For the first time in Croatia, a victimological survey on gender-based violence was carried out on a sample of as many as 23,000 respondents, with 27 per cent of women stating that they had been victims of psychological violence by their present or former partner.

The methodology of the survey was designed by Eurostat for a task force of several EU member states, including experts from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS), and the survey was financed by the European Union, the head of the DZS Department of Demographic and Social Statistics. Dubravka Rogic-Hadzalic, told Hina in an interview.

The data for Croatia shows five key figures, relating to violence committed by a present or former intimate partner during the victim’s life, violence by a non-partner from the age of fifteen, violence by a domestic abuser in adulthood, violence by any perpetrator during adulthood, and sexual harassment at work during the victim’s life.

Eight per cent experienced physical violence from present or former partner

Twenty-seven per cent of women in Croatia said they had been victims of psychological violence by their present or former partner, while in Finland, for example, 50 per cent said so, which does not necessarily mean that there is more partner violence than if the respondents recorded the answer to the question without hesitation, Rogic-Hadzalic said.

In Croatia, eight per cent of the respondents stated they had experienced physical violence from their present or former partner, including threats.

Analysing the age of women who experienced partner violence, the most common group is 18 to 29 years old (37 per cent), while 24 per cent of them are in the 65 to 74 age group.

According to Rogic-Hadzalic, this shows that partner violence is most common in younger age groups, who possibly report violence more easily, but it is also present in older age groups.

Ten per cent of women reported that they had experienced psychological violence from a domestic abuser in adulthood. Six per cent stated they had experienced sexual violence from a domestic abuser, while 15 per cent said they had been exposed to physical or sexual violence, including threats from a domestic abuser.

By comparison, in Slovenia 15 per cent of respondents aged 18 to 74 years stated they had been exposed to violence by a domestic abuser. This share is 19 per cent in France, 20 per cent in Austria, 33 per cent in Slovakia, and at least 10 per cent in Bulgaria.

36 female respondents experienced sexual harassment at work

In Croatia, 36 per cent of all respondents aged 18 to 74 said they had experienced some form of sexual harassment at work.

Data for other countries also shows high rates of sexual harassment at work. 27 per cent of respondents experienced such harassment in Austria, 32 per cent in Slovenia, 33 per cent in Estonia, 41 per cent in the Netherlands, and 46 per cent in Denmark. The fewest such cases were reported in Latvia (11 per cent).

The gender-based violence survey provides an opportunity to obtain statistical results on the gender aspects of significant types of crime, the interpersonal conditions that might influence crime patterns, the personal consequences of crime, reporting practices, attitudes towards the police, readiness of the system, and the intensity of specific types of crime.

Accurate data on gender-based violence is critical to developing effective and efficient policy and legal responses to assess trends and progress in the area.

It should be noted that the data shows that violence is still underreported because only about a third of women who are physically or sexually abused by their partners report violence, Rogic-Hadzalic said.

Reports of this form of violence are not systematically recorded, and the data is not easy to compare between EU countries without a standardised methodology for all member states, she said, adding that only half of the member states participated in this project because the research was not mandatory but was carried out on a voluntary basis.

The survey provides the necessary information for social and other policies, for various scientific studies and international comparisons, and to inform the general public about gender-based violence.

Rogic-Hadzalic said the project enabled the construction of the infrastructure needed for potential future statistical endeavours related to victimisation surveys.

Address data needs with regard to the Istanbul Convention

The gender-based violence survey aims to address data needs with regard to the Istanbul Convention.

Since the Convention is aimed at protecting women from violence, the countries that conducted the survey were left to choose whether to include the male population in this survey as Eurostat’s methodology allows the inclusion of male persons.

The DZS decided to include men in the sample primarily because victimology research is not conducted in Croatia, and it was a unique opportunity to include both sexes.

The survey was carried out throughout Croatia from September 2022 to February 2023 on a total sample of 23,000 respondents aged 18 to 74.

Currently, the data presented by Eurostat includes only women, and the reason for this is that some countries did not include men in the sample, so the comparability of the data would be questionable.

The initial indicators focus on violence by type of perpetrator, broken down by type of violence, age of respondent and time of occurrence. Indicators on the frequency, severity, gravity and reporting of experienced violence will be presented in the future as such analysis requires additional time to process the collected data and disseminate the data.