Saudi courts registered a total of 472 cases of family violence last year including psychological or physical/corporal abuse. The victims were mainly children or spouses, local media said quoting sources at a local human rights body.

There were some 112 cases of child abuse or 23.7 percent of the total cases in the same year, a newspaper said, quoting sources at the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR).

At 274 cases, corporal or physical violence topped the list, followed by denial of marriage (22), denial of education (20), mothers denied visit by children (10), sexual harassment (9), runaway girls (7), denial of salaries (in family rift) (5), violence related to addiction (5), extrusion (defaming) of women (4), sheltering request (3), denial of work (1), and 67 miscellaneous cases. The Riyadh region was responsible for the highest rates of violence at 117 cases, followed by Madinah at 50, Jazan (40), Dammam (36), Makkah (34), Jeddah (29) and Jouf with only one case.