Diary
AMMAN (Petra) - The Amman Chamber of Commerce (ACC) has recently signed an agreement with the Euro-Mediterranean Association for Cooperation and Development (EMA) to strengthen cooperation in the fields of trade and investment between Jordan and Germany. Signed by ACC Chairman Riad Saifi and EMA’s President Horst Siedentopf on the sidelines of the Hamburg Logistics Forum, the agreement seeks to enhance business cooperation through exchanging ex....
The General Assembly held the Annual General meeting for the Arab Orphan Committee by the president of the Executive Committee Tayseer Kna'an. The partcipants discussed the activities of the Assembly in Jordan and Palestine and the most important development projects
The Committee of Training Courses and Continuing Education at Bar Association held a seminar about the environmental legislation between the legal concepts and practical application, it was attended by a large number of lawyers and those who are interested in the environmental field.
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Reports & Studies
Study focuses on profiles of families with domestic violence cases
AMMAN - Hana Namrouqa - The National Council for Family Affairs (NCFA) is currently conducting a survey to check profiles of families with domestic violence cases in a bid to draw up plans to curb the practice, officials said on Saturday.
The study aims at determining the social, demographic and economic characteristics of perpetrators and victims of domestic violence, and identifying the main reasons behind the practice in Jordan, NCFA Secretary General Haifa Abu Ghazaleh said yesterday.
She noted that all studies tackling family violence in Jordan addressed the issue by numbering the cases and focusing only on victims, particularly women, while disregarding other family members.
"Domestic violence mostly affects women and children. Studies measuring the social and economic effects of domestic violence on families are rare," Abu Ghazaleh told The Jordan Times.
World Health Organisation studies indicate that violence against women costs countries across the world 4 per cent of their gross domestic product, while other studies reveal that children subject to violence, or who witness violence between their parents, are traumatised and are more likely to exhibit violent behaviour in the future, she noted.
The study also seeks to find out whether domestic violence is linked to low- or middle-income families, or whether it also happens among well-off families, Abu Ghazaleh said, adding that it will also identify areas witnessing high numbers of domestic violence cases.
"The results will help policy makers and concerned ministries allocate budgets and direct programmes and campaigns to areas where family violence is high in order to raise awareness and work on addressing the issue," she underscored.
Official figures indicate that the Family Protection Directorate handled 3,190 cases of child abuse in 2008, compared to around 2,500 in 2007, while the National Institute of Forensic Medicine dealt with 600 battered women in 2008.
Meanwhile, around 400-500 child abuse cases are registered annually in the Kingdom, with less than 1 per cent of actual cases reported to the Family Protection Department by health staff in Amman.
Local studies indicate that married women are the most susceptible to domestic violence, constituting 80 per cent of victims, while 80 per cent of reported family violence cases in the Kingdom were perpetrated by a family member, with 45 per cent committed by the husband, 23 per cent by the father and 16 per cent by the brother.
Sociologists attribute the rise in the number of domestic violence cases to social and economic pressures amongst families, in addition to an increase in public awareness on the need to report these cases.