NCJ Number
223753
Journal
Journal of Family Violence Volume: 23 Issue: 6 Dated: August 2008 Pages: 447-456
Date Published
August 2008
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Using data from the Moscow Health Survey, this study examined attitudes toward violence against women intimate partners among a sample of the populace in Moscow, Russia (n=1,190).
Abstract
One-third of the men and just over half of the women believed that violence against women in contemporary Russia is a serious problem. Men were significantly more likely than women to justify using violence against an intimate female partner in many of the scenarios presented in the survey, particularly when sexual infidelity was involved. Variables that were important in relation to support for the use of violence against women included having a low educational level (for both sexes), male financial difficulty, divorce, and being between the ages of 18 and 30. Male alcohol abuse was also an important factor. The explanatory context for these findings is a contemporary Russia with a deteriorating socioeconomic situation that has coincided with a “patriarchal-nationalist” upsurge that espouses the return of women to the home and a renewed emphasis on women’s “natural predestination” as wives and mothers. The findings suggest that Russia has a long way to go before violence against women is regarded as a serious social problem to the same extent as it is viewed in some other societies. Study data were drawn from the Moscow Health Survey, a collaborative survey undertaken by Swedish and Russian researchers in Moscow in the spring of 2004. The final sample consisted of 1,190 people ages 18 and over whose social and demographic characteristics were representative of Moscow’s larger population. Each respondent was asked whether he/she thought violence against women is a serious problem in Russia. They were also presented seven scenarios of marital conflict and asked whether in the scenario the husband would be justified in hitting the wife. 5 tables and 40 references