Violence against women and institutional responses: the case of Greece

Abstract

The myth of the family as a harbour of safety has long now been shattered. Prior to the 1970s, this myth had been kept alive by the historical and traditional view that what happens within a marriage is private and not open to public scrutiny. It is now well known and established that ‘women are more likely to be assaulted in their own homes and by people they know than outdoors by strangers’ (Home Office Statistical Findings, 1996, p.2). Still, only an average of 25% of domestic violence crimes are ever reported. Astonishingly the remaining 75% occurs in silence (European Women’s Lobby, 2000). Public services such as the police and the social services are at the front point of agencies that deal with this problem and handle domestic violence cases. Still, more empirical research needs to be done to address the effectiveness of their work as assessed both by the victims themselves and the professionals. This paper documents evidence given by Greek abused women with respect to their perceptions of support provided by formal services and stresses the need for evidence from the professionals to be further researched.