Legal awareness and legal basis of life Legal awareness and legal basis of life, under the name Aktívny život, n.o., implemented a project with financial support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic within the grant programme Support and protection of human rights and freedoms. The main aim of the project was to retrain professionals (five training seminars were carried out) who come into contact with clients whose human rights are violated. The training addressed professional awareness, increased their competencies in identifying and assessing the risk and danger of rights violations (domestic violence, intimate partner violence). The project had a positive impact on several target groups. First and foremost on professionals, who work with an important target group: women from rural areas, women with disabilities, older women who have more difficulty reaching counselling. The project also did not forget the wider public, who, during the implementation of the project, was informed about this field, i.e. about the issue of violence in society.

Today we are witnessing cases of domestic and family violence, in some cases with the consequence of loss of the victim’s life. Violence encompasses a full range of perpetrator behavior aimed at gaining power over a woman and controlling her (Conway, In Rác, 2015). According to Herzog (2009), violence is the intentional use of threats, physical or psychological pressure, or structural power against oneself or another person, against a group, or a collective, which leads to injury, psychological harm, losses, delayed or disturbed development, or even death. Ondrejkovič (2008), on the other hand, states that violence represents one of the most persistent social realities. It can involve varying scope and intensity in which it manifests itself. Violence appears in many forms, such as family violence, violence against women, violence in schools, violence “in the street”, “everyday” violence, and so on. Violence affects life, bodily and mental integrity, or individual freedom. Its basic feature is intent, i.e. violence is no “accident” or “destiny”, but the consequence of deliberate action.

In the partner relationship, an unequal status arises when one person behaves violently, aggressively, possessively, and powerfully toward the other person, who feels threatened in the relationship and experiences pain and helplessness. The perpetrator’s violent outbursts toward the victim can increase in intensity or pass through individual stages of violence. Violence against women occurs in different forms that have long-term consequences for women’s psychological and physical state. Negative effects arising from long-term exposure to domestic violence or other forms of abuse appear in various phases of women’s lives, and how they experience these effects depends on psychological resilience, emotional development, and coping strategies adopted for handling stress, whose outcome can be escape or passive acceptance of the life situation, or, conversely, an attempt to seek solutions and explore new alternatives (Radková, Pavlovičová, Cintulová, 2015).

Forms of violence according to Zlámala and Dufková (In Bednářová et al., 2009): Physical violence – slapping, kicking, strangulation, beating with hands or objects, tying up, threatening with a weapon or other objects, deprivation of sleep and food, up to attacks on life. Economic – control of finances (the victim’s income and expenses), failure to provide financial means for the shared household, earmarking finances, concealing the perpetrator’s and family’s financial situation. Sexual violence – forcing sex, sexual assault, rape, treating a close person as a sexual object. Psychological violence – blaming, rough behaviour, intimidation, restrictions, threatening, insulting, humiliating, blackmail, destroying the victim’s property (favorite items), terrorizing. Emotional violence – emotional blackmail, blaming in every situation, threats to remove children, labeling the victim as crazy, controlling what the victim does, whom they meet, and where they go. Social violence – preventing the victim in the social environment, restricting and prohibiting contact with friends and family in order to isolate the victim, exercising the perpetrator’s authority to decide in all areas of shared life, using children or other persons as a means of pressure on the victim.

2 The cycle of violence

Violence in intimate relationships does not occur randomly and is not a one-time matter; rather it lasts for a longer period, repeats, and gradually intensifies, with individual phases repeating and forming a “circle/cycle of violence”.

The cycle starts with attacks on human dignity, continues with attacks on health and culminates in attacks on life. (Matoušek, 2013).

Ševčík, Špatenková, et al. (2011) describe these phases of the cycle of violence: Phase of rising tension – communication between partners is poor, the man criticizes everything and belittles everything. Violence takes the form of passive aggression. The woman feels fear and tries to satisfy the man just to avoid an aggressive outburst. She also suffers from feelings of guilt, believing she did not prevent the tension. Phase of eruption and violence – in this phase the violence of the man toward the woman appears. Violence can take the form of emotional, psychological, and physical violence. The perpetrator tries to gain power, control, and domination over the woman. The woman experiences fear, helplessness, despair. The situation deteriorates because social consequences are by no means minor and the perpetrator begins to use violence as a means of control, coercion, and power. Reconciliation phase (honeymoon period) – the perpetrator starts to realize that the woman may want to end the relationship, but does not want to lose her (to lose power and control), so he begins to apologize, make promises, reassure, and change his behavioural strategy; he starts to pretend or show love, sadness, remorse. Phase of calm – this can sometimes be considered a reconciliation phase, because it is characterized by “calm”, without the occurrence of violence in the relationship. The man even seems to keep some promises, and the woman begins to hope that the violence will stop.

The cycle repeats and it is very difficult to break the dynamics of such a relationship. At first the tension and reconciliation phases last longer, but gradually their duration shortens. Women may face serious health and psychological consequences after the attacks, possibly even death. Women fear for their own existence, are often financially dependent on the perpetrator, fear for their children, for themselves, and often lack close support from family and surroundings.

3 Training of professionals

Training on the topic of violence against women was held in five towns for professionals from Veľký Krtíš, Krupina, Levice, Komárno, Nové Zámky – Hurbanovo. In total, 65 professionals participated in the trainings (59 women and 6 men). The training covered topics: basic definitions and concepts. Overview of conventions and legislation on this issue at international and Slovak levels. Myths and facts, forms and patterns of violence against women. Basic skills in dealing with women experiencing violence and their children. Assessment of risk of violence against a woman and risk factors. Safety planning, good institutional practice in risk assessment. Interinstitutional cooperation. Partnership wheel.

At the start of the training we applied an expectation questionnaire and at the end a feedback questionnaire, which was completed by 61 professionals (55 women and 6 men). We present some findings:

  • In the questionnaire we examined whether professional workplaces have prepared methodologies for working with a victim of violence. Most professionals answered that they do not. In cases where the answer was yes, the methodology focused on work with the CAN syndrome or the methodology is inadequate and needs to be further developed.
  • In response to whether professionals can identify violence against a client, answers were: neutral – 37 professionals, yes – 4 professionals, no – 8 professionals, 12 professionals did not answer this question.
  • In response to whether professionals can identify risks/dangers facing a client, answers were: yes – 9 professionals, neutral – 37 professionals, no – 3 professionals, 12 professionals did not answer this question.
  • Professionals assessed cooperation with institutions on a scale of 1 – very good, 2 – good, 3 – weak, 4 – none. Average evaluation of cooperation – police/2.12; local government/2.42; courts/2.5; NGOs/2.48; UPSVaR/2.14; health care/2.25. Other organizations mentioned as places where professionals cooperate include schools and the Centre for Pedagogical and Psychological Counselling and Prevention.
  • As the most beneficial part of the training, professionals rated: learning through examples from practice, analysis of case studies, life stories, their resolution, and peer discussions (39 professionals out of 61). We can conclude that professionals prefer learning through model situations, which they would welcome in future for further trainings.

Conclusion

The topic of violence and the introduction of measures in society remain widely discussed. A multi-institutional approach to solving concrete cases from the field should be the basis. It is important to create and strengthen multidisciplinary teams, learn how to work and cooperate in such teams, because only this way can we effectively help the victim of violence. It is crucial, however, to recognize violence early and to know the signs that need to be identified on the victim in order to offer help. The long-term challenge for all state institutions and non-governmental organizations working in this area remains the reduction of tolerance of any form of violence in society.

Authors: Mgr. Karin Kupcová, PaedDr. Martina Ferri List of bibliographic references

BEDNÁŘOVÁ, Z. – MACKOVÁ, K. – WÜNSCHOVÁ, P. – BLÁHOVÁ, K. 2009. Domácí násilí – zkušenosti z pozkytování sociální a terapeutické pomoci ohroženým osobám. Praha: Acorus, 2009. 92 s. ISBN 978-80-254-5422-0. HERZOG, R. 2009. Násilí není řešení. Plzeň : Fraus, 2009. 120 s. ISBN 978-8-7238-850-9. MATOUŠEK, O. et al. 2013. Encyklopédie sociální práce. Praha: Portál, 2013. 570 s. ISBN 978-80-262-0366-7. ONDREJKOVIČ, P. 2008. Násilie spoločensky nežiaduci jav. In Sociológia. ISSN 0049-1225, 2008, roč. 40, č. 5, s. 391-416. RADKOVÁ, L. - PAVLOVIČOVÁ, A. - CINTULOVÁ, L. Is violence against women and children well underpined problem in our society? In: Social Pathology Among Youth. International Dialogue of Aspects in Social Pathology Among Children, Youth and Young Adults. Abstracts Book. Ed. Šuvada, J., - Tománek, P. Bratislava: St. Elisabeth University of Health and Social Work, 2015. p. 69-70. ISBN 978-80-8132-131-3. RÁC, I. 2015. Násilie páchané na ženách v partnerskom vzťahu. Nitra: Univerzita Konštantína Filozofa v Nitre, 2015. 109 s. ISBN 978-80-558-0867-3. ŠEVČÍK, D. – ŠPATENKOVÁ, N. et al. 2011. Domácí násilí. Kontext, dynamika a intervence. Praha: Portál, 2011. 192 s. ISBN 978-80-7367-690-3.