Domestic violence

Domestic violence exists in all social and economic strata. The violence is psychological, physical and sexual.

Domestic violence and the purpose of the abuser

The violence between the couple starts from fights. Fights with heavy words. It continues with throwing or breaking objects, repeated each time taking steps resulting in beatings.

After dignity, respect and mutual respect are lost, the goal is mutual elimination. The perpetrator’s violence is intended to diminish the victim, to make the victim feel guilt, powerlessness and shame. This is achieved by swearing, humiliation, questioning in front of others, cutting off from relatives, parents, friends, and by controlling every activity. The main reasons for violence are jealousy, anger and the attempt to exert power.

Men as victims of domestic violence

In many cases, such conflicts lead to parental alienation, because each tries to turn the children against the other. The largest percentage of victims of violence are women. However, a notable number are with male victims. In many countries, such as Cyprus, for example, 20% of domestic violence incidents have male victims. There are no official figures for Greece.

Some tolerate violence, while others resort to violent defence. The most serious reason why male victims do not report incidents of violence is because they feel ashamed and believe they will be ridiculed, while almost all of them report it after separation.

Distinguishing the perpetrator and the victim

In most incidents of violence, the roles of perpetrator and victim are distinguished with relative ease. In contrast, in domestic violence this is not always the case. The gradual escalation of violence on both sides means that when the fight is over, the injuries rarely reveal who was the aggressor and who responded violently to the initial attack. Thus often the role of the aggressor and the victim is difficult to distinguish. The efforts of psychologists, marriage counsellors and the State, which recently abolished court costs, are noteworthy.

However, in referring to domestic violence, we must not forget that the dark number of crimes in these incidents is very high and that the crimes that are reported and reach the judicial authorities are far fewer than those that actually occur, making any placement and care quite difficult to help eliminate.

“The above text may be indicative of practices and methods used in the past. Some tactics and methods may now be applicable under the new law 5005/22 concerning the procedure for the removal of privacy of communications, cybersecurity and protection of personal data of citizens.”

Domestic violence Private Investigator Pelekasis Nikos