A survey by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) is the first of its kind on violence against women across the 28 Member States of the European Union (EU). Published beginning March, it is based on interviews with 42,000 women across the EU who were asked about their experiences of physical, sexual and psychological violence, including incidents of intimate partner violence (“domestic violence”).
An estimated 13 million women in the EU have experienced physical violence in the course of the 12 months before the survey interviews. This means about 7 percent of women aged 18–74 in the EU. An estimated 3.7 million women in the EU have experienced sexual violence in the course in 12 months, corresponding to 2 percent of women aged 18–74 years in the EU. One in 20 women (5 percent) has been raped since the age of 15. In a number of EU jurisdictions, the legal definition of rape extends beyond the requirement that the perpetrator uses physical force. In this regard, the extent of rape in the EU could be in excess of 5 percent.
In the EU-28, 18 percent of women have experienced stalking since the age of 15, and 5 percent of women have experienced stalking in the 12 months preceding the survey, corresponding to about 9 million women.
Some 12 percent of women (21 million) indicate that they have experienced some form of sexual abuse or incident by an adult before the age of 15.
The results show that 30 percent of women who have experienced sexual victimisation by a former or current partner also experienced sexual violence in childhood. Half of all women in the EU (53 percent) avoid certain situations or places, at least sometimes, for fear of being physically or sexually assaulted. In comparison, existing surveys on crime
victimisation and fear of crime show that far fewer men restrict their movement.
In Slovakia, 184 cases of torture on women were reported last year and one in five women has experienced violence at some time in her life.
In January 2014, police recorded 19 cases of abuse or torture of a close person in Slovakia, Police Presidium spokesman Michal Slivka told SITA newswire. However, a big part of abuse and violence cases probably never makes it to police statistics, as they are not reported. Sociologist Barbora Holubová of the Institute for Research of Work and Family said that 21.2 percent of Slovak women have experienced violence from their current partner, while 27.9 percent of adult women have experienced violence from ex-partner. However, women are also attacked by other men than their partners, with 26.8 percent experiencing touches, frictions and other unallowed forms of intimate contacts.
“Within the last 12 months, 5.3 percent of women experience violence from a close person,” Holubová told SITA.
(Source: FRA report, SITA)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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