Gender equality and extension of women rights in Russia
within millennium development goals

8. Gender aspects of violation in Russia

The problem of violence naturally concerns different social and demographic groups: young and aged, men and women. The level of violence in Russia is rather high, the parameters relative to the violence death rate are 3 times higher that the world's average ones. But does a gender asymmetry in the violence problem exist? The problem's analysis is complicated due to the fact that no victimological recording is carried out in Russia as concerns the registered crimes and there is no research monitoring of the victimization. Certain information is available through the international victimization researches³⁹, which are carried out by the interregional institute of the researches of criminal justice attached to UNO (UNICRI). According to this data, the violent crimes against the persons are committed in a greater degree relatively to men. Among the people inquired in Russia in 1996, 7,6% of men and 4,2% of women were victims of violence or threat of violence within one year. The correspondence becomes more equal if we also consider the incidents of sexual violence which are only applicable to women - 2,1% of the inquired women were the victims of such crimes within one year. According to other data, in year 2002 men were the victims of violent crimes two times more frequently than the women⁴⁰.

At the same time the victimization probability depends on many factors. The analysis carried out on the basis of the international data, shows that the risk of victimization, among other equal factors, is higher for women, decreases with the age and number of the family members and increases with the number of evening exits from the house for all categories of crimes. Thus, young people, especially girls, who are not under the parental control, are the most victimable part of the population⁴¹. The results of this survey may be applied for Russia as well.

The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence of Women Attitude, approved by UNO in 1993, defines the "violence attitude of women" as the actions which include "any act of violence, committed on the basis of the sex character, which cause or may cause the physical, sexual or psychological damage or suffering of women, as well as the threats of commitment of such acts, of forcing or voluntary deprivation of liberty, both in social and private life». Among the types of violence, crimes connected with sexual violence and family violence have surely the gender signing. Women expose themselves to a greater danger at home than in the streets, and the violence often manifests itself in the form of the sexual harassment.

Crimes connected with sexual violence are overwhelmingly directed against women, so the parameters of the total number of crimes may be used. The dynamics of number of rapes and attempted rapes indicates a certain decrease of the number of such crimes. But in this case it is necessary to consider that in many cases the victims do not apply to the law enforcement authorities. For instance, in the European countries in 2000 only 7% of the victims of sexual incidents and 37% of the victims of assault informed the police about it⁴². One of the surveys in Russia showed that 15% of the declared rapes were concealed by the law enforcement authorities⁴³. The decrease of the number of the registered rapes or attempted rapes may also mean the increase of the latency of such crimes.

Apart from the rapes and attempted rapes, there are many cases of sexual harassment and forcing to the sexual contacts at work. In the conditions of tension on the labour market, high unemployment rate, difficulties with employment, the resistance to the sexual harassment threatens the significant expenses. More than half of men and the absolute majority of women consider that in case of refuse of the sexual harassment at work a woman has a real chance to lose the job, it may also cause, according to the respondents, the impossibility to make a professional career, or loss of the salary⁴⁵.

If in the general case men become more often the violence victims, in case of family violence women are the victims in 93% of the cases⁴⁶. Violence against the family members represents a serious social problem. First of all, it is connected with the fact that the violence in the family occurs in hidden ways. It rarely becomes a ground for appealing to the law enforcement authorities or the public property, it is often considered by the population as a private family problem, which should not be the subject of the social attention and the national policy.

The information about the level of the family violence is mainly based on the surveys' data. For instance, the data of the survey of 1996 prove that 25% of married women exposed themselves to the physical violence in a lesser or a greater degree, up to 30% of divorced women had cases of violence in the previous marriages. And in the rural regions the family violence has spread in a greater degree⁴⁷. At the same time this survey revealed that women often use also different forms of violence in regard to the husbands. But the men's behaviour is mainly characterized as an aggressive one, while the women's behaviour is defensive, and very rarely women admit the initiated attacks. If, according to the data of another survey, one third of the respondents, both men and women, noticed that in their families women use the force against the husband, only 7% of women used the force in regard to men who had never attacked them⁴⁸. According to the data of the same survey, conducted in 2000-2002 in 7 regions of Russia, 41% of women were beaten at least one time by their husband, and 3% of women are beaten by the husband one time a month an more often.⁴⁹

A survey of 2002 has proved that 87% of men and 93% of women consider that in Russia there is violence against the woman in the family, and 15-20% admit that violence occurs in their families. The analysis shows that the respondents from the "working groups" indicate more often the appearance of all forms of violence in their families, and the level of "brute" forms of violence of these people overcome five times the average level⁵⁰.

At the present time the problem of the family violence has only started to become the subject of the social and national policy, has started to be discussed and explored. An obstacle for resolving the problems of family violence is its poor identification by the population. The actual question consists in forming of the adequate comprehension of the society and population concerning the serious consequences of family violence.

Nearly a half of the respondents assumes that if the husband beats the wife, it is their private business, which nobody should poach in. According to the respondents, the list of the people and organizations to which a person should apply in case of family physical violence is headed by the social ambient (kinds, friends), then follow the psychologists, critical centers, family consultations, and only then the law enforcement authorities and lawyers.⁵¹

Relatively a new form of violence in the attitude of women, which appeared in the 1990s, is the traffic in women for the purposes of their sexual exploitation. International organisation of migration defines this phenomenon in the following way. «Any illegal convey of the migrating women and/or their traffic for the purposes of economical or other personal profit. It may include the following elements: aiding in illegal convey of the migrating women to other countries, with or without their consent and acknowledgement; delusion of the migrating women concerning the aim of migration, legal or illegal; physical or sexual violence against the migrating women for the purposes of their sale; sale of women or traffic in women for the purposes of employment, marriage, prostitution or other form of illegal profit earning».

Women's share among the migrating women who go abroad through the official channels of migration, amounts 12%, but according to the researchers' evaluation, it amounts not more than 5% of the total flow of the female labour migration out of the country⁵³. That is 95% of the female labour migration is an illegal migration, which significantly increases the risk of the probability that woman would become an object of violence and sexual exploitation. The process of marginalization of the female labour migration has been noted.

Traffic in women is a cross-cutting problem, and it requires complex actions, also internationally, because this problem is not only the problem of the sending countries, but of the receiving countries as well.

Violences against women are manifested in various forms. As in the 1990s generally a high level of violence was formed in Russia, many forms of violence against women are not recognized as extremely dangerous and illicit. Sexual harassment at work and family violence remain generally outside the action of the formal institutions and state organizations. The existing social traditions and unfavourable economical conditions contribute to the fact that a man manifests his dominative positions in the family and at work, also by means of the forms of various violence against women.