Violence against Women: A Study on Cases Filed and Disengagement

Abstract

The prevalence of violence against women is observed in the recent years yet there has been a low rate of prosecution and conviction of perpetrators in because of attrition and disengagement after filing the case taking into consideration that the victim's participation and cooperation are essential in the administration of justice. With these, the study aims to determine the difference in the proportion of cases and understand the reasons for victim disengagement through the use of a quantitative study specifically the triangulation method. Findings suggest that there is a significant difference in the proportion of cases handled by the police and prosecutors level which was computed using the z-test which implies that not all reported cases achieve a successful prosecution. The study also used a t-test: Two-Sample Assuming Unequal Variance wherein the results show that there is no significant difference in the weighted mean of the respondents which denotes that similar reasons are encountered may it be on the police or prosecutors level. Concerning reasons for victim disengagement, the respondents encounters family intervention, reconciliation, childrelated reasons and lack of financial support that halters the processing of violence against women cases. To sum it up, the difference in the proportion of cases and the reasons for victim disengagement boils down to the high valuation of the family that often leads to overreliance on the mediation process resulting in repeated victimization and non pursuing of cases.

Keywords: Violence, Victimization, Victim disengagement, prosecution, attrition, mediation, reconciliation, intervention, investigation