Gender based violence in Russia

Despite the challenges to efforts in Russia over the last 20 years to address the problem of violence against women, there is recognition of the problem. However, lack of domestic violence legislation in Russia is a barrier to the systematic collection of official statistics recording cases of violence against women.
The inclusion of questions on violence against women into the 2011 Russia Reproductive Health Survey (RURHS11) will help meet the need for more current and detailed information on family violence and characteristics of its victims.
38,1% of Russian women reported on lifetime verbal abuse, 19,8% reported lifetime physical abuse, and 3,9% reported having been forced to have sex by a current or previous partner. Almost three-quarters of physically abused women had spoken to someone about the violence, but only 10 % of them sought help from police.
Alcohol use is one of the most consistently identified risk factors for intimate partner violence. Recent physical or sexual violence was reported by 19% percent of women whose husbands were drunk almost every day or more.
Childhood exposure to violence is also a well-established risk factor for intimate partner violence later in a woman’s life. Almost half (45%) of women who had been physically or sexual abused as an adult, had witnessed abuse in their childhood home.