In 2004, a woman and her twin daughters in Tin Shui Wai were stabbed to death by her husband, who then committed suicide. In November 2009, a court report in the South China Morning Post related how a wife was punched 10 times for refusing to have sex.
The first case so horrified the public that they demanded strengthening of a 1986 ordinance on domestic violence. The second is nothing unusual in a city where battery of domestic partners is on the rise. According to the Social Welfare Department, 3,174 new battered spouse cases were registered last year.
The situation won't improve unless domestic violence is treated as a crime and the abuser given a clear message that violence will land you in court, says Edward Chan Ko-ling, an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong who has studied and counselled on family violence for the past 10 years.
Along with others, he recently contributed to a book on the type of domestic violence committed in Hong Kong and how it can be alleviated. Titled Preventing Family Violence - A Multidisciplinary Approach (Hong Kong University Press), it includes cases of violence against elderly relatives, children, spouses and other partners.
For years, Chan concentrated primarily on spousal abuse, but having two children of his own made him also reflect on the disturbing prospect of violence committed against youngsters. In more than one-third of families in which violence occurs, there is child abuse along with spousal abuse, he says.
Factors such as the economy can contribute to abuse. Fallout from the 2008 economic crisis continues to reverberate in some families, Chan says.