iraq and Afghanistan for example there are different laws regarding the treatment of women, under Muslem law, and the Dominican Republic as I said before does respect women and their rights. But for a country of this size to be ranked so highly in the world for Domestic Violence does give cause for concern. And yes sometimes the man who murders his partner kills himself afterwards - yesterday an 18 year old boy killed his 13 year old partner and then himself. The country should do all it can to stop these tragedies happening.

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  8. Are these figures per capita. Because it doesn't make sense to just count instances of domestic violence without regards for the size of the population. The size of the country is inmaterial, statistically speaking.

    For the record, I come from a small town. I know two cases of feminicides, neither was a case of an argument gone awry. In both cases both husbands premeditated it. One committed suicide after kidnapping his wife from the street and killing her. The other served a couple of decades in prison. In one case they were divorced and the woman had moved on, in the other they were still living together. Both men were pathologically possessive and jealous. Both had a history of abusing their partners.

    A man doesn't go from normal to full blown homicidal maniac in 60 seconds. At least those are rare instances.

    Sorry, I had to remove a stupid typo that was bugging me. :)

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  9. Yes they are per capita and one of the sources I used was this http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/H-Research_Notes/SAS-Research-Note-14.pdf

    I am sure that most are pathologically jealous and possessive men, although many of the women in my barrio have said the women also are violent.

    Whatever the reasons, it is still far too prevalent here.

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  10. Oh, trust me, I know there are violent women. There was a notable case in my town where a man was being abused by his wife for decades. He never went to the authorities (the reasons are obvious, although stupid nonetheless), but the whole town knew about it. It went on until he died of unrelated causes.

    My comment about the irrelevancy of the size of the country was in response to this part of your comment: "But for a country of this size". I know, I know, I cannot leave a nit unpicked. :)

    I disagree that in many cases the woman starts the argument. If you read the news there seem to be a thread that bind most victims: they left, or were trying to. Of course, we need statistics, but the small sample of what we see in the news suggest that these men are simply unhinged, and that the "provocation" is most often than not in their diseased minds.

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