Over 60% of women in Poland have experienced domestic violence, finds leaked report

A study commissioned – but still not published – by the government has found that over half of Poles (57%) say they have experienced some form of domestic violence in their lives. Among women, the figure is 63%.

The researchers also report a “concerning” acceptance of violence among a significant minority of the public. This includes over 10% of men who believe there is no such thing as rape within marriage and that, when it comes to sex, wives should always agree to what their husband wants.

The study was commissioned last year by the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy and carried out by the Polish branch of international research group Kantar.

Two months ago, Poland’s commissioner for human rights, Adam Bodnar, noted “with regret” that it still had not been published by the ministry. Now, however, a full copy of the 88-page report has been published by news website Gazeta.pl.

The publication comes as the issue of domestic violence has recently been in the spotlight. Last month, the justice minister began the process of withdrawing Poland from an international treaty combating violence against women (a position later modified slightly by the prime minister).

As well as claiming that the Istanbul Convention “promotes LGBT” and “gender ideology”, its conservative critics also argue that it is unnecessary. They say that Poland already has strong measures in place against domestic violence, as well as a relatively low rate of reported violence against women.

However, Kantar’s report warns that “official data may not reflect the actual scale of violence in families”. Its authors note that “domestic violence is largely a hidden phenomenon, and many people who experience it do not seek help”.

To get a better sense of scale of the phenomenon, Kantar conducted a poll on a representative sample of 2,000 adult Poles, asking them about their own experiences of and attitudes towards domestic violence. They also interviewed 15 experts – from, for example, the police and social services – about the issue.

The survey found that over half (57%) of Poles say they have experienced some form of domestic violence in their lives. Those who say they have experienced it a few times amount to 28%, while 19% have done so many times, and 10% once.

For the poll, Kantar included four different categories of violence: sexual, physical, psychological (such as intimidation, threats, humiliation, controlling behaviour) and economic (for example, taking a partner’s money, preventing them from working, selling shared property without agreement).

The type of violence found most commonly was psychological, which had been experienced by 53% of respondents (by 25% a few times and by 15% many times). Almost a quarter (23%) had suffered physical violence (10% a few times and 6% many times).

Less common was economic violence, which 13% said they had suffered (5% a few times and 3% many times). Finally, 5% said they had been victims of sexual violence (2% a few times and 2% many times).

Kantar noted, however, that the experts it spoke to “agree that the scale of sexual violence is significantly understated”. Many victims “are unable to talk about it or do not realise that certain behaviours are a form of violence”.

Among those who reported having faced violence, Kantar found that a significant proportion had experienced it recently. For those who have suffered psychological violence, 29% had done so within the last year; for economic violence, 33%; for physical violence, 14%; and for sexual violence, 22%.

Kantar’s figures appear consistent with previous studies, which used slightly different methodologies. A 2014 survey by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, for example, found that 19% of Polish women had experienced physical and/or sexual violence at the hands of a partner. That was the lowest figure in the EU.

Kantar’s figures, however, include both men and women, and also ask about violence experienced at any stage of life and committed not only by a partner.

In the case of those who suffered physical domestic violence, Kantar found that most often the perpetrator was the victim’s father (in 38% of cases), followed by the mother (25%), and only then husband (24%) or another male partner (10%).

With sexual violence, perpetrators were most often husbands (50%), followed by other male partners (18%) or a person from outside the family (9%). Psychological and economic violence were most often carried out by parents or husbands.

Overall, 63% of women said they had experienced domestic violence at some point in their lives, while for men the figure was 51%.

The experts interviewed by Kantar emphasised that women constitute the victims in the vast majority of cases of domestic violence, and men are most often the perpetrators – facts that are supported by the survey data and official statistics.

In police interventions for alleged domestic violence in 2018, for example, women were recorded as the victims in 74% of cases and men in 12% (with children making up the rest). In 91% of cases, men were suspected of carrying out the violence.

However, Kantar’s experts also note that abuse of men can be underreported because, in the words of one social worker, “overcoming the shame” of admitting they are victims can be harder for men. They can feel it is “humiliating”, added a police officer.

Violence against children does, however, appear to be falling in Poland. Between 2014 and 2017, while the number of police interventions for domestic violence remained relatively stable, the proportion of cases in which children were believed to be victims fell from 20% to 14%.

Kantar’s surveys find that the proportion of Polish adults who think it is sometimes necessary to smack a child has fallen from 78% in 2008 to 61% last year. Those who think it is never necessary have risen from 19% to 37% over the same period.

Poland’s newly appointed commissioner for children’s rights aroused controversy last year when he said that “one must distinguish between spanking and beating”, with only the latter being unacceptable. He said he “recalled with esteem” how his father had spanked him, leaving him “unable to sit”.

Kantar also asked its respondents about their attitudes towards certain forms of violence, finding a significant minority who regard them as acceptable.

Among men, 13% agreed that “when it comes to sex, a wife should always agree to what the husband wants” and 11% agreed that “rape in marriage does not exist”. Among female respondents, the figures were 7% and 6% respectively.

A further 11% of men and 7% of women believe that “pushing or shaking a spouse is not a manifestation of violence” while 10% of men and 6% of women agree that “one can only speak of violence when there are visible traces on the body of the victim, such as bruises or wounds”.

“The fact that around 10% of the general public accept some violent behaviour should be concerning,” writes Kantar. “That is over 3 million adult Poles.”

Meanwhile, large majorities of respondents believe that families affected by domestic violence do not receive the necessary help (69%) and that the law does not sufficiently protect victims (72%).

The experts Kantar spoke to agree that cases of domestic violence which come to light are “only the tip of the iceberg”, in the words of one social worker.

“Contrary to appearances, contrary to the belief that such things do not happen here, [domestic violence] is quite a common phenomenon,” added a police officer.

Main image credit: Adrianna Bochenek / Agencja Gazeta

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.