Characteristics of Households - Childinfo.org

Attitudes towardDomestic ViolenceThe Serbia MICS4 assessed the attitudes of womenaged 15–49 and men aged 15–29 years towards wife/partner beating for a variety of scenarios by askingthe respondents whether husbands are justified inhitting or beating their wives/partners for a varietyof scenarios. These questions were asked to have anindicators of cultural beliefs that tend to be associatedwith the prevalence of violence against women bytheir husbands/partners. The main assumption here isthat women that agree with the statements indicatingthat husbands/partners are justified to beat theirwives/partners in the situations described in realitytend to be abused by their own husbands/partnersand similarly, men who agree with the statements inreality tend to exercise violence towards their wivesor partners.The responses to these questions can be found inTable CP.6 for women and in Table CP.6M for men.Overall, 3 percent of women in Serbia think thata husband/partner has a right to hit or beat hiswife/partner for at least one of a variety of reasons.Women who approve of a husband’s violence, inmost cases agree and justify violence in instanceswhen the woman neglects the children (2 percent),or if she demonstrates her autonomy, e.g. goes outwithout telling her husband or argues with him(1 percent). Around 1 percent of women believethat a husband has a right to hit or beat his wife/partner if she refuses to have sex with him and lessthan 1 percent if she burns the food. Acceptance ismore common among those living in the pooresthouseholds, among the less educated, and alsoamong currently or formerly married women. Onein ten women from the poorest quintile or withprimary education agrees that a husband/partnerhas a right to hit or beat his wife/partner for at leastone of a variety of reasons. One in twenty women inrural areas agrees with the same statement.As shown in Table CP.6M, men are more likely thanwomen aged 15–29 to agree with one of the reasons tojustify wife beating (7 percent of men compared to 2percent of women). Some 4 percent of men agree thata husband has a right to beat his wife if she neglectsthe children, 3 percent agree if she argues with himand 2 percent agree if she goes out without telling him.Young men living in the households within the poorestquintile are much more likely to agree with one of thereasons (17 percent) than men living in the richestquintile (2 percent). The percentage of young menapproving of at least one reason is highest in Sumadijaand Western Serbia region (11 percent) and lowest inSouthern and Eastern Serbia region (4 percent)MONITORING THE SITUATION OF CHILDREN AND WOMEN 185