Domestic Violence^[1]

Summary

During the last few years several international forums of experts were dedicated to the range and acuteness of the problem “domestic violence”. They drew public attention to this social phenomenon in terms of setting the human rights – the right to live, the right to be free of cruel, inhuman, or humiliating attitude, the right to live without being subject to discrimination - at defiance. All those rights are given guarantees by the International Pact for Civil and Political Rights, by the European Convention for Human Rights and Basic Freedoms, by the United Nations Organization’s Convention for eliminating all forms of discrimination against women, and by other international documents. Bulgarian legislation does not provide guarantees for victim’s protection. In the light of international law Bulgarian women are much more affected than Bulgarian men are by the faults of the Bulgarian legal system. Due to the relatively high share of affected women the legal imperfections worsen women’s condition and offer hidden discrimination.

Experts focus their attention on the need of legal changes that will lead to sentencing the perpetrators, to instructing all professionals connected to domestic violence, i.e. the police, medical and law specialists. It will also lead to developing a system for public support of women that includes access to information and shelter for women-sufferers.

In Bulgaria the traditional understanding of human rights are still observed and our legislation is built on the principle of laissez-faire with the exception of extremely grave cases connected with the death of the victim. At the moment there is no working mechanism for protection of victims. It is a fact that here in Bulgaria the state does not take part in averting violence or defending against it. It remains unpunished and the defense in court remains an expensive, awkward, and almost hopeless process. In most cases the victim continues to suffer harassment and threats by the abuser even during the trial because there is no law mechanism for their separation.

This book is dedicated to family abuse, the phenomenon that often remains hidden and even more worrying because of the serious physical, psychological, and social consequences for victims, who in most cases are women and/or their children.

The author makes an attempt to:

· To explain the mechanism of domestic violence and its effect on the victim and thus to land a helping hand to social workers;

· To show the high psychological, family, and social value of family abuse;

·   To contribute to providing people with more information and raising their sensitivity on the problems of domestic violence;

· To win more and more supporters of the cause of limiting and eliminating family abuse.

In the first chapter of the book it is illustrated that the widespread resort to violence when imposing personal norms has turned into a model of behavior. This has happened directly - through the use of force, and indirectly – through threats of using force, for which both the sense of fear and helplessness and the lack of confidence in the institutions, which are said to provide security, play an important role. In this process fear appeared to be a valuable factor and violence – a possible reaction, a way of survival and self-realization, a type of behavior provoked by the situation. The number of repressive attitudes increases both in society and in family. The author outlines the tendency of spreading the use of violence at home, on the street, and at work. Besides, abuse is connected with violation on a person’s pride, dignity, and physical inviolability. In spite of being connected with physical injuries it is often accompanied by giving offence, disrespecting and lowering the sufferer’s prestige. According to criminal statistics’ data in Bulgaria there are committed about 360-370 domestic murders. According to crime statistics the number of recorded victims of criminal violation for the 1991 – 1994 period increased 1.5 times which includes the number of violation against women – approximately 1.7 times.

The characteristic features of violence are: increasing the number of crimes committed in groups, preparation and planning in advance, brutality, cruelty, impudence, and obscenity. The rate of recidivism in murders grows. 35.6% of the perpetrators have previous sentences (among the previous convictions those of forcing the personality are predominating).

On the other hand approximately half of the victims of abuse have already been in a more or less prolonged conflict with the perpetrator before the actual act of violence. In approximately 1/3^rd of the cases these were husbands, friends, relatives, colleagues, or neighbors. Sufferers, especially those of the bad cases, are characterized with being subjects to habitual victimization. This fact sometimes lead victims to retaliating for the violator’s defiance or to initiating conflicts that end with violence.  In this respect the percentage of illegal provocation of the act of violence through violence has doubled. This is a general tendency observed together with the decrease of the number of victims “submitting to violence”.

At the same time the list of arguments that could justify violence is observed to be continuously growing. According to the author such arguments are in fact attempts to give reasonable explanations to deviating behavior and to formulate the defense of the perpetrators of such crimes against both self-accusation and accusations of others. In this way the disapproval coming from the internalizing social norms is neutralized, turned to the opposite direction, or eliminated in advance. Thus social control proves to be ineffective and the individual is free to brake it without being troubled even by their own self-accusations. Their actions seem acceptable if not right to them. Mills is among the first who throw a light at the techniques for neutralization of employed violence and after him many other sociologists and specialists discuss this matter.

The latter rely on two basic factors:

· The use of alcohol;

· Emotional problems.

Practice shows that oppressors very often use alcohol as an excuse for their behavior as well as for bringing discredit on the victim by causing them feel more responsible for what has happened than they actually are. Similarly to the case with alcohol use, in the case where emotional problems are the basic factors different constructions are used depending on whether the actual behavior of the perpetrator is considered excused or not. If the first are considered to have emotional problems the second are characterized with using psychological explanations in order to present themselves as a rather “temporarily-out-of-themselves” people. The quite popular theory of control explains violence as an act of intolerance, a crisis in the communication, and a result of breaking or loosening the individual’s bonds with society. The process of alienation often includes or is based on an active conflict inside the individual; a conflict that feeds aggressiveness and antisocial behavior. There has been recently observed a tendency of intensifying anomie and alienation, striving for survival through avoidance of binding to others. The alienation makes it possible for the individual to set themselves free from the universal human values such as “showing tolerance towards others”, “not using violence”, etc.

The question that appears here is whether this is a form of adaptation to the managing of violence at an everyday level or this is an element in the process of reproduction and approval of asocial models of behavior among which Violence is the most obvious example.

In the second chapter the author dwells on a great deal of research on family abuse of both regional and national importance. These pieces of research show:

· There is a mass spread of violence in marriage. In most casesthere is a link between violence between parents of one and the same family and violence observed in their own families;

· Alcohol makes the abuse extremely drastic and dangerous for the victim. The results show that men who consume alcohol are more likely to use weapon when threatening or forcing the victim;

· Quite little attention in the research is paid toother forms of domestic violence, namely violence done by the already grown children to their parents as well as violence employed on children, on the elder people in the family, and especially in the cases when they are ill or helpless;

· Abuse is a serious and widely spread all over the world phenomenon. There are no appropriate laws for women’s protection both on the part of authorities and on the part of courts of justice which do not take seriously their duty to severely punish the perpetrator of abuse in the family;

· There is no statistical data on domestic violence;

· In most cases the state does not provide help for victims;

· The traditional female dependence, including economic dependence, on men can be seen on a mass scale;

· Unfortunately, there is no legislative difference between victim and abuser in Bulgaria;

· Pieces of research show that in Bulgaria, as well as in Macedonia and Hungary, the financial difficulties and unemployment are significant factors determining domestic violence;

· The number of cases where old parents are victims of their children has increased. This is connected mainly with the economic dependence of grown children^[2];

· More than a third of all the respondents have already witnessed family abuse² and 20% of the male respondents and 16% of the women inquired said that domestic violence existed in their homes;

· Domestic violence that is a result of strict patriarchal structure of the family where it is acceptable that the man should impose order by using force is highly tolerated. That is why it is mainly husbands, sons, and fathers that employ violence;

· Social changes such as transitions, crises, wars play an important role in raising the vulnerability towards domestic violence. These social changes are reflected in all spheres of life and greatly influence personal relations by creating situations in which domestic violence is possible. Family relations suffered a setback during the last 10 years. This has a lot to do with the difficulties in finding jobs, the start of private business, or the worsening of the family’s financial/accommodation resorts;

· The fast accumulation of money can also be a factor contributing to worsening of the family relations, especially when the partners are parvenus;

· The sudden changes in the social and economic status bring back the traditional gender roles of both women and men and do not provide opportunities for an easy adaptation to the new situation. As a result men are observed to be in a state of stress and depression while women show great worry and low self-confidence. As a whole this leads to worsening the relations, which includes family abuse;

· Female aggression towards their husbands is observed to be escalating especially during the last few years. 

The piece of research on regional characteristics of domestic violence in Bulgaria showed that here approximately sixty thousand women per year suffer a severe form of abuse (battering, severe and medium physical injuries, rapes, debauchery, attempted murder). Approximately 2/3rds of them are victims of family abuse.

According to a study on domestic violence in Bulgaria made by “Gender Project in Bulgaria” Foundation (in March 2000) 635 460 Bulgarian women confessed to have suffered physical violence at home. This problem is even more serious because the ill-treated women are usually silent and accept the facts about their partner’s use of abuse instead of searching for help or putting an end to their living together.

The social price is:

· Only in Sofia about 15 women per year die as a result of domestic violence;

· 12 709 women needed medical aid;

· 190 638 women were absent from work;

The author makes an analysis of the data of a representative sociological study done in 1999 by the Institute of Sociology³. The analysis shows that Bulgarian society greatly tolerates violence. One out of every three men from the countryside as well as one out of every five men from the town believe that it is absolutely acceptable for men “to employ violence with the purpose of imposing order in the family”. One woman out of five from the countryside and one out of every ten women from the town supports this very idea. This fact is also confirmed by the data of a study made by Gender Project in Bulgaria Foundation in March 2000. The study shows that 30% of the inquired agree with the idea and 12% of the inquired greatly support it⁴.

The observed domestic violence in one of the biggest Bulgarian towns – Varna, confirms the significance of the problem⁵. The majority of perpetrators are husbands (62.2%). Children (13%) and other members of the family (18.5%) are also among the perpetrators.

The separation of the family roles and the management of conflicts, as well as the choice of strategy for partnership between the sexes depends on many factors. The analysis of gender characteristics of power and the decision-making in the contemporary Bulgarian family, which is not dependent on the declared attitudes to liberalization, leads to the conclusion that violence is greatly practiced. This is a result of the inability to agree on the conditions of living together and the absence of adequate skills for partnership and agreement.

Considering the analyses it can be said that the tolerance for domestic violence in villages is twice as much as the one in towns.

Among the reasons for abuse in the family the inquired most often point out the husband’s dependence on alcohol, appearance of mental derangement, and painful complexes. Sometimes maltreatment can be seen as an act of revenge for an alleged or real infidelity. Quite often living standards are said to be reasons for abuse – a housing problem, living together with parents or other relatives, disagreement in the raring of children, etc. The economic instability and lack of money has recently added to the intensifying of “everyday stress”, which is also pointed out as a possible reason for domestic violence. Both in towns and in the country approximately every one out of six men indicates this as a factor that lead to violence against the woman in the family.

Practice proves that every third woman does not look for help. Shame, fear, and a feeling of being on a stump are among the basic motives of victims for not searching for help and assistance. The victim’s helplessness and being with their back to the wall may make them aggressive. They most often turn to their family, relatives, friends and only about 1% turn to the police⁶.

A very important role for the employment of different forms of violence – physical, psychological, and sexual, plays the economic dependence of women, if there is such. In many cases this is the basic reason why the woman cannot break the relationship and put an end to her living with regular harassment by the husband.

In the book the statement that there are two basic forms of influence on women’s vulnerability to domestic violence by the economic and social changes in everyday life^[4] is discussed:

· Violence connected with growing poor and unemployment;

· Violence connected with privatization and accumulating money.

The economic changes in the period of transition have two major ways of influencing the status of men. Men are more likely to take part in privatization and black economy, as well as to be preferred when competing together with women for jobs. This leads to the intensifying of male identity and rebirth of the traditional roles of the sexes in the family.

Beside this, in the book it is also dwelled on the statement that the lowering of men’s economic and social status and men’s inadequacy to their wives’ social status, as well as the social stress and isolation raise the risk of domestic violence. This group of men is characterized by the fact that their lack of manliness, i. e. the deepening of the difference between the social understanding of “being a man” and the actual ability to be one, may bring about abuse in the family. This model appears to be predominating in couples where through violence the woman is forced to keep to the patriarchal gender roles. This corresponds to the believe that the traditional roles set a strict hierarchy between the sexes and at the same time form both favorable conditions for violence and factors depriving women from the social and economic opportunities to leave their oppressors. The data about the reasons why women become dependent on men confirms the relationship between the changes at a macrolevel and the return to the traditional roles of sexes and domestic violence.

What kind is the link with between the economic and social status of men? What kinds of methods do men use in order to continue performing oppressive actions? Searching for the answers of these questions, the author finds out that:

     · The most common reason for women’s dependence is the fact that during economic changes and reforms it is more difficult for them to find a job. They are often without any job or they have quitted their jobs because their partner does not allow them to work, or because he has either persuaded or forced them to devote more time to the family or the family business. Women work and/or get less money than their husbands. On the other hand husbands-abusers are often economically independent and receive big incomes.

· One of the reasons for violence is the increase of time during which the Man is outside the house as well as excessive burdening, stress, and uncertainty of the working place and income.

· There is also an accent placed on men’s absence from home and their lack of time for the children. These are in fact causes for intensifying of everyday strain and increasing the risk of domestic violence. The author puts an accent on this especially in the cases where a man’s successful social position and absence from home is opposed by the woman’s loss of job and staying at home, i.e. her restriction to the sphere of family life and her economic dependence on her husband.

Examples for this are the marriages of women to parvenus, i.e. men who have become rich for a short period of time thanks to the changes. During the time of communism these women used to be economically independent. Quite often they feel themselves victims of degradation while being housewives. This leads to lowering their self-confidence and abilities to oppose violence. If the widespread feeling of men’s inadequacy connected with their incapability to earn enough, even when they officially have jobs, is also added, the way of women’s becoming vulnerable to family abuse^[5] becomes clear. The going down of economic positions and social status leads to further individual crises. These crises deepen with women’s complaints that men are incapable of performing their traditional roles. This includes the following cases:

1.    When both partners are unemployed and/or do not bring any income (or when the income is not enough);

2.    When it is only the woman that earns money.

“When a woman loses her job she does not feel well but this is a more acceptable situation. This is so because of the belief that men are those who earn money for the family and women either work or don’t work. In Bulgaria women have always been working. They have always been working not because they want to but because they have to^[6].

The book pays special attention to the crisis of manliness as an additional factor for domestic violence when the social discrepancy is a result of female employment and her better financial state. In such cases besides his incapability to fulfill the traditional male roles connected with earning their living, there is another factor causing domestic violence – male frustration, his being passive and his staying at home. In addition it can be said that the expectations (and sometimes pressure) of his wife, who takes part of the responsibilities for looking after the children and taking care of the household, may aggravate the contradictions.

When the man is without job and does not earn money he tries to escape from reality by using alcohol. This is another factor that intensifies women’s vulnerability to family abuse.

The book pays attention to the media and its opinion of domestic violence. The media’s main characteristics are ignoring, neutralization, and minimization. The term “domestic violence” is rarely observed: either when an analytical feminist article on this subject is published or when the discussed violence is connected with murder^[7].  

The author presents the data given by a media research made in Bulgaria⁷. In more than half of the cases (56%) the employed violence is connected with murder. 14.3% of the cases are connected with serious physical injuries, 8.3% - with not serious physical injuries, and 6% - with offence and ignoring. The media usually suggests that the responsibility for what has happened lies in both victim and abuser and the actual abuse is expressed by quarrels for money, domestic squabbles, battery, bad relationships, domestic tragedies, emotional manipulating, or decision to separate with the partner. Jealousy, infidelity (36.9%), and use of alcohol (19%) are the most frequently stated reasons. The minimization of violence and the male responsibility are presented through the understanding of jealousy and its connection with abuse. This is the traditional patriarchal point of view presented as a logical consequence of love and intimate relations.

There is another characteristic detail of the media’s understanding of domestic violence that is marked in the book – men are often presented as victims of the loss of power in the family and the traditional manliness, which is later seen as a reason for violence. Similarly women are expected to sacrifice their lives for “the happiness” of the family even when this means that they will become subjects to violence. In this respect the nostalgia for the time when men and women lived together “till their dying day” seems easy to explain.

What way does the media find out of the situation? The way of police interference (8.8%), medical and social protection (8.8%), help from the family or friends (5.9%), specialized organizations’ aid (4.4%), legal actions (2.9%). In 73.5% of the cases another /!/ way is suggested. 

The author of the book points out the basic characteristics of domestic violence as a way of establishing male power and control, while discussing the different ways and reasons for this⁸:

· Forcing and threatening: he threatens to hurt her or hurts her; he threatens to leave her or to commit suicide; he makes her abandon the submitted accusations; he frightens her by looks, actions, braking things, destroying her property, maltreating animals, threatening with weapons;

· Emotional maltreatment: he controls all her actions, supervises all her meetings and conversations, as well as what she reads and where she goes, he also limits her outdoor activities with the excuse of being jealous;

· Limiting and isolating her;

· Depreciating, denying, and accusing: he extenuates violence and does not take seriously her worry about it; he tells her that it’s her fault;

· Taking advantage of children: he makes her feel guilty for the children, he uses them for sending her messages, he uses his visits for torturing her, he threatens to take her children;

· Taking advantage of the privilege of being a man: he treats her as a servant, he takes all the important decisions alone, he acts as a master, he himself determines the roles of the man and woman;

· Economic violence:

Several significant changes connected with the problems of domestic violence have been observed for the last few years. This happened mainly because of the “boom” in the establishing of non-governmental unions – foundations, associations, and centers for out-of-court protection of victims of violence⁹ in Bulgaria;

· Now women look for help;

· There are many organizations that provide help – hot line, consultations (both psychological and legal);

· A shelter for women victims of violence has been organized;

· Judges, attorneys and policemen are being trained;

· Seminars and conferences are held. Campaigns for change of laws connected with domestic violence carried out in all countries;

· The people’s sensitivity on this matter is being deepened;

· Positive changes in the police attitude towards domestic violence are observed: a community of women working in the police is established which is a part of the European net of policewomen and others.

There are rules for determining the kinds of domestic violence in many legislative systems all over the world¹⁰. All those countries have orders forbidding physical abuse. There are different terms used for determining it. Here in Bulgaria all pieces of sociological research on domestic violence¹¹ dwell on three main forms of domestic violence: physical, mental, and sexual. There has recently been discussed an economic abuse connected with economic domination and ability of one of the partners “to collect and even spend the money of the other”¹².

The book pays special attention to the forms of domestic violence: physical, mental, economic, sexual, violence against the children of a family. There is information for a wide spreading of psychological abuse that seems not to get the necessary attention. It is usually connected with other forms of violence – physical, sexual, and economic. Only 6.6% of the inquired confess that they are victims of sexual violence. How do women victims of violence react? Here is some data:

· 8% called the police;

· 5% turned to the prosecutor’s office;

· 13% returned violence for violence;

· 12% ran away;

· 7% made an attempt to commit suicide;

· 25% just accepted the facts;

· 10% filed a divorce suit;

· 20% turned to women’s organizations;

· 54% of the women reacted by making a row and 25% by beating: 55 women from the prison in Sliven serve a term of imprisonment for causing murder, serious physical injuries, etc.

According to the results from the Alfa Research study (May 2001) 28.5% of the polled said that they knew families in which physical maltreatment is practiced.

There are different types of physical abuse. The figures show the different ways of becoming a victim of domestic violence. Judging by the answers of the inquired the victims are mainly women. From 1% to 4% of the inquired say that they know male victims. 60% of the polled state that they personally know people, mainly women, who were hit and maltreated by their partners. 11% if the polled are victims themselves (March 2000). According to the data from this study there are different reasons why women do not look for help. They do not look for help because of: feeling of shame, unwillingness to share their pain with other people, fear from the abuser, lack of information for a possible alternative, hopelessness, fear and a feeling of guilt.

The author discusses other pieces of research, which give better chances for a thorough analysis of domestic violence (physical, psychological, economical, sexual, child abuse) considering the different socio-demographic characteristics of the inquired: social status, sex, age, place of residence, race, income per member of the household.

Some characteristics of family life are basic among the factors leading to high levels of family abuse on children. Based on those characteristics, a classification of parents by social status, level of emotional comfort and way of managing the family conflicts can be made. This classification forms the following groups:

1.    Parents, who are socially excluded;

2.    Parents with a low income, education, and profession;

3.    Parents, who consider their marriage unsuccessful;

4.    Parents, who are convinced that the ma should dominate in marriage;

5.    Parents, who believe that the physical punishment of children and beating up the wife is a natural phenomenon;

6.    Parents whose fathers resorted to physical violence when taking care of the family conflicts;

7.    Parents, who incessantly quarrel;

Actually, child abuse is a social – psychological phenomenon that depends on many factors and is discussed on four basic levels: the individual level, the family level, the level of society, and the cultural level.

The level of family includes studying the family relations connected with abuse. This means studying the broken relations between the members of the family and the family conflicts that lead to child abuse.

The book accents on the level of society as the influence of social aspects such as work, formal and informal social contacts, social-economic factors, stress and social isolation.

The level of culture (the level of macro-system) discusses the characteristics of values and attitudes, which stimulate aggressive behavior via the influence they have over the development of the individual, family and society.  

These characteristics may include rejection (or acceptance) of the too severe punishments controlling the child behavior, the attitude towards violence as a legitimate way of dealing with troubles, as well as parenthood built on the “possessive” feeling about the child.

This model permits the study of the roots of child abuse on the four levels of analysis. They are believed to have interconnected and multiplied effect on the characteristics of child abuse. The author quotes pieces of research where it is most characteristic for child maltreatment to shift from the psychiatric model¹⁴ of explaining child abuse to defining of this phenomenon as a process that multiplies the influence of risk and protectoral factors.  Such an approach accepts the use of many potential characteristics of violence for both further research on this matter and development of programs for prevention.

The suggested approach is used in social practice and in the discussing of the many-aspect model of predetermining the “quality” of parenthood via describing the characteristics of parents, the child, and their social milieu. The risk of violence is connected with both the risk factors of the relationship parents-children and the specific characteristics of parents and children. The quality of parenthood is looked upon as a derivative of the characteristics of parents, children, and social milieu. In this way parent violence can be predicted, especially of parents greatly prone to violence.

The book pays special attention to sexual violence as a social problem, especially to the violence in intimate relationships. The following social problems valid for Europe are pointed out:

1.    Not enough attention is paid on sexual violence in the national and European programs;

2.    The unsuccessfulness of the legal system effectively leads to suits against sexual violence;

The relatively low rate of recorded cases is being accented on. The average statistics for Europe show that from 1 to 12% of the cases of sexual violence are registered at the police. In this respect a considerable bar seems to be distrust in the legal system – the police, prosecutor’s office, and court. Serious problems with further reactions of recorded cases are observed. This means that in many cases the abusers do not receive a just sentence. There are both similarities and differences in the European countries and the countries of the world, still there is one thing for sure – the underestimating of this phenomenon by both the country and professionals adds more to the situation in which legal bars are being multiplied rather than being limited. It is also observed that services connected with aid for the victims of sexual violence are less in number than those of other forms of domestic violence. This forms part of the context in which the international legislation and policy such as the Pecan platform for action, the European Union’s plan for action against violence against women as well as the politics of EU, its plans for action at a state level work.

The necessity of legislative changes is being accented on. Such changes will reflect the strategies of limiting and eliminating sexual abuse as well as the consequences (for women, for reaching of international standard, control and prevention of crime).

A more detailed analysis throws a light on those stages and moments in which a considerable part of the cases of violence drop out of the legal system. On the one hand this is connected with the fact that the majority of victims lack confidence in court institutions due to which they do not turn to them for help. It is a frequent practice that the cases are registered as “false complaints” or “lies”. Either some of the victims withdraw their accusations or the prosecutor drops out the case for lack of adequate proofs. It is a general practice that the accused is exonerated by a court decision.  

What is the picture in Bulgaria? Let us first consider the crime and court statistics of sexual violence. The data suggests that the number of suits, which ended with a sentence, have more than three times decreased for this thirty-year period and the number of sentenced perpetrators has 3.5 times decreased. On the other hand police statistics present data according to which women victims of violence are about six times more. In fact bigger numbers can be given if the fact that a significant part of the victims do not turn to the police for help is considered. There are different reasons causing this fact and among them are the fear of revenge from the abuser and the knowledge of the abuser - a friend, relative, husband, or boss. The victims are mainly afraid of not being believed or of being rejected especially in the cases of incest. They are also afraid of the police, hospital, and legal system because they believe that no one will see what has happened the way they see it. What is more, victims accuse themselves and are afraid that others will accuse them. It is logical that they want to forget what has happened by not talking about it. Otherwise, the feeling of lost intimacy is added to the feeling of exposure.

According to the police data of the town of Burgas for the 1995-1999 period the victims of sexual violence are 225 women and girls. 40 of them are victims of debauchery; 17 – of an attempt for rape; 168 – of rape. The annual report of “Animus” Association shows that from the 2233 victims of violence 105 (or about 1 out of 100) are victims of sexual abuse and 59 (or about 3 out of 100) are victims of traffic of women and forced prostitution. From 1998 to 1999 1634 women turned to the hot line of the association for help. 83 of them (5%) are victims of sexual abuse, 121 (or 7.4%) – of women trafficking and forced prostitution¹⁵.

 The sexual abuse in the intimate relationship is rarely paid special attention. The European project for studying sexual abuse financed by EU and “Daphne” Program showed that there is only one research on rape, one on sexual aggression among the young, one on violence against women accenting on rape, and four on domestic violence as sexual abuse. (Rape: the Forgotten Issue, 2001:13). It is characteristic for most pieces of research on domestic violence that they do not pay attention to sexual abuse. This book presents the level of its distribution in some European countries:

· Research in Finland (1997) show that 19% of the family abused suffered sexual abuse in a previous relationship, 6% - in present relationship. 1/10 looked for medical help although 50% had physical injuries;

· In Germany (1999) 8.2% were forced to make sex, 13.8% persuaded or intoxicated in order to make sex, 25% describe cases that are considered crimes by the Law¹⁶;

· Research on domestic violence in Hungary show that 10% of it is sexual¹⁷;

· Research made on Latvia says that 5.2% of women were victims of sexual violence during the last 5 years¹⁸;

· A study in Holland on a representative passage (1992) shows that 21% of women suffered unwanted sex, and 7.4% have continuously been forced by the intimate partner¹⁹;

· In Switzerland 11.6% suffered unwanted or forced sex in the intimate relationship²⁰;

· In Great Britain 25% of inquired women were raped or were subjects to an attempt to be raped. In most cases the violators were their intimate partners²¹.

· The pieces of research which put an accent on some details of sexual abuse in the intimate relationship and which use terms such as “forced” or “unwanted” sex instead of “rape” are wide-spread.

· A statistical study made in Canada in the beginning of the 90s²² shows that 1 in every 3 of the interviewed confesses to have been sexually abused. What is more, for more than 60% of the inquired this is not a single incident. Only 6% called the police (as compared to 25% who reported for cases of domestic violence). They tell the following reasons why they did not call the police:

1.    The police cannot do anything (50% of the polled);

2.    The existent police and court practice;

3.    Fear of next violence²³;  

Similar conclusions change the understanding of rape as well as the fact that its consequences should not be considered a crime. The fact that in 2/3rds of the cases it is registered a second victimization is explained by the circumstance that in the majority of cases the perpetrator is a man well known by the victim. This fact also suggests the fear of a following attempt in a different situation. One of the studies in Great Britain (1996) finds out that 1/3 of the women involved in court suits for sexual abuse were subjects to pressure and threats by the accused or his relatives. This is in fact a second victimization of the sufferer. That is why it is necessary that victims should be provided more protection and security as well as paid more attention by the police when they ask for help.

The author uses a sociological model, which determines violence as an aggressive behavior that is socially reproduced. It is connected with different cultural motives, which permit the lessening of the individual responsibility and present its identity as a non-deviant one.

A group of sociologists focus their attention on the different types of techniques used by perpetrators in troublesome situations. They describe the excuses and explanations, the language “constructions” that explain and eliminate the negative characteristics of such behavior. The term “similar actions” is used in literature on order these techniques and strategies to be accented on when there are some problematic characteristics of the situation. This conception is brought to the attempt of whomever of the actors to present the event according to its culture by different means. In this respect, culture is defined as “a net of cognitive inhibitions – objects – to which people are connected”, including physical inhibitions, expectations and definitions of others.

The performance of corresponding actions includes normative culture’s knowledge of the elements that are applicable when explaining violence and it leads to an action corresponding to these norms. Through this way violence is legitimized.

Among the most common excuses for sexual violence are those that present the woman as the one to blame and the one that deserves violence. The book mostly discusses two excuses for violence:

The first thesis is connected with masochism. It is quite widespread even today. Although in 64% of the cases the abuser used threats and/or force, they explain their behavior through this thesis. 24% of those confessing to have used violence said that the victim either did not resisted or did not resisted enough. They said they believed that the victim agreed and that they did not actually force her. It is typical for abusers not to redefine their actions even if they used compulsion to break the woman. The rest excuses are connected with the problem of accepting the blame and responsibility, which abusers try to accuse them of. They are connected with the normative expectations of gender roles and are estimated as additional factors for committing a crime. Most often they refer to the emotional condition of the woman or to the use of alcohol or drugs. These are things excusing men but shifting the responsibility and blame on women (who get what they deserve).

As a whole abusers think that their behavior is excusable although it is not quite decent or proper and it should not be regarded as violence. Despite this there can be found significant differences in the essence and tone of the explanations of both confessing and denying violators.

The second thesis is connected with the understanding of a Woman as a provoking and even responsible for the violence done on her: women are victims of their own sin. They flirt and behave in an appalling way which basically is a prerequisite for sex. Since women are believed to be shy about their sexual abilities, their refusal to respond to the sexual needs of men seems normal. Compulsion is not commented on. Men believe that women unconsciously want to be possessed by using force. Such explanations make violence seem more dependent on women than on men.

Sometimes an extreme attitude towards the sufferer is demonstrated. She is the aggressive one, the sinner that made the abuser behave like that.

What may excuse such behavior according to perpetrators?

Opposite to those that refuse to accept their guilt, those that confess it see their behavior as morally unacceptable and beyond excuse. They blame themselves although some of them continue to rely on the conviction that women provoke violence for example by their little resistance. For the confessing, both the alcohol use and the emotional condition at the moment explain their behavior. For those that deny, these things bring discredit on the victim and make her more responsible than she actually is. The explanations include apologies and excuses. Those that do not accept their actions as violence in fact justify their own deeds. Those that admit to have committed a crime try to excuse it. This does not give an answer to the question why some confess and others deny, still, it describes how men, who are aggressive and brutal, construct reality. It describes the different strategies and tactics.

Since sex is believed to be men’s right sexual violence in the intimate relationship is not considered a criminal act. In this case the denying similarly to the others try to provide themselves with “legal” identity. Via the use of excuses they construct “an opposite version” of the crime and try to demonstrate how their behavior was adequate although not quite legal. In this case their denial is based on traditional culture stereotypes, which deny the existence of victim.

The first form of denial is based on the cultural point of view about men being the dominant ones and women – inferior, weak, and helpless.  Portraying the victim as submissive, obedient, dependent, feeling pleasure of being vulnerable rejects the damages as well as the hurting. In this respect violence appears to be just a technique for dominating. Even when hurting women men seem to answer her wants.

The second form of denial presents women as “those who get what they deserve”. Through attacking her behavior and more rarely her emotions, the denying try to suggest that she is not as flawlessness as she presents herself and that they are not guilty.

While the confessing accent on the use of alcohol and/or drugs, the denying stress on their consumption by the victim and try to bring discredit on her by making her feel more responsible than she actually is.

Such behavior reflects our values, which historically victimizes women by spreading the myth of women being guilty and responsible for the violence they have to suffer.

The statistical data on divorces in Bulgaria for the 1989-1995 period show that more and more divorces wanted by women are motivated by physical and moral torment on the part of men. This is the reason for the divorce of every fourth woman. For the 1989-1995 period there are 16 000 filed separations by women caused by the husband. From every third to every fifth divorce happened because of “physical and moral harassment”.

The interviews with beaten women show that as a whole the result is shocking and confusing. At the same time battery is rarely understood as an unambiguous act of violence, which demands immediate reaction for providing future security. In fact maltreated women often have relation with the violator that is prolonged for years, that does not exclude violence and does not insure security. The question is “why?”

Most of the inquired base their reasons on the social and cultural expectations of women and their position in the patriarchal family. These are the reasons why women exclude or do not want a separation. The patriarchal rules puts women second and at the same time gives men the dictatorial power both inside the family and outside it. Cultural traditions shouldn’t also be ignored in a society that justifies the husband-abuser.

Women’s economic dependence also should be considered. The Lack of place to go, the influence of parents, friends, and children who do not understand the problem are all important factors which stop women from breaking the relationship.

The fear of revenge and murder, emotional problems, the hope that the abuser will change his attitude should not be underestimated. The lack of alternative is also an important reason why women stay at home despite the use of violence. Now such an alternative is ambiguously defined: incomplete or partial institutional and culture aid for women-victims, who want to put an end to violence; unclear consequences of one such decision, which includes children; the difficulties and the prolonged period in which husbands try to secure their control over their wives and houses, etc.

It is a fact that in Bulgaria any level of the legal process does not protect the infringing of women’s basic human rights that are guaranteed by the constitution (they must not be forced). No institutional mechanism for separating the victim from the abuser is worked out. Still, it is a fact that the most dangerous period for them is the period of breaking the relationship during which they are socially and legally insecure.

Women who materially depend on men at the same time depend on them when determining their own self-esteem and their own self-confidence as well as when receiving emotional help. In all cases violence appears to be an effective way for gaining power and control over the victim.

That is why the question “why do these women remain in the family?” is related to the mechanism for reconsidering the process of victimization in the sense of the stated above dependencies. We will put an accent on the relations between the partners while at the same time we will not forget about the significance of the macro-factors determining the violence against women.

Although the woman’s staying with the partner-abuser does not mean that she accepts violence as an acceptable aspect of their relations, the period connected with attempts to save the partnership after the use of violence shows her efforts to accept the negative situation. The book quotes some pieces of research, which indicate this period as a four-year period. Some women leave their husbands by the end of the first year while others stay with the family. The latter look for a way to give a logical explanation of violence in order to save the status of the relationship and to accept the imposed role. This happens via the so-called techniques of rationalization on which maltreated women:

1.    Victim’s appeal to people’s understanding and sympathy for the abuser who she presents as a very sick or oppressed;

2.     The victim’s refusal to accept the abuser as one who is not in a temporal condition;

3.     Rejection to accept the injury as a result of the act of physical abuse: this is one technique that is often observed and victims use it in order to rationalize violence. Hidden behind their unwillingness to speak, show their injuries to somebody or even remember what has happened stays their refusal to publicly confess their pain and suffering;

4.    Victim’s refusal to reconsider the fact of systematic employment of violence against her. This is connected with the victim’s unwillingness to accept victimization and with her self-accusations;

5.    Denying the existence of a possible alternative choice; this explains why when maltreated women have the chance to start a new life some of them return to their abusers;

The opportunities for choice are defined in two ways:

a)    A practical choice of the maltreated woman connected with providing her with means for survival, a place to live, a shelter from the abuser during the separation period;

b)   An emotional choice connected with the conviction that she will never again be able to experience friendship and love for the other sex because it will be impossible for someone to replace him in her thoughts and feelings either because of experienced disappointments or because of emotional commitment. And if the physical maltreatment seems dangerous, painful, and shameful for some women then the perspective of life in loneliness seems much more frightening for many women. That is why they believe separation is not worth risking.

6.    Relying on high values no matter whether they are traditional, religious or other techniques of rationalization and neutralization which explains the patience needed for the systematic domestic violence. They are connected with arguments such as the statement that patience is a virtue²⁴ that is considered in the “afterlife”. They may be explained with the respect to norms, values, or institutions that are granted for a given society and are more or less justifying violence against women for the benefit of children, etc.

In all cases the purpose of the listed above techniques for rationalization is dealing with the situation out of pragmatic or emotional reasons. Usually maltreated women use more than one or a combination of explanatory schemes. For some of them these may continue to exist throughout all their life together. For others they change during the development of the relationship depending on the individuals and on the reasons which may lead to redefining of violence.

When the maltreated woman rejects the explanatory schemes and finds herself guilty for the employed violence against her, the process of victimization begins.

Many researchers put an accent on the size and quality of employed violence, on the escalation of violence with time, on its cruelty, the intensifying of the partner’s aggression. They take all those things for important factors when women take the decision to leave the home and to put an end to the relationship. At the same time there is empirical data for the lack of statistically dependent correlative link between escalation of violence and continuity of living together. What is more, the data shows that it is women who are regularly maltreated by their men who live longer with them. In this case, what functions as a catalyst in the process of realizing their victimization, is a sudden change, an abrupt escalation of violence. Only then does the woman suddenly realize that the next time may have a fatal outcome for her and that she has to do something about it in order to prevent further violence. So the intensifying of cruelty in violence may play an important role in this process, although it may not give guarantees for all cases.

Moments of violence are usually followed by moments of regret and sorrows by the partner-violator, which makes his rejection harder for the woman. Still, with escalation of violence the times of intimacy become shorter or cease to exist while at the same time they eliminate the basis of positive look on the relationship. What is more, after a period of time the partner may come to the conclusion that since the woman stays she has accepted the role he gives her and there is no more need for repentance to be demonstrated. The prolonging of the periods without love and tenderness may stimulate the change in the relations between the partners until she sees herself as a victim and looks for a way out of this situation.

The lost hope for the better is a “red light” for women victims of violence. This signal may turn into the beginning of realizing of victimization and possible practical actions against the situation.

· A very important factor stimulating the realization of the process of victimization is the change of attitude towards violence. This change is based on the hidden (in the home) and therefore secret (not shown to others) character of domestic violence.

· A significant factor stimulating the awareness of victimization is the information of a possible alternative – life without violence. This is the choice of resources for solving the problems such as lack of choice or a place where they can stay and receive help – in specialized institutions: non-governmental organizations, associations and foundations²⁵. The improving of legislative practice is also a step towards the change of ways and means of realization of an alternative choice after reconsidering the situation.

The profound sociological analysis of the problems of domestic violence also has a practical significance: it helps the expanding of resources, ways and means of providing help and protection for victims. This happens on the one hand through studying their behavior and the factors that stimulate the strengthening of their personality and on the other hand through providing practical and emotional aid in realizing and escaping from their negative experience and understanding their personal rights and freedoms. In this respect the developing of strategies for fight against domestic violence plays a very important role: frequent campaigns are carried out in order for the society to get acquainted with these problems; programs teaching the abuser are developed; professionals working with maltreated women are being trained; concrete help is given to victims. In this respect, state and non-governmental organizations as well as institutions dealing with domestic violence also play a very important role. 

A multidisciplinary approach to domestic violence is needed as well as the active help of all professionals engaged with the problem.

Other forms may also be of use:

1.    Information for the types of services, strategies for intervention, legal, psychological, and medical assistance, the development of a net of partners – the police, prosecutor’s office, court, offices for social help.

2.    Training for the development of new types of standards of behavior and work with women; for the society and social institution’s preventive interference; for winning the assistance of sympathizers who will participate in the change of norms of behavior at an institutional and personal level. This will make people, especially women, more sensitive and at the same time more informed on the problems of domestic violence. 

The development of an informative net will broaden people’s legal knowledge and together with the training of specialists will mobilize society to new concrete actions for initiating of changes in the legal system. It will also exert influence on the police, the prosecutor’s office and the court system. Attracting allies and giving courage to all whose aim is eliminating of domestic violence will initiate the need of legal reforms with a view to reach international standards.

What are the ways of limiting domestic violence discussed in the book?

According to the polled²⁵ the most useful way is the upbringing of young people in the spirit of mutual respect, the existence of more severe laws and their actual use, the punishment of abusers. Also quite useful may be the information about different kinds of help, the training of police officers, the existence of a telephone line for victims of violence, brochures, campaigns for attracting people’s attention, etc.

In Bulgaria the normative order for protection from family abuse is not satisfactory. Some deeds should be referred to as crimes by the Penal Code: for example the “physical injury” alluded to in article 124: domestic violence should be considered a crime and put on trial. According to article 153 from the penal code a victim to unwanted sexual intercourse can be only a female individual.

Family legislation should be reorganized and the influence of all family relations that lead to violating the rights, health and life of victims should be considered. Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights says “No one should be tortured, treated in a cruel, inhumane, or humiliating way, or punished”²⁶. Violence is an unacceptable behavior, which harms people’s dignity and is unwanted, imprudent, offensive for the sufferer.

 What are the main things²⁷ that should be done?

· Activities connected with broadening the range of information;

· Campaigns and lobbing;

· Initiating strategies for legislative changes;

· Constant monitoring and studying;

· Preventive/educative activity;

· Training and sharing the experience with others in order to help victims of violence as well as coordination of efforts.

In the context of family abuse the programs of prevention are relatively few. In the cases where they exist they are not paid enough attention, are not controlled or valued. In its greater part these programs deal either with child or with family abuse.

Logically the basic factors connected with behavior and domestic violence are included in the attempt to find a formula for prevention. The strategies for prevention depend on:

· Decreasing the number of sources of stress and the number of risk factors;

· Increasing the number of opportunities for social assistance;

· Looking for ways of extending the abilities of the partners – their experience and self-confidence;

Risk factors are connected with the individual characteristics or situations and they are sometimes out of people’s control and it is difficult to change them. In the case of family abuse and abuse on children the stress factors can be chronic or temporal and they may include factors such as unemployment, poverty, etc.

The possibilities of social help are connected with the informal groups – friends, relatives. They form resources for mutual assistance and upbringing of children through studying the problems, providing means or pieces of advice, and reducing isolation. Improving and acquiring of knowledge include great competence and the behavior and emotions of the specific problem. For example, parent and marriage consultations and knowledge for solving the problems are relevant to a way out of domestic violence. The intensifying of self-confidence and self-esteem has a lot to do with realizing the personal abilities and resources.

These factors can be used both in preventing from violence and in preventing from victimization – via acquiring of skills that secure protection. In this respect there are different ideas that describe programs for reducing stress: new qualification of unemployed, reducing the risk situation (aid, education, care for parents with children who have problems, esc.); heightening the level of social help, skills for dealing with the situation and new vision of the self-esteem. Different courses for solving family, work, religious, etc problems are suggested in high schools. Developing the skills of solving conflicts by negotiations and compromises.

It is not checked to what extend these courses and programs achieve their goals. The teaching of parents and the connected with it system of services is traditionally connected with the net of services for prevention. Such is the role of the centers for helping the victims of domestic violence in Bulgaria. These centers are:

· “Animus” Foundation, which is established in 1996 and which provides a twenty-four-hour telephone line, consultations (legal and psychological), therapeutical programs and seminars, campaigns on prevention²⁷ and others. The Foundation has opened centers for psychological and legal aid in different towns²⁸;

· “Nadia” center offers free consultations with a psychiatrist, psychologist and lawyer. This is the first shelter for women-victims of violence and their children in the country;

· “JAR” Foundation, “Gender Project for Bulgaria” Foundation, and “Bulgarian Gender studies” Foundation also work on the problems of domestic violence.

· In this respect other non-governmental associations are established. Their main purpose is protection for women from violence²⁹.

Here are some of the topics²⁹ discussed in the seminars:

· Experience of social services for children and families in an unequal position;

· Establishing a project for social work;

· Family-group consultations;

· Group approach in taking decisions;

· Social work with the minorities – theory and practice;

· Hidden discrimination;

· Diagnostics of family milieu;

· Training of members of nongovernmental organizations;

· A program for fighting against violence on women through training and escalating girls and men’s sensitivity and through consulting abusers³⁰. When preventing child abuse many factors should be considered:

· Factors connected with individuality or with psychic health of parents (i.e. parents’ experience connected with the violence used in their childhood);

· Child characteristics (including temperament);

· Situational characteristics of micro-medium: sources of stress and aid (including marriage, access to formal and informal assistance, etc);

· The macro-system regarded as values for upbringing of children;

· Social practice or subculture in which the individual, family and society are found.

^[1] Valentina Zlatanova is Senior Research Associate, Ph.D., Deputy Director of the Institute of  Sociology,

Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Head of Department “Sociology of Deviant Behavior”, Professor at the South-West University of Blagoevgrad; e-mail: V.Zlatanova@cl.bas.bg

^[2] Op. Cit.  Vesna Nicolic-Ristanovic “Violence against women in post-communist societies – cost and benefits of changes”, forthcoming in Wrodrow Wilson Center Occasional Papers Series, New York

² 491 university students(both male and female) were polled in Scope

³ ESSt ”Bulgarian Women in the Transition Period: Risks, Inequalities, Social Value” done in May 1999 and financed by the SOCO Program of the Institute of Humanitarian Studies in Vienna, by the Program for Development of Central and East Europe, as well as by Ford Foundation. The study deals with 1200 Bulgarian man and women and represents the country’s gender, education and constituency characteristics.

⁴ The study is made by “NOEMA” and is representative of the country. 

⁵The study is based on the medical records of victims of domestic violence for the 1996-98 period. The majority of victims are women (81.6%) at the age of 20-40 (50.9%). (referring to Nikulic-Ristanovic 2001a:4)

⁶ Op. Cit. “Bulgarian Women in the Transition Period: Risks, Inequalities, Social Value”, 1999

^[4] Vesna Nicolic-Ristanovic; Violence against women in post-communist societies – cost and benefits of changes, 2001

·        ^[5] An interview with R. Indjeva on June30th, 1999; ( op.cit.  Vesna Nicolic-Ristanovic; Violence against women in post-communist societies – cost and benefits of changes, 2001, page13)

^[6] Radka Valkova,Gender Project for Bulgaria, an interview made on June 30, 1999 (op.cit. Vesna Nicolic-Ristanovic; Violence against women in post-communist societies – cost and benefits of changes, 2001, page15)

^[7] Popova et al, 1997, Elimination of Violence throw Research and Education (Research project) Sofia

(op.cit. Vesna Nikulic-Ristanovic 2001б:292)

⁷ within the framework of “Eliminating of Violence by Research and Education” project; “Gender Project for Bulgaria” Foundation

⁸ Domestic Violence: Power and Control, “Gender Project for Bulgaria” Foundation

⁹ op. cit. Vesna Nicolic-Ristanovic; Violence against women in post-communist societies – cost and benefits of changes, 2001, page 10 - 11)

¹⁰ The state’s responsibility for domestic violence: conditions and necessary changes 2000, by the row of Sheller, M and others, “Gender Project for Bulgaria” Foundation, (edited for Bulgarians by Muleshkova, I, pages 97-100

¹¹ The analysis uses data from three sociological pieces of research which are representative for the country: 1. “Bulgarian Women in the Transition Period: Risks, Inequalities, Social Value”, 1999; 2. “Domestic Violence in Bulgaria”, made by NOEMA, ordered by Gender Project in Bulgaria, March 2000; 3. of public opinion done by Alfa Research, May 2001

¹² According to a study of public opinion from May 2001 4.7% of the inquired stated that “it is acceptable for one of the partners to collect and spend the money of the other”

¹⁴ It puts an accent on the fact that the defining psychological characteristics of the individual are a reason for maltreatment.

¹⁵ FAA “Animus’s annual report for 1999, page 28

¹⁶ Research on sexual practices, 1999. 304 young women are referred to.

¹⁷ Olga Tot’s piece of research on sexual practices, 1999. 304 women are referred to.

¹⁸ 769 women were inquired as part of an international piece of research on crime; Olga Tot’s piece of research on sexual practices, 1999. 304 women are referred to

¹⁹ 1016 women were inquired.

²⁰ This study is made in 1995 by the method of telephone interview. 1519 women were asked.

²¹ The study was carried out in 11 towns and the inquired were 1007 women.

²² This is a national interview of 2300 women by the method of telephone interview.

²³ The polled had the right to give more than one answer.

²⁴ For example, in Christianity the Biblical understanding of women’s conformity to men has many nuances one of which says that “women should fear men” (Effes, 5:33)

²⁵ In Bulgaria such organizations are “Animus” foundation established in 1996; center “Nadia” which is the first shelter for women victims of violence; “Demetra” association in Burgas etc.

²⁵ Domestic Violence in Bulgaria, March 2000, page 34

²⁶ Universal Declaration of the Human Rights, Sofia, 1998, page 2

²⁷ see Kelly Burton, Regan, 1996

²⁷ There, in 1996, club “Margarita” was established where each weak victims of violence can meet, talk and help each other, as well as they can answer to letters addressed to the Foundation. The members of this club visit schools four times per yea and talk with the young on several topics: violence, domestic violence, sexual abuse, forced prostitution. (annual report of “Animus” Association for 1999)

²⁸ in Pernik, Plovdiv, Dobrich, etc.

²⁹ Association “SOS Families”(Varna); Аssociation “Дemetra”(Bourgas); Consultative Center on domestic violence’s problems, Unit “Center Maria” (Gorna Orjahovitsa); Foundation  “Protection” – Center for victims of violence (Gabrovo); Foundation “Woman” (Sliven); Foundation “Equal Rights” (Silistra); Association for Psychological  Help” (Pleven); Department for Women victims of Violence (Krdzali) etc.

²⁹ “Demetra”,2001,copy 5, pages 16, 23

³⁰ This program is set by “Demetra” association, Burgas and by “Bulgarian Gender projects”, Sofia