Prague - It hurts, it paralyses and it kills people. It affects families and communities. We are talking about domestic violence.
The Intervention Center in Prague yesterday forced a woman to move out of her home, as she has been abusing her husband and daughter. Allegedly, she even threatened to kill them both.
"Most of the time we have to get men out of the apartments but this time it was a woman who had to go," said Prague City Council official Jiří Janeček.
His words are proven by the 2007 statistics, which has been gathered and processed by a civic organization called Bílý kruh bezpečí (White Circle of Safety).
The statistical data show that in 2007 police officers evicted 862 violent men from their homes, while it was only 8 female abusers that had to leave their families.
In other words, there were 858 cases when women faced domestic violence perpetrators and only 34 men who were abused by their women.
Alcohol and family abuse
The mother of this family was forced out by Prague's police, as she threatened her husband and daughter to "physically liquidate them". She even hit the daughter's head with her fist.
The mother's excessive behavior escalated as her alcohol addiction was getting worse. "She even threatened to hire people to get them both killed," said Jiří Janeček.
The woman was charged in past for a similar perpetration.
Three men, one woman
In the first two months of this year the Intervention Center has dealt with only two cases of domestic violence, which ended with evicting the perpetrator.
Besides the woman who threatened to kill her husband and daughter, there were three male abusers who were evicted from their homes for physical and verbal abuse of their wives.
"In two of these cases there were children present and involved in the domestic violence," said Janeček.
In one of the cases it was alcohol that played a role, while in two of the other cases the men were drug abusers.
In 2007, 941 children were present during police intervention that was preceded by violent behavior of one of the partners.
The Intervention Center was founded in 2007 and has branches in all the regions of the country. Backed up by law, they help all persons who are exposed to domestic violence.
