One of the project activities was to perform the field analysis in each partnership country in order to determine the level of awareness of the general public regarding the issues of domestic and gender-based violence, as well as pinpoint the critical areas.
The research provided some interesting findings:
- The majority of participants (a total of 1019 in Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria and United Kingdom) are to some extent exposed to information regarding domestic violence, primarily through media;
- The majority of participants did not attend any training sessions regarding the issue of domestic and gender-based violence. However, the level of awareness of domestic violence is above average meaning the participants are very aware of the issue.
- Answers to the question related to the causes of domestic violence displayed that the majority of participants believe alcohol abuse to be one of the main causes of domestic violence, which is a common myth.
- Participants would still primarily contact the police and it is probably more likely for them to contact the organisations or people who are in a position to help or have had some experience with preventing domestic violence (i.e. police, non-governmental organisation, etc.) than those who are in a different field of work (i.e. lawyer, co-worker, etc.).
- The perception of the different types of violence varies among participants: majority would inform the police if they witnessed physical domestic violence and at the same time the majority does not believe they would inform the police in the case of the psychological domestic violence. The majority of the participants would definitely inform the police if they would witness sexual violence, which clearly indicates the lowest tolerance level and greatest sensitivity toward this type of violence.
- The majority of the participants agree that increased awareness of domestic violence contributes to a decrease of the cases of domestic violence; however, at the same time almost half of the participants stated that there is not enough information about what to do when you are faced with domestic violence.
- The majority of the participants also expressed a belief that domestic violence can be prevented, which they believe could be achieved with primary prevention education of children and their parents, speaking out publicly against domestic violence, maintaining a healthy and respectful intimate relationship as a model for your children and others and counselling for victims of violence and consistent and firm penalties for domestic violence.
- The participants expressed quite a high level of preparedness to help a neighbour, co-worker, friend, or family member if they suspect they are a victim of violence, to call the police if they saw or heard evidence of domestic violence, to propose an implementation of prevention programs for children in elementary schools, to speak out publicly against domestic violence or talking to a neighbour, co-worker, friend, or family member if they suspect they are being abusive.
The research findings will be applied in the development of the e-toolbox (e-learning program and e-help tool), as well as in the preparation of the awareness raising campaign in order to strive toward a maximum impact.