Recent study suggests a need for policy efforts to create equal family relationships and culture. (image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, March 27 (Korea Bizwire) — When couples discuss finances together, they are less likely to resort to domestic violence compared to situations where one spouse takes charge.
The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family released a report Thursday titled “2019 Survey on Domestic Violence” based on a survey of 9,060 people, including 6,002 women and 3,058 men aged 19 or older.
The results showed that if a male spouse leads the management of household finances, 11.47 percent of female spouses experienced domestic violence.
On the other hand, when female spouses handled the household ledger, 8.6 percent suffered from domestic violence.
Meanwhile, the rate was the lowest at 7.6 percent when the couple shared the burden of keeping the household ledger.
The stats for men were similar to those reported for women.
When the female spouse led the management of household finances, 10.1 percent experienced domestic violence, but when the male spouse handled the household ledger, 7.6 percent suffered from domestic violence.
The rate of domestic violence was 4.5 percent when a couple shared the burden.
Even when domestic violence was broken down to physical, sexual, economic and emotional violence, the rate of damage was mostly low in cases in which couples worked together to manage their finances.
Kim Jung-hye of the Korean Women’s Development Institute, one of the lead researchers, said, “You can say that there is less violence in equal relations. It suggests a need for policy efforts to create equal family relationships and culture.”
The proportion of women who suffered violence from their spouses in the past year amount to 10.3 percent, down 1.8 percentage points from 12.1 percent in the same survey in 2016.
Some 6.2 percent of men also suffered violence from their spouses, down 2.4 percentage points from 8.6 percent in 2016.
As for the reason why they used violence against their spouse, 63.6 percent of female and 63.9 percent of male respondents cited “when one is ignored or not heard.”
Of those who experienced violence, 45.6 percent, specifically 48.3 percent of women and 40.7 percent of men, said they had never responded to the violence, while 12.5 percent said they “tried to avoid the situation or left home.”
On the contrary, only 43.1 percent of the respondents, specifically 42.8 percent of women and 43.6 percent of men said they confronted their spouse, and only 1 percent “asked for help from others.”
The data also showed that 85.7 percent of those who experienced domestic violence had never asked for help from police or domestic violence counseling centers.
D. M. Park (dmpark@koreabizwire.com)
