| Summary: | 碩士 === 南臺科技大學 === 財經法律研究所 === 107 === In 1993, Teng, Ju-Wen's case shocked the whole country, bringing national-wide atten-tion to the issue of domestic violence and its impact, which later resulted in the creation of the Domestic Violence Prevention Act (the Act). The Act in Taiwan was the first law in civilian law established to prevent domestic violence, constructing a social safety net for victims by adopting advanced civil protection order system as well as Batterers In-tervention System implemented in the US and Europe. The latter was established for offenders, consisting of cognitive education, counseling, psychological therapy, addic-tion treatment, and others to reduce offenders' general risk of reoffending.
Chao,Yen-Ping's case in 2006 indicated that Taiwan should seek to further improve the Act, expanding protection range and increasing effectiveness. Despite multiple reforms in recent years, and several attempts from activists pressing to change the law, domestic abuse offences continue to increase. The judicial system, police service, social welfare organization and medical institution standards in response to family violence remain inconsistent and lack of integration, failing to provide prompt protection for victims of domestic abuse in the first place.
According to a Ministry of Health and Welfare statistics, domestic violence has in-creased by thousands each year since 2012, as the end of 2017, the number of domestic violence offences cases reached 118,586. From January to June 2018, there were 59,100 domestic abuse offences recorded by the police. Combined with numbers off the record, it is estimated there would be more than 150,000 domestic abuse offence cases at the end of 2018. In the wake of high profile cases of domestic violence and abuse, there are still many aspects of Domestic Violence Prevention Act should be improved.
On the other hand, the increase in the number of reported cases not only indicates that the society's awareness on offences of domestic violence has increased, but also shows that the victims' trust on formal institutions and are willing to turn to the government for help. This paper examines how the Domestic Violence Prevention Act can be improved in order to provide full-range protections for victims' human rights recognized in the Constitution, including personal safety, property and freedom. In addition to a govern-ment of people, by the people and for the people, Taiwan, as a democratic country, should be a country that makes all citizens free of fear.
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