An eye for an eye

Zurich. Suddenly she lunged at him. He fell to the ground, sustaining injuries and back pain that never went away. 40-year-old JW* was completely bewildered. He had only married the 32-year-old Tunisian woman a few months earlier. He had dreamed of paradise – and experienced hell. Threats, insults, beatings. Eventually, he mustered all his courage and filed a police report.  

The woman was sentenced to a fine of 150 francs. Two months later, the verdict was overturned. The reason: a man needed additional evidence besides injuries. Today, the taxi driver is a broken man.

JW's case is not an isolated incident. The number of women who hit men or women has risen sharply in recent years. This is evidenced by crime statistics from various cantons in the area of ​​"domestic violence," which are available to the SonntagsZeitung, broken down by the perpetrator's gender.

In the cantons of Zurich and St. Gallen, the number of legal proceedings initiated against women has almost tripled within four years. While women are still victims of domestic violence in 80 percent of cases, the trend for female perpetrators is clearly rising, while the number of male perpetrators has been declining, particularly in recent years, in both cantons.

Legal experts are baffled, but not the police: the closer they look, the higher the number of female perpetrators. For Fabrizio Ruscelli, instructor at the Eastern Switzerland Police Academy and head of the "Domestic Violence" unit of the St. Gallen Cantonal Police, the increase is a result of more sensitive police work.

“For a long time, men had no chance to make themselves heard because the police didn’t consider the possibility that a man might be beaten by a woman and need police help,” says Ruscelli. It’s a vicious cycle: if a man defends himself, he gets reported. If he wants to file a report, he’s told he could have defended himself.

The St. Gallen cantonal police question both parties and, if necessary, third parties. "It's not enough for us to just hear who says what. We do everything we can to get the most objective picture of the situation possible," says Ruscelli. Police forces in Zurich have also been sensitized and trained.

“Women used to simply take it in stride. Nowadays, they are increasingly aware of their rights – or they sometimes fight back,” says Ariane Rufino, former coordinator of intervention centers against domestic violence and co-head of the intervention center in Basel, which also recorded more cases of violent women.

Andrea Wechlin, co-director of the women's shelter in Lucerne, offers a different explanation for the differing trends among women and men: Increased awareness among the authorities has also made perpetrators more cautious. This is evident in the daily work at the shelter. "Some men know exactly how far they can go with the abuse before it just barely falls short of being reported."

* Name of the editorial staff known

VeV comment 

This article highlights facts that have long been clear to those affected. Domestic violence is and always has been a human problem, not a male one.

There are people who perpetrate violence, both men and women. 

But in our society there is one group that clearly claims victim status for itself, and that is women.

Men are regularly denied this status.

It is time that male victims are also recognized as such and protected from further acts of violence.

Therefore, the VeV demands equal rights for men in this respect and requires that, in addition to the approximately 26 women's shelters in Switzerland, a men's shelter finally be built as well.

The comment from the women's shelter director in Lucerne at the end of the article, by the way, shows the level at which this topic is now being discussed. It's incredibly low, reaching a point where, in an article about victims, they are ultimately portrayed as perpetrators. Simply unbelievable!