Violence against women

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rape per 100,000 population. (Status: 2018)
Source: http://www.womanstats.org (English)
Murders of women per 100,000 population. (Status: 2019)
Source: http://www.womanstats.org (English)

Violence against women occurs around the world on a daily basis and in different contexts. Psychological, physical and sexual violence are also included. The WHO names violence against women as one of the greatest health risks for women worldwide. Since 1999 November 25th has been held as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women .

In the past few decades, there has been a sharp rise in sensitivity to violence against women, which has led to a decreasing number of unreported cases . Recently, social media movements like #MeToo have also encouraged this development.

Forms of violence

Violence against women and girls is the most common human rights violation worldwide (UNICEF publications). According to a report by the World Bank , at least one in three women worldwide will be beaten, raped or otherwise subjected to violence at some point in their lives.

  • Domestic violence . The most common form of violence against women worldwide is physical violence by a familiar person in their home life. According to WHO estimates, 40 to 70 percent of women murdered in Australia, Russia, Israel, Canada, South Africa and the United States fell victim to their husbands or significant other. In Colombia, a woman is murdered by her partner or ex-partner every sixth day. In Germany, a man close to the victim is suspected in almost every second woman murder (BKA 2012).
  • Sexualized violence against women. Worldwide, one in five women will be a victim of rape or attempted rape in their lifetime . In India, a woman is raped every 21 minutes. "The number of unreported cases is likely to be much higher, estimates the Indologist Dorothea Riecker."
  • On the flight, for example from Syria to Europe, women and girls are particularly at risk of falling victim to violence, including sexual violence.
  • Dowry murders , a crime in which the woman is killed by her husband or by her in-laws because her family cannot raise the dowry for the family of the (new) man after marriage , are in South Asia, v. a. India, common.
  • Honor killing . According to estimates by the UN World Population Report Ending Violence against Women and Girls , with an increasing trend, 5,000 women are killed every year in so-called honor killings worldwide. The perpetrators are mostly male family members. Sometimes they are determined according to a traditional set of rules or for strategic reasons to reduce sentences. According to the report, the perpetrators escape the actual sentence without conviction or with milder sentences. The report notes that honor killings are mainly committed in countries with a predominantly Muslim population, but cannot be limited to these countries. According to Wolfram Reiss , honor killings of women are also increasingly being committed in India and Brazil. A study commissioned by the Federal Criminal Police Office on the basis of 78 case files with the title honor killings in Germany 1996-2005 came to the result that 57 percent of the victims were female, and 91 percent of the predominantly male perpetrators were first-generation migrants.
  • Forced marriage . According to a 2003 UNICEF report, more than 51 million girls between the ages of 15 and 19 are married around the world. The majority of marriages of under 19-year-olds are girls, not boys. The economically precarious living conditions of families have the most significant influence. According to a study commissioned by the Family Ministry in Germany in 2005, 25 percent of the 143 women with a Turkish background who were married to a Turkish man said that they did not know their husband before the wedding.
Public poster (plan.de), January 2016
  • Violence in childbirth . Studies show that verbal and physical violence often occurs around childbirth. According to estimates by the organization Human Rights in Childbirth , 40 to 50 percent of all women experience psychological or physical violence before, during or after childbirth.
  • Femicide , abortion of female fetuses after prenatal sex selection, infanticide of girls or systematic neglect of girls are widespread in South and East Asia, North Africa and the Middle East. In Mexico kidnapping, rape and murder of women are known under the term "Feminicido". Most of the crimes go unpunished, criticize the United Nations and women's rights groups. (See also: Femicide in Ciudad Juárez )
  • Human trafficking and forced prostitution : Between 500,000 and two million people, 80% of whom are women and girls, are victims of human trafficking, forced labor or forced prostitution every year.
  • Female genital mutilation : the main areas of distribution are western and northeastern Africa (e.g. Egypt) as well as Yemen, Iraq, Indonesia and Malaysia.
  • Acid attacks on women are particularly common in South Asian states, v. a. Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, widespread and also reported from Iran, are rarely reported and usually go unpunished.
  • Stoning , a collective form of execution that specifically women are sentenced to for adultery or pre-marriage sexual intercourse. In countries like Afghanistan, Iran, Yemen, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Sudan, stoning is practiced using Sharia law.
  • Discrimination against widows
Description of the Balinese widow burning by Houtman, 1597 Verhael vande Reyse ... Naer Oost India

Widows are discriminated against in different parts of the world. Often traditions are the cause, for example inheritance law. The sacrifice of widows, such as widow burning , also occurred in different cultures throughout history. Although the widow burning in India has practically been eradicated, there are always isolated cases, such as the sensational widow burning of Roop Kanwar in 1987, as well as some incidents in rural areas in 2002, 2006, 2014 and 2015 in which the relatives do not manage a 70- year-old widow from jumping onto her husband's burning pyre.

In some currents of Hinduism, widowhood is associated with extreme marginalization. Widows are expected to go bald, they are not allowed to wear jewelry or the red dot on their foreheads, they have to walk barefoot, they are only allowed to wear clothes made of coarse white cotton and they are not allowed to eat meat or take part in parties. Many penniless Hindu widows who have been cast out by their families go to the city of Vrindavan to beg for the rest of their lives.

This discrimination is also blamed for driving Hindu widows to suicide.

Violence against girls

Violence against girls takes many forms: domestic violence , trafficking in girls , sexual abuse , forced marriage , violence in schools , female genital mutilation . In the world, violence is the leading cause of death among young girls. According to a worldwide study by the United Nations Children's Fund ( UNICEF ) on violence against children and adolescents in 2014, almost every third girl between the ages of 15 and 19 who lives in a partnership is the victim of emotional, physical or sexual abuse. It is estimated that one in ten girls in the world will have the experience of being pressured or coerced into sexual intercourse in their lifetime.

Studies

Germany

According to statistics, more than 100,000 women in Germany were victims of intimate partner violence in 2015. In 331 cases, attempted or accomplished murder or manslaughter of a woman by her partner or ex-partner occurred. The Federal Criminal Police Office named former partners as the largest group of perpetrators. According to the data of the BKA ("Partnership violence - criminal statistics analysis - reporting year 2017"), migrants living in Germany - on the part of victims and suspects - have a higher proportion of partnership violence than their proportion in the population would correspond to.

Prevalence study 2004

In 2004, the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs presented the first representative study (prevalence study) on experiences of violence among women living in Germany, for which 10,000 women between the ages of 16 and 85 were questioned extensively about their experiences of violence. The result of the investigation was that "at least every fourth woman living in Germany has ever experienced physical or sexual violence by a relationship partner". Violence against women is not exclusively, but predominantly, committed in the domestic sphere, by partners or ex-partners. Women in separation or divorce situations are particularly at risk of becoming victims of violence by their (ex) partners. In the lives of those affected, violence against women often marks a break with accustomed relationships in life (e.g. separation, change of residence, termination of the job), even if the perpetrator is not the partner. Over half of the women affected by physical violence suffered physical injuries, and a third of these women sought medical help for this reason. Often children are involved in violence against their mother.

  • 20% of the women who experienced violence in their last partnership stated the birth of a child as the event that triggered the violence, a further 10% stated pregnancy.
  • 40% have experienced physical or sexual violence or both since the age of 16.
  • 37% of those affected by physical and 47% of those affected by sexual violence did not speak to anyone about the events. The proportions are even higher if the perpetrator is the current or a previous life partner.
  • 25% have experienced violence from current or previous relationship partners (domestic violence).
  • 13% have suffered criminally relevant forms of sexual violence since the age of 16.
  • 42% of women living in Germany have experienced psychological violence (in the form of intimidation, slander, threats, psychological terror).
  • 56% to 80% of those affected - depending on the form of violence, but especially in the case of psychological and sexual violence - suffered subsequent psychological problems (sleep disorders, depression, fears, etc.).

Europe

FRA survey 2014

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) survey of violence against women in Europe, published in 2014, is the first of its kind. It is based on interviews with 42,000 women from the 28 Member States of the European Union (EU). The questionnaire covered experiences with physical, sexual and psychological violence. This also includes cases of intimate partner violence ( domestic violence ). Questions were also asked about stalking , sexual harassment and the role of new technologies in relation to abuse. A third of women between the ages of 15 and 74 stated that they had experienced “physical and / or sexual violence”. That corresponds to 62 million women. Five percent said they were victims of rape and twelve percent said they were victims of sexual violence as children. According to the study's author, Joanna Goodey , 22 percent of the victims of violence went to a doctor or hospital, while only 15 percent went to the police. 97 percent of the perpetrators were men.

Canada

The Justin Trudeau government set up a five-person commission of inquiry for 2016 to the end of 2018 to deal with the problem of missing or murdered women and girls among the autochthons . The work of the commission is endowed with Can $ 53.8 million; an additional Can $ 16.17 million has been earmarked for survivor victim care for a period of 5 years. According to the 2014 RCMP, there were 1181 victims nationwide from 1980 to 2012, 1017 of whom were murdered, as far as the police were aware of their deaths. The Trudeau government has made the fight against this social problem a priority for 2016-2018.

India

According to a study by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, India was the most dangerous country for women in the world in 2018. India was ranked first among the 10 most dangerous countries (including the USA and Saudi Arabia ) in 3 of 6 areas: cultural oppression and mistreatment of women, sexual violence against women, and human trafficking and forced prostitution . In 2016, 40,000  rapes were reported in India .

A typical problem in the country is dowry murders , in which women are killed by their husbands if the woman's parents have not given the man a sufficient dowry (“trousseau”).

Increasing willingness to report internationally

Especially in Western countries one is over long periods of relatively synchronous crime decline , especially in violent crime and theft well documented. However, the frequency of violence against women changed less consistently in different countries. The willingness of the victims to file a complaint increased everywhere. However, the periods of the increases were somewhat different in different countries.

In the USA, the reporting rates (the ratio of reported to actual cases) of violent, including sexual assault, rose slightly in the 1970s and rose sharply from the mid-1980s. Crime rates (the ratio of ads to population size) have been falling in western countries since the early 1990s. In the United States, violent crime reports decreased by 27% between 1991 and 2005. However, when changes in willingness to report are factored in, the numbers of actual cases fell by 51%. Similar declines were found in England and Wales , as well as Scandinavia , where victimization studies are also carried out on a regular basis .

One reason for the increased willingness to report is the reduced tolerance of sexual violence and violence against women in general, at least in Western societies. As part of society, the police are also influenced by the changed culture. This increased their willingness to take such incidents seriously and register them as criminality - also in order to prevent public criticism.

The cultural tolerance level for violence has changed at least since the 1960s. Incidents reported today may have been labeled undesirable, unfriendly or unacceptable in the past, but not criminal. Examples are partnership conflicts or unwanted sexual contact in public. The criminologist Michael Tonry thinks that cultural change also affects the terms. If, in a victimization study in the 1960s, someone had been asked by their partner after a blow whether they had been the victim of an act of violence, the probability of saying no would have been greater than it is today.

Many sexual assault ratings have shifted. This also applies to rape and attempted rape by acquaintances, the husband, or women who are looking for a relationship . This is also a success of feminism in the 1970s and 1980s. Political movements tightened laws and changed the interpretation of existing laws. Since the late 1990s, media coverage has become increasingly victim-centered and moral.

Changes in reporting behavior, legal changes, an extended registration by the police and the changed social tolerance led to a significant increase in the number of cases compared to the actual incidents in the crime statistics of all developed countries. In the past few years, several social media campaigns have promoted this development, such as #ichhabnichtge Zeiten in 2012 , #aufschrei in 2013 and #MeToo in 2017 . The effects were so intense that men felt discriminated against and restricted their dealings with women.

Help (Germany)

The violence against women helpline is the first nationwide advisory service for women affected by violence. By phone on 08000 116 016 around the clock, via chat or email, those affected, but also relatives and friends as well as specialists can get free advice. Advice can be given anonymously and also for the hearing impaired. On request, support offers can be arranged on site. It is possible to use interpreters . Advice is offered in 15 languages. On the help line you can see that there is cooperation with all federal states. The support offer is based at the Federal Office for Family and Civil Society Tasks .

On the website of the Federal Association of Women's Advice Centers and Women's Emergency Calls (bff) , those looking for help can also use a database to search for aid organizations in their area based on specific focuses.

A brochure with information for migrant women affected by domestic violence is available on the BIG hotline (operated by BIG e.V., the Berlin initiative against violence against women). It not only contains phone numbers for hotlines, but also contact details for (Berlin) women's shelters , refuges and advice centers.

The women's rights organization Terre des Femmes supports affected women and girls and the like. a. through campaigns against female genital mutilation, domestic violence, child marriages and honor killings .

Girls and women can also find help and advice on the website of Machtlos.de, a project of the Social Service of Catholic Women. The central medium is the chat, which is open around the clock. Those affected find anonymous and free low-threshold support and individual advice from trained specialists.

Economic costs

This article or paragraph describes the situation in Africa. Help us to describe the situation in other regions.

Regardless of personal circumstances, violence against women also has macroeconomic costs. According to media reports, a study estimated that violence against women in Kenya causes costs of 400 million euros annually by leading to productivity losses, small business bankruptcies and early school leaving.

See also

Web links

Commons : Violence Against Women  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, March 5, 2014
  2. ↑ a b c Violence against Women , Federal Agency for Political Education, November 25, 2014
  3. ↑ Violence against women 2014 Background on the day of action, accessed on March 26, 2016
  4. ↑ a b c d Michael Tonry: Why Crime Rates Are Falling Throughout the Western World . In: Crime & Justice . tape 43 , no. 1 , 2014, p. 5–6 , doi : 10.1086 / 678181 (English, alternative full text access : scholarship.law.umn.edu ).
  5. ↑ Europe: Violence against refugee women, UNHCR, October 30, 2015 ( Memento of the original from April 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.uno-fluechtlingshilfe.de
  6. ↑ In: Nafis Sadik: The State of World Population , UNFPA, 2000, p. 29 (pdf)
  7. ↑ Wolfram Reiss: Killing one's own daughter because of the shame, "Honor killings" in the Islamic world , in: Wolfgang Mazal (Ed.): Family and Religion, current contributions from interdisciplinary family research , Budrich UniPress, Opladen, 2010, p. 309
  8. ↑ Dietrich Oberwittler , Julia Kasselt: Ehrenmorde in Deutschland 1996-2005. An investigation based on trial files , Luchterhand, Cologne 2011, ISBN 978-3-472-08045-9 , p. 90
  9. ↑ Sanyukta Mathur, Margaret Greene, Anju Malhotra: Too Young to Wed. The Lives, Rights, and Health of Young Married Girls , International Center for Research on Women, 2003, pp. 2–3 (pdf)
  10. ↑ Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth (ed.): Living situation, safety and health of women in Germany , pdf pages 130-131.
  11. ^ S. Miller, A. Lalonde: The global epidemic of abuse and disrespect during childbirth: History, evidence, interventions, and FIGO's mother-baby friendly birthing facilities initiative . In: International Journal of Gynaecology and Obstetrics: the Official Organ of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics . 131 Suppl 1, October 2015, p. S49-52 , doi : 10.1016 / j.ijgo.2015.02.005 , PMID 26433506 (English).
  12. ↑ Barbara Driessen: Violence during childbirth: "I have never felt so humiliated". Welt N24, March 19, 2018, accessed March 19, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Iran: Stop Stoning Forever Campaign . More information on violence against women in Iran .
  14. ↑ Owen, Margaret. A World of Widows. Illustrated. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Zed Books, 1996. 181-183. eBook.
  15. ↑ Arrests in Indian ritual burning . In: BBC News , August 7, 2002. 
  16. ↑ Sons arrested in sati death probe . In: BBC News , September 21, 2006. 
  17. ↑ 70-year-old woman commits 'sati' by jumping on funeral pyre of husband in Bihar , India Today, December 14, 2014
  18. ↑ Widow's burnt body sparks suspicion of 'sati' , Deccan Herald, April 2, 2015
  19. ^ Carl Olson: The Many Colors of Hinduism . Rutgers University Press,.
  20. ^ My Turn , Hinduism Today, September 1988
  21. ↑ The city of widows, Michaela Maria Müller, Die Welt, January 17, 2008
  22. ↑ Shunned from society, widows flock to city to die , CNN, July 5, 2007
  23. ↑ Souls united in death , Rainer Paul, Spiegel, January 11, 1999
  24. ^ Glorification of Sati 'Outlawed in India , Hinduismus Today, December 1988, last paragraph
  25. ↑ More attention for girls - plan.de ( Memento from January 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  26. ↑ Hidden in Plain Sight. A statistical analysis of violence against children , United Nations Children's Fund, New York September 2014, ISBN 978-92-806-4767-9 , digital copy (PDF; 29.7 MB).
  27. ↑ Germany: 100,000 women experience violence in partnerships. waz.de, November 22, 2016, accessed December 19, 2016 .
  28. ^ Margarete Stokowski: Violence against women, not only in Freiburg: An epidemic of violence. Spiegel online, December 6, 2016, accessed December 19, 2016 .
  29. ↑ publisher: BKA - partnership violence - criminal statistics analysis - partnership violence - crime statistics analysis - reporting year 2017. Accessed on November 27, 2018 .
  30. ↑ Victim statistics “Most common nationalities of victims of violence in a partnership (> 1000 victims) according to crime (groups)”. BKA: Partnership violence - analysis of criminal statistics - reporting year 2017, p. 28 of the PDF document; accessed November 27, 2018.
  31. ↑ Perpetrator statistics “Most frequent nationalities of the TV of partner violence (> 500 suspects) according to crime (groups)”. BKA: Partnership violence - analysis of criminal statistics - reporting year 2017, p. 33 of the PDF document; accessed November 27, 2018.
  32. ↑ Ursula Müller, Monika Schröttle (2004): Living situation, safety and health of women in Germany . A representative study of violence against women in Germany on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Family, p. 220 (pdf)
  33. ↑ Women against violence e. V.
  34. ↑ Violence against women: an EU-wide survey, FRA, March 2014. Author: Joanna Goodey (factsheet as pdf for download)
  35. ↑ EU study. Every third woman is a victim of violence , Süddeutsche Zeitung, March 5, 2014
  36. ↑ EU study: Every third woman in Europe is a victim of violence , Spiegel Online, March 4, 2014
  37. ↑ RCMP 2014 ( Memento of the original from May 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca
  38. ↑ Thomson Reuters Foundation - Annual Report: The world's most dangerous countries for women 2018. In: poll2018.trust.org. 2018 (English; detail page ).
  39. ↑ Tim van Olphen, Helena Schätzle: Violence against women in India: "My husband cut off my nose". In: Der Spiegel . May 26, 2020, accessed May 26, 2020.
  40. ↑ Michael Tonry: Why Crime Rates Are Falling Throughout the Western World . In: Crime & Justice . tape 43 , no. 1 , 2014, p. 7 , doi : 10.1086 / 678181 (English, alternative full text access : scholarship.law.umn.edu ).
  41. ↑ a b Michael Tonry: Why Crime Rates Are Falling Throughout the Western World . In: Crime & Justice . tape 43 , no. 1 , 2014, p. 8 , doi : 10.1086 / 678181 (English, alternative full text access : scholarship.law.umn.edu ).
  42. ↑ Michael Tonry: Why Crime Rates Are Falling Throughout the Western World, 43 Crime & Just. 1 (2014). P. 48 , accessed on June 6, 2019 (English).
  43. ↑ Welt.de: The controversial measures of the frightened men. Retrieved January 6, 2020 .
  44. ↑ Information on the "Violence against Women" helpline
  45. ↑ Sign language videos of the help phone for navigation on the help phone page ( memento of the original from January 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hilfetelefon.de
  46. ↑ http://www.hilfetelefon.de/aktuelles.html Advice in 15 languages
  47. ↑ with the German federal states  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.hilfetelefon.de  
  48. ↑ [1] Berlin guide for migrant women affected by domestic violence (PDF file)
  49. ↑ Tobias Dammers: The victims break their silence - thanks to football. In: Der Tagesspiegel. September 7, 2016, accessed January 12, 2019 .