Domestic violence against wives and distribution of power: case of Russia

Irina Gorchkova, Moscow M.V. Lomonosov State University
Irina Shurygina, Russian Academy of Sciences

The abstract covers the experience gained in carrying out a large-scale survey in 2002-2003 with regard to the problem of domestic violence in Russia. It contains the basic results concerning the scale of psychological, economic, physical and sexual violence in contemporary Russian families. Both general indicators of the diffusion of violence and the data on its separate manifestations are cited. Further on, the abstract offers a comparative analysis of peculiarities of authoritative relations between spouses in families with various types of violence and in violence-free families. It highlights that violence does not come to violent acts as such only. It is in fact a system of relations applying to the entire spectrum of family life: from reproductive decisions to distribution of household chores.