1. Mapping Domestic Violence against
Women in Central Serbia
Belgrade, 2010

2. The most important objectives of the research
• To determine the prevalence of various forms of
domestic violence against women;
• To determine the characteristics of domestic violence
against women according to significant aspects;
• To identify key factors of domestic violence against
women;
• To examine the accessibility to social services as
means for support to victims of domestic violence.

3. Implementing organization - SeConS in
brief
• Independent think-tank, founded in 2005 in Belgrade by a
group of sociologists and social researchers.
• SeConS’ mission is to contribute to integrated and sustainable
development of Serbia and the Region.
• Organization’s good practices have spread in neighboring
countries, Montenegro and BiH.
• Areas of SeConS’ support are: social inclusion of vulnerable
groups, such as women, Roma, refugees and IDPs, people
experiencing poverty; regional and local sustainable
development; institutional and organizational reform and
development of the public sector; HR development;
evaluation of development programs and projects and
assessment of public policies at the national, regional and
local levels.

4. SeConS in brief (cont.)
Expertise of SeConS:
• Designing methodologies and conducting empirical research from
different fields in Serbia and the region
• Drafting comparative studies, analyzing policies, legislation and
providing recommendations for further improvement in Serbia and
the region
• Designing and conducting training and education programs for
individuals, institutions and organizations, to support their work in
social inclusion
• Empowering marginalized groups and individuals through
trainings, to improve information sharing and help them to become
more proactively involved in decision-making processes
• Advocating for social development, through representation of
interests of vulnerable groups and networking with relevant
stakeholders.

5. INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK

6. International framework
• The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action: domestic
violence against women is treated as one of most important
forms of violence against women
• CEDAW – Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women alongside the General
Recommendation no. 9: domestic violence is a form of
discrimination against women, therefore falling under CEDAW
• UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women
and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its
causes and effects
• Resolution 2003/45 – Elimination of violence against women

7. European Framework
• Declaration on the Policy of opposing violence
against women in a democratic Europe
• Action plan for the fight against violence against
women
• Declaration on equality between women and men as
a fundamental criterion of democracy
• Recommendation 1681 – Campaign to combat
domestic violence against women in Europe
• Expert Committee for preparing the European
Convention on preventing and combating all forms of
violence against women

8. National Framework (central level)
• Council for Gender Equality of the Republic of Serbia
• Gender Equality Directorate of the Ministry of Labour and
Social Policy of the Republic of Serbia – National Strategy for
advancement of the position of women and promotion of
gender equality (2009-2015) and National Action Plan for the
advancement of the position of women and promotion of
gender equality (2010-2015)
• Committee on Gender Equality of the National Assembly of
the Republic of Serbia
• Deputy of the Protector of Citizens/Ombudsman for gender
equality and rights of persons with disabilities
• Commissioner for the protection of equality

9. BASIC CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS

10. Definition of family and domestic violence against
women
• Violence – type of behaviour or relationship in which
coercion, intimidation, derogation, belittlement and control
(in the sense of freedom restriction) is used directly or
through threats in order to hurt the other person and to
oppress him/her psychologically physically, economically or
socially..
• Gender-based violence – forms of violence which are directed
against individuals or groups on the basis of their gender
identity, and that arises from normative expectations
connected with gender roles and unequal power relations
within the specific society (Bloom, 2008).
• Domestic violence – forms of violence committed within a
household, kinship or partner relations, regardless of whether
or not the persons are living together or not.

11. How to operationalize violence?
It has been decided to define violence through the
following dimensions:
• economic,
• physical,
• psychological and
• sexual violence.

12. Dimension and indicators of violence
Forms of Indicators
violence
Economic Limited access to money within the household and depriving money for personal needs
violence Taking away personal money
Discretional spending of the money by a household member resulting in the household being left
without enough money for everyday needs during a month
A ban to find employment
Psychological Verbal humiliation (disparaging, cursing, insulting) when alone or in the presence of others
violence Ignoring, denying attention and conversation for longer than an hour
Intimidating (threat to harm the woman or a person close to her)
Denying or limiting movement (going out, visiting others and alike)
Intentional destruction of the woman’s personal property
Physical Jolting and shaking woman’s shoulders
violence Pulling hair
Twisting arms
Hitting with a hand (slapping across the face, hitting with a fist)
Hitting with or throwing an object at the woman
Biting
Squeezing woman’s neck, choking
Slamming violently against a wall
Inflicting burns (cigarette, hotplates and alike)
Assaulting with weapons or tools (knife, gun, axe and alike)
Sexual violence Sexual intercourse or certain actions during the intercourse under duress with the use of physical
force or threat of harming the woman or someone close to her
Sexual intercourse or certain actions during the intercourse under duress by blackmailing,
insulting, accusing and the like, with or without the use of physical force

13. Operationalizing DOMESTIC violence
Domestic violence against women has been operationalized
to comprise all cases of violence committed against women:
– by members (male or female) of the same
household, regardless of kinship;
– by family members and relatives (male or female) regardless of
sharing or not sharing the household with the women include in
the sample;
– as well as by present or former partners, regardless of being
married or not and regardless of whether or not the partner is
living in the same household as the women included in the
sample.

14. Key notions
• General family and domestic violence – violence
comprising all forms of violence, including
economic, physical, psychological and sexual.
• Specific forms of violence – particular forms of
violence manifested as
economic, physical, psychological or sexual
violence, or through a combination of several
different forms of violence.
• Actual violence – violence committed in the past
year (12 months prior to the research);
• Lifetime violence – violence experienced by women
throughout their adult lives.

15. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

16. “Sensitive topic research”
• Can have consequences either directly to respondents, or
indirectly for the category of persons comprised in the
research. Investigating a phenomenon that poses a threat to
the respondents is a major problem.
• Three key problems
1. Questions can intrude into the most intimate sphere of
their lives and problems, issues that can provoke pain, stress
or shame and therefore can cause secondary victimization of
respondents;
2. Asking questions on sensitive issues can provoke feelings of
shame and stigmatisation in respondents, or they can be
incriminating, as in the case of illegal activities
3. Respondents can be afraid that revealing information can
put them in danger, lead to punishment or revenge of other
persons in their surrounding that might be in power positions.

17. Key challenge
Challenge: How to ensure the quality of the research
and validity of data on a subject that respondents
systematically want to keep hidden, while at the
same time keeping the highest level of professional
ethics – which means that respondents are not
mislead in regard to the topic of the research, that
respondents are not pressured and lead into a state
of intense emotional reactions which researchers
cannot control as it surpasses their role and
competence.

18. What do WHO standards prescribe?
Framework 1: Standards and guidelines for research of violence against women
On the basis of its extensive experience in researching violence against women all around the
world, the WHO has defined some of the most important standards for quality and ethical research
of violence against women:
1. Safety of the respondents and the research team is of crucial importance and should direct all
project decisions.
2. Prevalence studies should be based on quality methodology and should take into consideration
research experiences in relation to the opportunities of reducing the cover-up of violence to the
lowest possible degree.
3. Protection of the anonymity of subjects is of crucial importance for their safety and for the
quality of the given data.
4. Members of the research team should be carefully chosen, adequately trained and should have
continuous support throughout the research.
5. The instrument and the procedure of gathering data should eliminate or reduce the stress which
may result from the research.
6. Researchers and donors should have a moral obligation to ensure adequate interpretation of the
research data and their use in the aim of promoting the policies and measures.
7. The issues related to violence should be included in researches intended for other objectives
only when it is possible to meet ethical and methodological demands.
WHO, 2001: 11

19. Our response to the challenge
• Official title of the survey: “Research on the living
conditions of living and women’s health”
• Questionnaire for the household – the interviewer
interviews other members of the household
• Questionnaire for the women – self-completion
• Risks of refusal reduced to a minimum (21%)
• Maximum protection of both women and interviewers
• High level of interviewer’s control over the situation and
procedure of data collecting
• High level of women’s control to answer the sensitive
questions
• Secondary victimisation avoided

20. The Sample
Number of women
850 925 Belgrade
South and Eastern Serbia
725 Central and Western
Serbia

21. Findings of the research
FINDINGS ON PREVALENCE

22. The prevalence of actual and lifetime violence
Actual violence Lifetime violence
37.5
45.8
54.2
62.5
Women experiencing violence Women experiencing violence
Women not experiencing violence Women not experiencing violence

23. Economic violence
• Limited access to money within a
household, withholding money for personal needs;
• a household member who is the main income
provider has spent the money, leaving the household
without resources to cover everyday needs;
• stealing personal money;
• forbidding to work.
11% 16%
during the past year lifetime prevalence

24. Psychological violence
• Damaging partners self- • Yelling, cursing, insulting, disparaging
perception, self-confidence • Ignoring, not communicating, refusing
• Passive aggression – to talk
depriving emotions and • Threatening to abuse the woman or a
care person close to her, destroying
• Intimidation: explicit or woman’s personal things
implicit • Prohibiting the woman to visit others
• Limiting personal space and go out
and freedoms
32% 49%
during the past year lifetime prevalence

25. Physical violence
• jolting, shaking,
• pulling hair,
10%
during the past year
• twisting arms,
• slapping across the face, hitting with a fist
• hitting with or throwing an object at the
woman,
• biting, 22%
lifetime prevalence
• squeezing woman’s neck, choking
• squeezing against a wall,
• inflicting burns intentionally with a
cigarette, iron, hotplate and the like,
• assaulting with a gun, knife, other weapons
or tools.

26. Sexual violence
The following is classified as sexual
violence - cases of women reporting 1.2%
sexual intercourse or coerced sexual acts during the past year
during sexual intercourse, with the use of
physical force or under threat of physical
force to the partner or a person close to
her, as well as the cases of such violence 3.8%
which have been carried out without lifetime prevalence
physical force, but with
blackmail, insults, accusations and the
like.

27. Prevalence of various forms of violence
Individual forms of violence Prevalence during the past Lifetime prevalence
year
Economic 11.4 15.8
Physical 10.1 21.6
Psychological 31.8 48.7
Sexual 1.2 3.8
Rape within the family 0.2 1.4
Survey data also showed that a third of women have been
exposed to multiple forms of violence in the past year!

28. Who are the perpetrators of violence?
Perpetrators Economic Psychological Physical
Current husband/partner 40.4 44.1 42.8
Former husband/partner 10.1 13.9 28.9
Father 6.4 7.1 7.1
Son 15.6 3.5 1.9
Another male relative 12.8 10.4 9.2
Mother 3.7 7.1 4.8
Another female relative 11.0 13.9 5.3

29. Research findings
FACTORS OF VIOLENCE

30. Regional differences
Women experiencing physical violence
Women experiencing psychological violence
Women experiencing sexual violence
60 53.5
48.9
50 43.4
40
30 27.3
19.1 17.4
20
10 5.1 3.4 2.7
0
Belgrade Southern and Eastern Central and Western
Serbia Serbia

31. Poverty
70
59 Women with
60
experience of economic
50 46.8 violence
Women with
40
experience of physical
30.3 violence
30 27.9
Women with
20.1
20 experience of
13.3 psychological violence
8.9
10
2.9 Women with
experience of sexual
0 violence
Undeprived Deprived

32. Other factors
• traditional values of spouse/partner,
• tolerance of women towards physical violence,
• patrilocality in establishing a household,
• economic dependence of women,
• family problems (especially risks of alcoholism and
drug-addiction)
It is interesting to note that women who are not
legally married (to their partner) are at a higher risk
of violence than married women.

33. Domestic violence risk factors
Experience of family member active alcoholism drug addiction problems in family
domestic in the war during the relations
violence 90s
No Yes No Yes No Yes No yes
Women without 47.7 40.3 49.1 10.9 46.1 4.2 47.7 9.9
experience of
violence
Women 52.3 59.7 50.9 89.1 53.9 95.8 52.3 90.1
experiencing
violence
Total 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

34. Research findings
CONSEQUENCES OF VIOLENCE

35. Consequences of violence
• Women victims of domestic violence suffer from
various forms of health issues – from headaches,
nausea and so on, to more serious conditions such as
depression, fear, and anxiety.
• It is important to note that children often witness
violence – in 40% of cases of physical violence
against women, children were witnesses, while in
10.2% of cases, children themselves suffered injuries.

36. Physical injuries
Type of injury % of women experiencing physical
violence who have suffered an injury
Bruises, scratches 61.3
Physical pain lasting several days following 27.7
the injury
Losing consciousness 5.6
Massive bruises, contusions, cuts, burns 12.7
Weapon-inflicted injuries 0.6
Bone fractures 3.3

37. Research findings
SUPPORT TO THE VICTIMS OF
VIOLENCE

38. Attitude towards seeking help
90
81.4
78.4
80 73.7
70
60
50
40 Whole sample
30 Urban areas
20 16.9 15.8 18.7 Rural areas
10 4.7 2.8 7.6
0
a woman should a woman should It's the best to keep
approach an approach a close silent on the
institution for help person for help problem

39. Actual behaviour
Whole sample Urban areas Rural areas
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Approaching Approaching Attempt to Attempt to Attempt to Left the
an institution close divorce or leave the make household
for help persons for separate household perpetrator for a shorter
help leave the period of
household time

40. Seeking help
% of victims who have approached others for help
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

41. Self-perception of violence
% of victims who recognize that they have suffered
abuse
60 55.8
50
50
40
30.1 29.3
30
20
10
0
Recognizing Recognizing Recognizing Recognizing sexual
physical violence psychological economic violence violence
violence

42. Closing remarks
Further promotion of institutional and legal mechanisms for
fighting domestic violence against women is needed, as
well as increasing human and financial resources at all
levels, developing systems of monitoring domestic
violence, and improving gender equality
overall, particularly socio-economic.
The fight against domestic violence against women has to
become an integral part of various strategies and
measures. This will enable simultaneous impact on
numerous areas (factors) that condition and sustain
domestic violence against women.

43. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION
For more information:
www.secons.net
seconsoff@hotmail.com
office@secons.net