Women experience psychological abuse the most: Report

ISTANBUL

Psychological abuse is the most common form of violence women experience, as victims of physical violence say that institutions take no deterrent measures to punish the perpetrator and ask to reach a compromise instead, the 2022 report of the Mor Çatı Women’s Shelter Foundation has revealed.

According to the report prepared following interviews with more than 1,100 women, psychological violence is followed by physical, economic and sexual violence, persistent stalking, digital abuse and dating violence, respectively.

Women also face difficulty in proving the violence they have experienced. The report underlined that the complaints made by women to authorized institutions about the psychological violence they experienced were not taken into consideration.

Some physical violence victims noted that some institutions extend efforts to reconcile them with the perpetrators rather than take criminal action.

Women also have to consider how they can prove the existence of violence in their relationship or marriage to seek protection.

On the other hand, even though they can receive a protection order or a criminal process is started for the perpetrators, women face the obstacle of impunity.

“We observe that even if the men who commit violence are sentenced, they do not go to prison due to the court decision of the deferment of the announcement of the verdict. Their sentence can be converted into a fine and paid in installments,” the report expressed.

“These practices do not have a deterrent effect on perpetrators,” it added.

The report shared two different examples regarding the deterrent penalties.

A woman filed a criminal complaint against her husband for violent behavior against her. After it became certain that the husband would go to prison following the complaint his wife filed, the violence stopped, and the divorce process concluded easily.

In another example, the report underlined how a woman was discouraged not to file a criminal complaint against her husband as he was a law enforcement officer. “Every time she applied to an authority to make a complaint, she was told that her husband might lose his job,” the report said.

“That’s why the woman was deterred from making a complaint every time, and the violence still continues,” the report said, underlining the importance of the role of institutions.