Kolinko O.
PhD in Law, Associate Professor, Kyiv Cooperative Institute of Business and
Law, Kyiv, Ukraine
VICTIMOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Introduction. The issue of violent crimes in the family-domestic sphere has been
studied for quite a long time. In particular, as early as in the last century L.V. Frank
identified victims of crimes committed due to conflicts in the family as a subject of an
independent victimological study [1, p. 50]. A similar idea is developed by a
contemporary criminologist D. A. Shestakov, who suggests studying the victims of
criminogenic family situations (the situations of family conflict characterized by the
highest exacerbation of contradictions existing among the family members) within the
science of criminal familistics [2, p. 148].
As a result of a change in the content of social roles that are performed in the
family by its different members, a struggle for leadership can be observed; a person's
dependence from the family unit decreases, morality is altered [2, p. 140]. In turn, the
lack of spirituality, the destruction of moral and ethical norms and the decline in the
level of morality, the imperfect legal regulation of the protection of women – victims
of crimes – and "consumeristic" attitude towards the person have provoked the
existence of such negative phenomena as prostitution, human trafficking, domestic
violence [3, p. 234].
Domestic violence, regrettably, is a rather widespread phenomenon in our society.
In the vast majority of cases, victims of this offense are women, children (from birth
to the age of 18) and the elderly. Hence, we believe it is appropriate to thoroughly
consider the nature of interpersonal conflicts that occur in the sphere of family and
domestic relations and may, in certain circumstances, precede domestic violence
against women and children.
Research results. Conflicts in the family-domestic sphere as a prerequisite
for domestic violence. In families members of which have different interests and
social issues, as well as different ways and means to fulfill these interests, one may
quite often observe incidents of violence aimed at resolving a particular interpersonal
conflict. Indeed, the actual presence of opposing positions already poses a potential
danger, which, in turn, will generate a conflict, that is, a severe collision between the
members of the family-domestic constellation, arising from their opposing views,
interests, attitudes, needs, which are formed and realized in the process of social
interaction and accompanied by the wish to cause maximum harm to the opponent by
any means [4, p. 99; 5, p. 138].
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