Public perception, reporting, and reasons for not reporting of spousal abuse in Hong Kong

Abstract

This research seeks to examine the common perception of Hong Kong residents on domestic violence against spouses; their attitude and/or tendency of reporting spousal abuse and the common reasons for not reporting. As human service agents may often provide service to people involved in spousal abuse, it is important to survey what their perception and tendency of reporting on spousal abuse. This research would, therefore, also compare the survey findings between four different groups of people namely legal professionals, law enforcement practitioners, social workers and the rest of the general public. The common perception of people on spousal abuse may be influenced by their cultural beliefs, social norm, social support and attitude of victim-blaming. There were 163 Hong Kong residents who participated in this research and the survey result showed that people tend to be able to identify physical and sexual abuses as spousal abuse but not psychiatric abuses, verbal abuses and abuses with less force. There was a relationship between perception and tendency of reporting of spousal abuse but the common reasons for not reporting were found not to be in relation to traditional Chinese cultural beliefs and attitude of victim-blaming. The findings also revealed that there were not much difference between the four groups of participants and this indicates that people who have legal education and/or professional training on handling spousal abuse cases do not have much impact on their perception and attitude of reporting spousal abuses. The common perception of Hong Kong people on spousal abuse and their passive tendency on reporting of the same were found likely to have been influenced by their social norm and the insufficiency of social support on tackling spousal abuse. More and better social support to victims of spousal abuses, more education and training be provided to human service agents as well as a mandatory reporting law are therefore suggested.