Domestic violence as a social problem in the Russian society: Between privacy and publicity

In recent years, domestic violence has become one of the most discussed social problems. In the Russian public space, there are heated debates about the necessity of an additional law on the prevention of domestic violence, the limits of state and public organizations’ intervention in family affairs, and the value content of the concept “strong family”. At the same time, there are debates about the importance of criminalizing or decriminalizing domestic violence in the field of political struggle between liberal and conservative forces. Despite such a broad public interest and high-­profile cases of domestic violence covered in the media, this issue is poorly represented in the Russian scientific research. The article outlines the possibilities of sociological monitoring of public opinion on this problem. The authors compare indicators of the all-­Russian surveys conducted in 2019 and 2024 and analyze official statistics on domestic violence from 2015 to 2023 to make conclusions about the Russians’ perception of domestic violence, their personal experience, value orientations and social attitudes when facing such a situation. Domestic violence is perceived by most respondents as a significant social problem, complex in nature and implying not only physical and sexual violence against a family member but also psychological and economic violence; therefore, the role of the psychological factor in the family increases. In general, domestic violence is largely hidden in nature, so, to assess its scale, the authors suggest to use a combination of indirect factors such as the share of withdrawn statements of victims, people’s assessment of the prevalence of domestic violence in their immediate environment (among neighbors, friends and relatives).