Women are far more likely to be victims of violence in a relationship than men, recent police statistics continue to confirm.

Last year, police charged 9,858 people with crimes against their intimate partners, including murder, rape, battery and stalking. Women were victims in 9,682 of those cases.

Emotional and verbal abuse in a relationship often leads to violent crimes such as physical or sexual assault or even murder, police said, which is why seeking help early on is important.

Korea Women’s Hot Line’s analysis of crimes reported by the media shows at least one woman was killed or nearly killed by her male partner every 1.8 days in 2019. The figure excludes crimes that were not covered by the media.

Police said they were working closely with the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family to raise awareness of and encourage the reporting of dating and domestic violence, which are common forms of violence against girls and women.

“Nearly 10,000 incidents of dating violence-related crimes occur each year, and women disproportionately represent as victims,” said an official at the National Police Agency’s criminal litigation division.

He added that the agency was embarking on a two-month-long crackdown of intimate partner violence from July 1-Aug. 30.

By Kim Arin (arin@heraldcorp.com)