Violence against women alarms more than 70% of Russians, indicates poll

Over 70% of Russians surveyed, consider violence against women to be a serious issue, according to the findings released by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center on Tuesday.

Those polled said that most often violence occurs within the family and in poorly populated places.

"The problem of violence against women for most Russians (73%) is important. Women (79%) and young people aged 18 to 24 years old (83%) more often than others speak about the importance of this issue. However, based on the findings, 18% of the respondents do not think the issue is serious, according to mostly men (23%) and respondents between 45-59 years of age (22%). Every second respondent (49%) argues that for women the risk of becoming a victim of violence or attempted violence is higher in poorly populated, quiet places, while 38% see women becoming victims at home, and nearly half, 49% of those respondents are women."

One in five respondents (21%) believed that for women the risk of facing violence was higher on the Internet, and one in ten (11%) said that the risk of a similar situation was higher at work. Those surveyed less frequently mentioned educational institutions (8%), clubs, bars (4%), public transport and concerts (2% each). At the same time, 3% of those polled believed that women could face violence anywhere. According to the respondents, women in Russia most often endure indecent comments, remarks, rude jokes (49%) and offensive attitudes (47%). More than a third (36%) reported frequent violations of women's rights, 32% reported cases of physical violence, and another 25% reported cases of sexual violence, while 24% noted cases of sexual harassment. "The importance of the problem today is noted by the overwhelming majority of the respondents, the seriousness of the topic is difficult to exaggerate. Half of the women speak about the high chances of becoming a victim of domestic violence," stated Yulya Baskakova, head of the practice of social modeling and forecasting research department, who commented on the results of the survey.

The poll was conducted on December 4, 2018. The sample size was 1,600 respondents, with a margin of error having a probability of 95% that does not exceed 2.5%.