La violence familiale est un problème universel, qui commence à prendre une ampleur importante au Maroc. Quoi qu’il existe depuis longtemps, on ignore les caractéristiques réelles de ce fléau dans notre pays. Notre travail a consisté en une approche épidémiologique de la violence intrafamiliale à Marrakech au cours de l’année 2006. Après avoir élaboré un questionnaire qui permet l’étude du profil socio-démographique des familles, l’étude de la violence exercée dans la famille et l’évaluation de la dépression chez les femmes, nous avons mené une enquête auprès de 265 femmes. L’analyse des résultats obtenus permet de dégager les caractéristiques suivantes : 16,6 % des femmes de notre échantillon ont été victimes de violence physique ; l’âge jeune est un facteur de risque, la tranche d’âge la plus touchée par la violence (39 %) est celle des femmes âgées entre 30 et 40ans ; la violence touche toutes les classes sociales, économiques et culturelles ; l’alcoolisme est un facteur aggravant de la violence familiale, en effet 27,3 % des conjoints qui ont agressé leurs femmes étaient en état d’ivresse ; l’association de la dépression et la violence était très importante, 34,3 % des femmes battues de notre étude avaient une dépression sévère. Un plan d’intervention urgent s’impose pour limiter l’extension de ce fléau et ses conséquences.

Family violence is a serious public health problem, the scale of which is seriously increasing in Morocco. Although it has existed for a long time, we ignore the real characteristics of this plague in our country; our work consisted in an epidemiological approach of family violence in Marrakech during 2006.

After elaborating a questionnaire, which allows the study of the demographic and social profile of the families, the study of violence exercised in the family and the evaluation of the depression in the women, we led an inquiry amongst 265 women.

Analysis of the results obtained has allowed us to underline the following characteristics: 16.6% of the women in our sample had been physically beaten; the young age is a risk factor; the age range most affected by violence is in women between the ages of 30 and 40 and which represent 39% of the battered women; domestic violence touches all the social, economic and cultural classes: in our study, 63% of the women having undergone violence were housewives, 25% were managers and 3% senior executives; family problems were the most important cause of violence in our study, representing 32.32%. Requests for money was the cause in 11.3% of the cases, and imposed sexual relations were found in 6.8% of the cases; alcoholism is an aggravating factor of family violence; 27.3% of the spouses who assaulted their wives were drunk; 52% of the assaulted women were victims of violence in childhood and 36% had been witness to their father's violence; in 63.6% of the cases of violence, the children were witnesses, and in 25% of the cases the children were victims of violence at the same time as their mothers; 50% of the women victims of violence did not react, while 38.6% left home, and 9.1 filed for divorce. Thirty-two percent of the assaulted woman had been traumatised by the aggression; the association of depression and violence was very high, 343% of the battered women in our study suffered from severe depression.

This work underlines the necessity of an urgent intervention in order to limit the extension of this plague and its consequences.