Problem of violence against women in Poland against a background of the EU

In March 2015, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights published the results of the largest global survey on violence against women[1]. It shows the commonness of the phenomenon of violence, taking into account both the adult life experiences as well as the cases of physical and sexual violence, faced by the respondents in their childhood.

Methodology of the survey

As part of the survey, more than 42 thousand women were interviewed, 1.5 thousand respondents in every country[2]. The survey asked the women to describe their experiences with physical, sexual and psychological violence, including domestic violence. The questions also related to the cases of stalking and sexual harassment as well as abuse with the use of new technologies.

Survey results for Poland

From the surveys it results that against a background of the European Union Poland is in the group of countries with the lowest rates of physical and/or sexual violence experienced by the women from their current or ex partner and with regard to psychological violence experienced on the part of the partner. In the first case, such experiences were reported by 19% of the surveyed women, while the average for the EU-28 was 33%, and in relation to psychological violence – 37%, when compared to the EU-28 average of 43%. In terms of economic violence, the results for Poland place it within the EU-28 average of 12%.

Potential reasons for differences among the EU countries

The FRA survey results showed that there are large differences among the EU Member States, which, according to the authors, may result from, inter alia, the following reasons: cultural differences on treating domestic violence as a private matter and the resulting lack of acceptance for talking about it; greater openness to combat violence against women in the societies with the greater gender equality; the differences on the overall level of violent crime; different patterns of alcohol use in the Member States, as the survey revealed the existence of a relationship between the habit of drinking alcohol by the perpetrators and experiences of the women connected with family violence (domestic violence).