INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE IN ADOLESCENCE IN ALBANIA (original) (raw)

2019, INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE IN ADOLESCENCE IN ALBANIA

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in Albania, the same as all around the world, mainly affects girls and women and any attempts to combat it require an understanding of its prevalence and nature through reliable, systematic and comparable data. The data are necessary for measuring the spread and consequences of IPV in adolescence, for monitoring the state response to it and evaluating the policies for combating it. The requirement for high-quality administrative data is also in line with the international commitments to combat violence against women, as determined in the Directive 2012/29/EU (The Victims’ Rights Directive) and the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (The Istanbul Convention). The main purpose of this research study is to present an overview of the intimate partner violence in adolescence, by providing a comprehensive analysis of the appearance of the phenomenon and characteristics of intimate partner violence between the ages 16-19 in Albania, from a gender perspective. Furthermore, the research study aims to identify the risk factors at individual level (use of tobacco, alcohol or drugs), family level (domestic violence) and community level (community safety) which foster victimisation and/or the exercise of violence among the teens. Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), which is described as the control of one person over another person through physical, psychological, sexual, financial and/or digital abuse, has long-term health, psychological, educational and economic consequences for people who have experienced and survived it, or continue to be in a violent relationship, as well for the entire society. The participants of this study were 1036 young people aged between 16-19, students of the country’s high schools, 428 of whom were boys and 593 girls, and 15 participants did not specify their gender. 56 percent of the respondents lived in urban areas and 44 percent in rural areas. 2 percent of the young people belonged to the Roma and Egyptian communities. The entire study has been analysed from a gender perspective.