Violence against women: Study Reveals One-third of EU women affected

A survey by the Violence against Women report by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), one in three of all women in Europe have been suffering from violence in their lifetime.

It says that a third of all women in the European Union have experienced either physical or sexual violence since the age of fifteen. The study conducted on the subject is said to be the biggest ever report of abuse suffered by women and is based on interviews with 42,000 women from twenty eight countries constituting the European Union. The report called on the EU countries to treat domestic violence as public, not a private issue and urged that the laws relating to sexual harassment should be reviewed. The campaigns should be aimed at men as well as women, says FRA Director Morten Kjaerum.

Women aged eighteen to seventy four, were asked about their experiences of physical, sexual and psychological violence, at home and in the workplace, as well as stalking, sexual harassment and violence in childhood. The study revealed that “one in ten women has experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of fifteen, and one in twenty has been raped”. It also asserted the link between heavy alcohol use and domestic violence.

Studies showed that in Britain, one in two women have been physically or sexually assaulted, with millions of women attacked each year, either beaten, shot, stabbed, strangled or raped. The report also reveals that more than four in ten women have experienced psychological violence from their partner such as being humiliated in public to locked indoors, forced to watch pornography, or threatened with violence. Stalking through social media websites, texting and emails has also tortured almost one in five women.

Britain ranks among the worst countries in Europe when it comes to violence against women and comes fifth in terms of violence suffered by women in their lifetime (defined as being since the age of 15). The only countries worse than Britain are the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark. The criminals get away unpunished due to most women not reporting crimes to the police.