Rostovskaya T.K., Bezverbnaya N.A. Analysis of court decisions as a source of statistics on family violence in Russia. Social policy and sociology. 2022. Vol. 21. No. 2 (143). Pp. 140-147.

Abstract

The problem of domestic violence in Russian families does not lose its relevance, especially during crisis situations. At the same time, there are no sources of statistics to assess the scale of the phenomenon under study at the moment. The study of court decisions can become an alternative in the absence of official statistics. The article provides criminological characteristics of crimes on the basis of court decisions on a number of articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation related to violent acts committed within the family. The authors studied 80 court sentences over the past five years, in the period 2017-2021 inclusive, under articles: 105 of the Criminal Code (Murder); 110 of the Criminal Code (Driving to suicide); 111 of the Criminal Code (Intentional infliction of serious harm to health); 119 of the Criminal Code (Torture of a deliberately helpless person). It was found that 83.7% of crimes were committed by close people in the family (spouses, roommates, parents, children). In most of the cases considered, illegal actions were committed by men, however, among those convicted under articles for murder and driving to suicide there are also women (4% and 15% of the total number of sentences under these articles). In the overwhelming majority of the judicial acts considered, physical and psychological violence is not a single episode, but a systematic form of influence, each time aggravated and leading to irreparable consequences.