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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri
Time: 11:30 am
Time: 11:30 am
Results for domestic violence (hungary)
1 results foundAuthor: Toth, Olga Title: Initimate Partner Violence Against Older Women. National Report - Hungary Summary: Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) committed against elderly women has been an unexplored area in Hungary so far, thus the results of the project are stop-gap. - Aims and objectives of the research: gathering information on IPV against elderly women as a social phenomenon, becoming familiar with the how much the institutions and experts know about the cases and what their attitudes are, revealing the experiences of the victims, and above all, directing public attention to the phenomenon. - In Hungary research on intimate partner violence began in late 1990s. There are only comparatively few data of this topic, and the researches are usually not built upon one another. The specific problems of elderly women do not really receive great priority in the researches either. - The system of institutions dealing with the victims of IPV is less developed than in the Western countries, and the institutions themselves or the preparedness of the experts cannot be characterized as adequate either. - The social attitude to the topic is rather rejecting than accepting, its importance is not recognized. Institutional knowledge about cases of intimate partner violence against older women was a crucial component of research in the frame of the present study. Professionals working with older victims can provide information on phenomena of IPV in old age as well as on help-seeking behavior of older women, services offered, service usage, and case outcome. Since the study did not aim at representative data on prevalence and incidence but had its focus on older female victims’ needs, help-seeking and service usage, institutions and professionals within these institutions were a primary source of information. It has been again proved what other sociological research studies have demonstrated that use of self-completion questionnaires in Hungary is not expedient. Completing a questionnaire independently causes difficulties to and by all means evokes antipathy in many people. Therefore, if a similar kind of investigation is made in the future, it must be prepared more profoundly, possibly by involving the supervisory authorities of institutions. We distributed 125 short and 224 long questionnaires; the return rate was 23%. In the course of sampling we tried to involve a wide range of institutions (the police, public prosecutor’s offices, crisis centres, family helpers, help lines, institutions looking after and caring for the elderly, etc.). It was also due to low degree of sensitivity to the topic that only one-fourth of questionnaires sent out were returned. When we asked the institutions that had not returned the questionnaire for the second time to fill in at least the opinion questions and the questions regarding the institution even if they had no cases, we were often given the reply orally that they considered the topic uninteresting, unimportant. For this reason they feel the completion of the questionnaire is a kind of waste of time. In better cases, they underlined another form of violence from their practice as a more important subject more suitable for research (e.g. violence of elderly persons by their children, grandchildren). In worse cases, they judged the entire topic of violence within the family unimportant. The use of two kinds of questionnaires has brought no benefit to us. The short questionnaire did not motivate any better to complete it. It occurred that an institution asked for a long questionnaire but eventually did not complete it. The lesson learned from this study is that in similar researches in the future we must use one kind of questionnaire. Statistical data are available in aggregate form and many institutions have no clear knowledge about the most important socio-demographic features of victims and perpetrators. It means that institutions have no official data but estimation or we have obtained rather different data regarding the number of elderly female IPV victims. In addition to the aggregating data, the family relation of the perpetrator with the victim is the most properly documented question. Based on the data available to us, the institutions – where it is documented – met mostly with cases where physical-spiritual-financial violence goes together. The overall majority of violence was one-sided, multiply, long-lasting and starting before the age of 60. The perpetrator is generally the spouse or divorced spouse living together with the victim if the parties do not manage to move apart. We have received little information as to how the institutions got into contact with victims and what services they provided for them. It was mostly domestic violence service type institutions that gave the more detailed data about victims and services. These organizations provided several kinds of services to victims: primarily psycho-social support, legal advice and crisis intervention. Due to low-key information supplied on services, it would be difficult to make proposals on improving them. Yet, we can state that the experts of domestic violence organizations are the most prepared and the most suitable for providing help; therefore, improvement of these institutions and increasing the number of experts would be of key importance. Regarding the improvement of services, it is expedient for Hungary to use the experience of the other countries that take part in the project. The group that considers the topic less important constituted a minority, yet appeared among the respondents (27.8 %). Presumably, this view is more widely held among those who have not returned the questionnaire. A part of the experts assert that relationships of the elderly do not contain any element of violence; others consider the abusive role of other family members more important. However we think that sending out questionnaires and processing responses have brought some results. The most important is the fact that experts’ attention has been driven to this issue. It can be hoped that the institutions that have so far not dealt with this issue at all will pay somewhat more attention to this topic in the future. Details: Muenster, Germany: German Police University and Deutsche Hochschule der Polizei, 2010. 150p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 4, 2011 at: http://www.ipvow.org/images/stories/ipvow/reports/IPVoW_Hungary_English_final.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Hungary URL: http://www.ipvow.org/images/stories/ipvow/reports/IPVoW_Hungary_English_final.pdf Shelf Number: 121244 Keywords: Domestic ViolenceDomestic Violence (Hungary)Elder AbuseElderly VictimsIntimate Partner ViolenceVictim Services |