1Reviews and everything / Domestic Violence translation

Alex Kvartalny @ flamedragon27.blogspot.com

Group 501

Domestic Violence Translation

There are no aggregate figures as far as domestic violence in Belarus is concerned. Nevertheless, the problem can be analyzed even-handedly. Firstly, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reports a number of crimes committed due to jealousy, quarrels and other domestic factors. The possibility of detecting future acts of domestic violence remains if the present ones are looked into. Secondly, sociological institutions study the relationships within a family. These sources make it possible to assess the scale of the danger women are exposed to within their own homes and find the reasons for this alarming phenomenon.

It is widely accepted that domestic violence occurs only in problem families, families with alcohol abusers and poor families. However, a research suggests that this belief is far from the truth. Psychological abuse is extremely widespread in family relations: rudeness (in 48% of the families), mutual humiliation (14%), and also physical violence – battering (6%). The majority of men and women take rudeness as a form of family relations. The number of families where the husband treats his wife in a cruel way (batters, threaten, turns the woman out from the house etc) is 3.5 times higher that the families where the wife is cruel to her husband. As for being physically abused by their spouse, there are more women then men (29% of women against 3% of men).

Domestic violence leads to death, physical and mental injuries, sometimes irreversible, suicide, victim’s loss of self-esteem, etc. Continuous rude treatment can instigate responsive violent actions of women towards their husbands and lovers, etc. But on the whole this does not happen as often, less violently and as a rule for self-defence. But the situation is changing now – the number of cases when women resort to violence is on the increase.

It should be mentioned that only “the top of the iceberg” is statistically registered. To a great extent, domestic violence is left outside the system of criminal justice and out of the spotlight, due to many factors. A woman’s desire to maintain family, mutual dependence of the victim and offender, unwillingness to resort to a formal settlement of the conflict and sometimes simply washing their dirty linen in public, and also difficulties in classifying certain acts of violence as a criminal offence, etc. are among them. The public still view violence as a family affair. Belarusian folklore still preserves such sayings as “he loves who beats”, “the one you pull is the one you love”. For many women this stereotype means cheerless existence and continuous malicious insults and battering. In many cases divorce does not put an end to being humiliated because the divorced spouses often have to share the same apartment, live under the same roof due to the housing distribution system that exists in the Republic.

Police department is the first and main law enforcement agency that the victim can contact. But in practice, the information between the police and the victim is exchanged in one direction: the victim has to give all the necessary information, while the first can’t be bothered to inform the victim. A family conflict is one of the widespread reasons to call the police. But usually its role in dealing with complaints about domestic violence is restricted to limited interference. As a rule a violator is arrested because of alcoholic intoxication, hooliganism or when he offers resistance to the police. Among the reasons for such approach are the following: incomprehension of the fact that moral damage is done to the victim and the belief that the woman – the victim of domestic violence – is only interested in a way to resolve the conflict and does not want to go to court.

At the same time there are factors that prevent real or potential victims from calling the police. These fears that the offender will not be arrested, distrust of the law enforcement system, the offensive character of investigation and unwillingness to make your secret known to public have their ground. In addition to that it is necessary to view domestic violence not only as a medical and social issue that the government has no control over but also as a socially important problem that requires immediate action.

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