The number of domestic violence cases recorded by the Belize Police Department during the months of April to June dipped by eight percent this year when compared to the same period in 2023. On the face of it, this may seem like good news, but it is not necessarily so. There are several reasons why the number of reported cases has dwindled, including the fact that the problem is a cyclical one. There are shelters for domestic violence victims in every district except two, and currently, there are several victims in each of these districts who are receiving assistance in one way or another from various departments and agencies that deal with domestic violence cases. News Five’s Marion Ali looks at the numbers and the services that are offered to victims of domestic violence.
Marion Ali, Reporting
In 2023, the Belize Police Department recorded four hundred and ninety-nine cases of domestic violence between the months of April and June. This year, during the same period, the department recorded three hundred and ninety-six cases. That represents an eight percent dip in the number of cases recorded.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“I’m not going to celebrate the decline in domestic violence cases because there are many women and children out there who have been violated every day and they are not coming forward because they fear the perpetrator or in some cases the perpetrator is the breadwinner. And so these women suffer in silence. So it is not an indication to say that it is done because the truth is we do have a number of domestic violence cases every day. It’s just that many times the women do not want to go beyond telling the police in some cases because they know we’re going to arrest. They don’t even want to give a statement.”
Starla Bradley, Director, Women and Family Support Department
“We do have families that we are supporting in this regard, I would say in each district. We do have several and It’s hard though because it’s sometimes for them to get to this point where they actually leave and stick to the program, it’s not usually the first time. They would have tried to leave on several occasions or maybe exhausted other options before coming to us.”
The Women and Family Support Department is not the entity that runs the shelters. They are the responsibility of community-based organizations; however, the department assists victims in accessing safe spaces for up to twenty-one days. Thereafter, the department provides food and rent allowance to restart their lives.
“Once someone needs to access that emergency service, we are the ones, it’s through this department, that we work with those agencies to place them in the shelter for safety reasons. Shelters have rules as well. It’s difficult because once you’re in the shelter, you cannot leave for a period of time.”
Marion Ali
“They can’t work?”
“Some persons work and that’s a challenge, right, so we generally have to work with clients to see if they have family members. Sometimes we’re able to secure housing for them and we provide support in that regard, food assistance, rent assistance. We work with legal aid where we can for legal services.”
Minister of Human Development, Dolores Balderamos-Garcia is of the view that incidences of domestic violence continue to occur, despite a decrease in reports. Domestic violence comes in all different forms and there must be a strong message of zero tolerance to perpetrators.
Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, Minister of Human Development
“There has to be an encouragement not to remain silent. If you know your neighbor, if you know your sister, your brother, your auntie, your somebody and I’ll tell you, from way back, I can remember I gave a speech at the Y.W.C.A., and there was actually this man who was suffering, very bad domestic violence from his partner because his partner was very aggressive. She used to tell him all kinds of things, verbal abuse. There can be the issue of what we call gaslighting. We know the term, you try to tell somebody, this is what you are, and you’re good for damn nothing and that kind of thing. And you can actually gaslight somebody. And all of that. Has to do with domestic violence.”
The minister explained that Belize’s laws now include an occupation order and a tenancy order that hold domestic violence perpetrators responsible for their role in the home, even when they have been ordered to leave the home setting.
“An occupation order is that the court can actually, the magistrate court or the family court, can actually tell a partner who has been abusive, come out of the house, in other words. You tell the person you can’t be under the same roof even if they own the house and even if they own the house and is the breadwinner and that’s why you that’s why you have what is called. I don’t know how much it actually happens, but the provision is there in the law. No, that is why you also have what is called a tenancy order because the person might come out of the house and say all right, I know a pay no more rent. You put me out at the house, the court can actually tell the breadwinner, continue paying the rent. So that is in their absence in yes, even in their absence. And it really, I believe, would only be used in extreme circumstances but the law does make a provision for it.”
Balderamos-Garcia says that while the definition of the section of the domestic violence legislation says that partners in a domestic union must be a man and a woman, the actual section of the law says whoever you occupy a home with. This is a matter for the court to interpret where domestic violence occurs in same sex unions. Marion Ali for News Five.
