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ПРЕДУПРЕЖДЕНИЕ ВИКТИМИЗАЦИИ
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Research article UDK 343 . 988
DOI: 10.47475/2411-0590-2024-11-2-260-266
Domestic Violence Victimization: Problems of Prevention
Elena I. Dumanskaya
V. F. Yakovlev Ural State Law University, Yekaterinburg, Russia dumanskaya.e@yandex.ru ф https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2066-1012
Abstract. The article analyses domestic violence victimization and factors determining domestic violence such as unconscious patterns . It argues that the victim's pattern of behavior cannot be corrected without working with the victim's unconsciousness . Measures of the victim's scenario prevention are not fully effective without such a very significant factor of the victim's behavior as unconscious attitudes and patterns . Psychologists and therapists can assist victims in changing their behaviors and patterns . Using domestic violence prevention techniques and resources, the victim can stay safe in their relationship . It is necessary to create incentives for resolving intra-family problems, as well as to professionally respond to "the victim's pattern", to develop family rehabilitation programs for both the aggressor and the victim . It will contribute to better prevention of domestic violence
Keywords: individual victimization, domestic violence, prevention, victimization, victim, domestic violence prevention, victimization factors, victim behavior
For citation: Dumanskaya EI . Domestic Violence Victimization: Problems of Prevention. Vikti-mologiya [Victimology] . 2024;11(2):260-266. DOI: 10.47475/2411-0590-2024-11-2-260-266
Научная статья
Елена Игоревна Думанская
Уральский государственный юридический университет им. В. Ф. Яковлева,
Екатеринбург, Россия
dumanskaya.e@yandex.ru
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2066-1012
Аннотация. В статье анализируется процессы виктимизации при домашнем насилии, а также факторы, его определяющие, в частности неосознаваемые установки жертвы . В статье обращается внимание на тот факт, что сценарий поведения жертвы не может
© Е .И .Думанская
Виктимизация от домашнего насилия: проблемы профилактики
ВИКТИМОЛОГИЯ • 2024. Т. 11, № 2. С. 260-266
быть скорректирован без работы с такими установками жертвы и меры по предотвращению не будут в полной мере эффективны без учета данного очень значимого фактора. Психологи, используя методы профилактики домашнего насилия, могут помочь жертвам изменить свое поведение, чтобы жертва оставалась в безопасности. Необходимо создавать инструменты для выявления внутрисемейных факторов и реагировать на «сценарий жертвы», разрабатывать программы реабилитации как для агрессора, так и для жертвы . Все вышеуказанное может способствовать более эффективной профилактике домашнего насилия
Ключевые слова: индивидуальная виктимизация, домашнее насилие, профилактика, виктимизация, жертва, профилактика домашнего насилия, факторы виктимизации, поведение жертвы
Для цитирования: Думанская Е . И . Виктимизация от домашнего насилия: проблемы профилактики // Виктимология . 2024. Т. 11, № 2 . С . 260-266. DOI: 10.47475/2411-0590-202411-2-260-266
Introduction
Domestic violence is a widely spread crime . It is a complex societal issue spanning many areas of life . Domestic violence (domestic abuse, intimidation and harassment) includes physical, mental, emotional, and sexual abuse . Abuse occurs when a domestic partner wants to control, physically harm, or have power over their partner. It is characterized by one partner's need to control the other by using a range of tactics . Throughout the article, we use the terms "domestic violence" and "domestic abuse" interchangeably.
According to the report Violence against Women Prevalence Estimates published jointly by different components of the United Nations system, one in three women experience domestic violence globally1 .
The problem of domestic violence prevention should be solved by improving risk assessment tool sand victimization research Prevention of victimization requires effective means of influencing the personality (of both the abuser and the victim, because these roles very often change) .
We must understand the processes determining the victim's long-term situation of unsuccessful attempts to get out of such a situation and so on. The article discusses the factors of physical, sexual, emotional,
1 Examining Domestic Violence Around the World: The Cost of Doing Nothing // United Nations . URL: https://www. un . org/en/academic-impact/examining-domestic-violence-around-world-cost-doing-nothing (date of application: 20.03.2024).
psychological and financial abuse, which often becomes more severe over time and which can increase in severity at certain risk points .
The abuser and the victim have a close relationship and can determine each other's behavior in criminal situations Domestic abuse is a cyclical phenomenon and the "aggressor" — "victim" roles can often change . The analysis of the interaction between the offender and their potential victim makes it possible to clearly understand at what stage a conflict begins and transforms into a crime, as well as what contribution the victim makes to this crime
Domestic violence can lead to various consequences . For example, the study of Bajpai and Sharma shows that experiencing criminal victimization, such as violent crimes, sexual offences, has a significant impact on the level of happiness in different countries around the world [1] .
Material and methods
According to the World Health Organization's (WHO) report over a quarter of women aged 15-49 who have been in a relationship have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner, at least once in their lifetime (since they are 15) . The prevalence estimates of lifetime intimate partner violence range from 20 % in the Western Pacific, 22 % in high-income countries and Europe, and 25 % in the WHO Regions of the Americas to 33 % in the WHO African region, 31 % in the WHO Eastern
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Mediterranean region, and 33 % in the WHO South-East Asia region . Globally, as many as 38 % of all murders of women are committed by their intimate partners . In addition to intimate partner violence, globally 6 % of women report having been sexually assaulted by someone other than a partner, although data for nonpartner sexual violence is more limited1 .
Domestic violence is caused not only by external factors (alcoholism, drug addiction, etc .) . The research investigates the impact of indicators such as financial stress, number of children, length of relationship, employment, social support, education, and income [2]. But also it is caused by a number of internal factors (for example, life experience, family history, traumatic experience, etc .) . It makes the behavior victimized . In domestic violence cases partnership includes codependency relationships, manifested in the victim's behavior. As intimidation, threats and fear become central to women's everyday lives, some women attempt to manage abuse by attempting to "do everything right" [12] . Such behavior of the victim is characterized by a sense of intolerance to their own mistakes and self-blame
The multi-causal domestic violence victimization can be difficult to determine . And the researchers also have a question whether experiences of abuse are similar at various stages in the lifespan [14, p . 965] . For example, getting into abusive relationships at a young age is considered as a key factor for women later in life due to a lack of knowledge surrounding what "healthy" relationships entail [5, p . 11] . Consequently, we must take into account the conscious and unconscious, rational and emotional components in the victim's behavior.
The article focuses on unconscious factors in the victim's behavior
We believe that understanding the unconscious aspects of the victim's (and the aggressor's) behavior in domestic violence cases can be a key to effective victimological prevention [6, p . 286] .
1 Violence against women // World Health Organization. URL: https://www.who. int/news-room/ fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women (date of application: 25.03.2024) .
In domestic violence cases the victim develops a "habituation to violence", when the victim accepts it as "normal" . Very often, this pattern is coming from the parental family: children reproduce their parents' patterns
People who have experienced violence in childhood have traits and characteristics such as loyalty to their abuser, self-sacrifice, the desire to help others to the detriment of themselves, taking on guilt and responsibility, dependence on the microsocium, etc . [7]. Researchers consider the victim's behavior as "provocativeness", "subordination", "morbid attachment", "excessive concern", "addiction to relationships", "mental state", "special character traits", "dependence", or "a way of adapting to an intrapersonal conflict" . Children who have experienced abuse are now known to be more likely to become a victim and/or a perpetrator of other forms of violence in adolescence and adulthood [3]
Such "habituation to violence" is a factor that determines long-term violence of the aggressor. Unfortunately, in some cases law enforcement officials in Russia consider that the situation is completely "suitable" for the victim and the victim is "guilty" of continuing to interact with the aggressor. And, for example, if the "aggressor" — "victim" roles have changed (a female victim of domestic violence kills her husband-aggressor), the previous interaction between them is not taken into account when sentencing the abuser and preventing domestic violence
Another big problem related to domestic violence is crimes against aggressors, including murders committed by women who have suffered violence
Let's take a look at criminal case No .1-211/2023.
In the period from 4:00 p . m . to 6:00 p . m . on January 16, 2023, a quarrel occurred between the intoxicated F . and I . Feeling personal hostility towards I , who had committed violence and abuse against her, F took a kitchen knife, stabbed it in the neck of I .The defendant's testimony is as follows: "He and I have been in a relationship for more than twenty years" They have two adult children The children live separately. Relationships between spouses were complicated: there were constant scandals, when her husband
used physical violence against her. Besides, he did not work officially, worked part-time, and often drank alcohol . She also drank alcohol . In the state of intoxication I .became aggressive, she was afraid of him . On the day of the crime they were at home in the afternoon, drinking alcohol . On the table there was a knife . At about 4:00 p .m . , she went into her room and lay down on the bed . At that time her husband was also on his bed in the same room Then I . lay down with her. He began to quarrel with her, then grabbed her by the neck and began to strangle and insult her. She pushed him and ran into the kitchen . She could not leave the house, as the door was closed I came up to her, took her by the neck and began to strangle her again. He had a screwdriver in his hand. Then he threw the screwdriver back into the box. She did not try to leave the house . She took the knife and went to I She stabbed him with a knife At the same time, she said to him: "You make me sick!" After stabbing him, she immediately pulled the knife out and saw blood She tried to stop the bleeding All this time I was on his bed, then got up and began to telephone someone . Five minutes later, his face turned pale and he stopped breathing1 .
In this case, crime is interpreted not as domestic-violence-related case, but as a quarrel .Violence is considered as an isolated act of aggression, and not as a permanent and repetitive cycle of coercion and control
The law enforcement bodies did not take into account the previous domestic violence Thus, in this case there is no effective response because the cause and mechanism of criminal behavior has not been established
Discussion of the results
The family is a complex system in which the aggressor and the victim are dependent and codependent . In situations of domestic violence they may be under stress or chronic post-traumatic stress disorder And many women report mental and physical problems after domestic violence [4, p .1301] . Identifying the real reasons and motives for actions, it is
1 Verdict No . 1-211/2023 of 30 May 2023 // Judicial and regulatory acts of the Russian Federation . URL: https://sudact . ru/regular/doc/mCYfCbd7JYoX/?ysclid= lsmx9ywgb0132384613 (date of application: 20.03.2024) .
necessary to develop effective measures of criminological prevention
Unfortunately, the problem of "readaptation" measures of the criminal (and the victim) is out of the focus of law enforcement It is important to understand the patterns of the "aggressor"—"victim" behavior, and to find ways of implementing models and norms related to victimized behavior
In domestic violence one of the victimized behavior features is passivity. If a situation needs an action, the victim often remains inactive and does not know how to act decisively. Psychological literature and experience of psychotherapists working with female victims show that the victim comes only to the first meeting with psychologists, "blows off the steam" and does not come anymore . Such clients do not attend subsequent meetings . Living in a stressful atmosphere and feeling helplessness leads to the idea that there is no point in changing anything. Such thoughts often result in wasting activity, usually aimed at solving not priority problems
In our opinion, potential victim counseling is away to render necessary, decent and sufficient assistance to domestic violence victims This type of counseling should be aimed at preventing the victim's recurrence, including latent victims and victims of various types of violence
Measures of victimological consulting will not be effective without taking into account a very significant factor of the victim's behavior—their unconscious attitudes and patterns
It is this issue that is of paramount importance in this paper Law enforcement bodies, courts, and other criminal justice, crime prevention, and victim services professionals who work with victims of crimes pay no attention to various unconscious patterns formed by the victim's broad family system and the environment Personal reactions are determined both by the psyche of the individual and by the patterns of broad family system and the environment
Some researchers argue that the victim's behavior can be explained by a feeling of guilt or shame and a desire to be punished . According to the transactional analysis approach, people manipulating others provoke
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and play roles causing targeted feelings of guilt, pain, and fear that have arisen earlier in similar situations [10] .
For example, in case of the child's identification with others who are significant to them, they strive to get the traits of such a person—they imitate, assimilate and apply the behavior towards them — such traits as demonstrated by the significant "model" . And actually the child begins to behave like a "model" . Identification makes the child able to adopt the point of view of parents and other people, makes him malleable to their suggestive influences, and makes the child under their control . The child is able to apply standards of "the significant" to their activities . The objects of identification can be parents, relatives, "significant others" — peers, real persons or ideal persons, for example, heroes from movies or literature [10] . Naturally, such a "significant pattern" or "model" can be the victim's behavior of people who are significant to the child
S . Freud developed the idea that a person's individual experience captures experience accumulated by previous generations [8]. Françoise Dolto believes that the unconscious of the mother and the child are connected, and the child knows, guesses and feels things related to the family for two or three generations . In psychodramatic sessions, during the re-experience of birth, the adult has the behavior, lip movements, and thin voice like the infant and recalls important and traumatic facts of his birth or events occurred before his birth (in some cases, it has been verified) [13] .
At birth, and even in the womb, the child accumulates a number of messages: he/she is given a surname and a first name, expectation of the roles to be played or avoided The expectations can be positive and/or negative . The child is being programmed for a lot of things—prescriptions, scenarios, the future . It is stated explicitly or remains unspoken . This is assumed by default and is kept strictly secret . However, explicit or implicit expectations will begin to "program" the child. Then the family and the microsocium implement this program into the child's identity: their life and death, marriage or celibacy, profession or vocation, the future depends on the family
context, spoken and unspoken [13] . Research confirms that the broader family context is no less important for the criminal activity and victimization of a child than the imprisonment of parents, parents' drug use and criminal behavior [9, p 395]
Effective prevention depends on knowledge related to victims and offender-victim relationships Any professional working in the criminal justice arena or in victim services must understand the relationships between the victim and the offender and behaviors and patterns that result in being a victim Psychologists and therapists can assist victims in changing such victim's behaviors and patterns
Knowledge of unconscious behavior patterns allows for the establishment and implementation of best practices that can lead to the effective services for victims and crime prevention
Certainly, domestic violence prevention must be multi-layered . In order to end domestic violence, the problem must be addressed and handled at the societal, relationship, and individual levels . As measures of victimological prevention, along with legislative regulation of this issue, propaganda and call for an intolerant attitude towards domestic violence, education and informing citizens about where they can get help are often proposed
We must understand the relevant data and situations in which victimization occurs as well as the interactions between victims and abusers Finally, we must understand the social influences and environments of victims of various crimes . Social workers provide victim services, resources, and crisis assistance to victims of crime, including victims of domestic violence . The victim should know the addresses and telephone numbers of the emergency room, police department, crisis center, shelter or other places where they can stay in dangerous situations .The victim should know how to collect information, what and when events happened, who the threatening behavior is directed at and whether it gets worse over time
The set of actions is not complicated and understandable; however the victim commits these actions in rare cases . Basically, the victim "gets used" to violence and perceives it,
if not as a "norm", then as a natural order. The victim's behavior becomes a systematically repeated scenario
Domestic violence prevention encompasses proactive efforts to stop violence and abuse from happening in the first place by interrupting the unconscious patterns, and constructs that support it . Victimology is yet to expand its lens to foster a more broadly relational understanding of how persons become victims and how it correlates with the impact of social relationships such as family ties or friendships [11, p . 4] .
We must understand victimization concepts to defend both victims of crimes and those individuals who have been accused of a crime . Abusive behavior can also result from exposure to being abused themselves, history of witnessing domestic violence, social and emotional isolation, absence of healthy role models and relationships, and a lack of emotional and non-violent social skills
Conclusions
Domestic violence is preventable . Current estimates are that around one in three women will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime [15, p .28] .
What happens in a particular family is not the sphere of public control . But creating incentives to resolve intra-family problems
and providing assistance in "victim scenario" resistance is the key to successful prevention of domestic violence
In our opinion, measures of victim scenario prevention are not fully effective without considering a very significant factor of the victim's behavior—unconscious attitudes and patterns
Victimological counseling is a way to provide necessary, decent and sufficient assistance to victims of domestic violence
Any process of victims' reintegration and readaptation should include psychotherapeutic counseling for both the aggressor and the victim to understand the patterns of behavior that cause violence .
Various programs aimed at stimulating the desire of psychological and resocialization measures deserve attention and development . Large-scale development of programs for moral and psychological rehabilitation, information and advisory, legal and medical assistance is required. Moreover, these programs should be developed designed for both the abuser and the victim
Measures are needed to reduce the vulnerability of potential victims (including psychological help to avoid the victim's patterns), measures of victimological assistance to provide all types of support (moral, psychological, legal and others) .
References
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Думанская Е. И.
Виктимизация от домашнего насилия: проблемы профилактики
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ИНФОРМАЦИЯ ОБ АВТОРЕ
Думанская Елена Игоревна
Кандидат юридических наук, доцент, доцент кафедры уголовного права имени М. И. Ковалева, Уральский государственный юридический университет имени В. Ф. Яковлева.
Россия, 620066, Екатеринбург, ул. Комсомольская, д. 21.
dumanskaya.e@yandex.ru
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2066-1012
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
There is no conflict of interest.
INFORMATION ABOUT THE AUTHOR Elena I. Dumanskaya
Candidate of Law Science, Associate Professor, Associate Professor of the M. I. Kovalev Chair of Criminal Law, V. F. Yakovlev Ural State Law University.
21 Komsomolskaya str., Yekaterinburg 620066, Russia.
dumanskaya.e@yandex.ru
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2066-1012
КОНФЛИКТ ИНТЕРЕСОВ
Конфликт интересов отсутствует.
Дата поступления статьи / Received: 26.03.2024.
Дата рецензирования статьи / Revised: 30.04.2024.
Дата принятия статьи к публикации / Accepted: 25.06.2024.
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ВИКТИМОЛОГИЯ • 2024. Т. 11, № 2. С. 260-266
