Study: Every fourth woman in Georgia has been a victim of violence directly from her partner - every second woman in Georgia has experienced at least one form of violence during her life
Every 4th woman in Georgia has become a victim of violence directly from her partner, it is reported in a new national study on violence against women conducted by the UN Women's Organization and the National Statistics Office of Georgia with the support of the European Union.
According to the study, every second woman in Georgia has experienced at least one form of violence during her life, 24% - psychological violence; 8% - economic violence; 6% - physical violence; 4% - sexual violence.
In Georgia, 8.5% of women under the age of 18 have experienced sexual violence.
According to the research, every fifth woman who has experienced physical or sexual violence from her partner has also received trauma. 45.8% of cases were witnessed by a child. 16.8% of these women thought about suicide or self-harm at least once.
"Every fourth woman in Georgia has experience of sexual harassment. As noted in a new national study, women say 41% of these incidents occur on the street; 28% - in public transport; 11% - at school or university; 8% - at the workplace. 8.5% of women in Georgia have experienced stalking in their lifetime.
Girls aged 15-24 who live in cities are the victims of stalking most often. Girls received this negative experience from men in 89% of cases, and from strangers in 57.5% of cases.
In Georgia, less and less believe that violence between husband and wife is only their personal business, however, every 5th woman and 3rd man still think that they should not interfere in other people's family affairs.
Most women do not talk about the violence they experienced. 38.2% did not talk to anyone about this topic; 2 out of 10 women asked for help from some organization; 1 out of 10 people turn to the police.
As part of the quantitative research, 3300 women and 1100 men aged 15-69 were interviewed both in the capital and in other cities and villages. The qualitative research included 15 interviews, 16 focus groups and 40 in-depth interviews, with a total of 171 respondents. The study examined the prevalence of different forms of violence against women, its impact on women's health and well-being, the extent to which they have information about the services available to victims of violence and whether they use these services, what are the public attitudes towards violence against women, its causes, consequences and prevention," the study says.
