Statistics that hurts: Youth in Serbia don't think that slap is violence and "it's their own fault" if someone attacks the girls - for mini skirts

Every fourth young man in Serbia believes that one slap is not violence, and every third young person regardless of gender believes that a girl wearing a short skirt and a tight shirt "is guilty" if someone attacks her, according to a survey of the Autonomous Women's Center among 415 young people from 10 cities in Serbia.

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As stated, the data are part of the research in the campaign "I can say no. Love is not violence", which aims to teach young people, above all women, to recognize violent patterns in partnership relations and not agree to them.

Most young people disagree with the claim that there is a situation in which a young man strikes a partner (81 percent), but this is seen differently by girls and boys.

Every tenth young man thinks it's ok to hit a girl, while 3.2 percent of the girls agree with this.

Also, the study shows that every fourth man and every tenth girl think that a slap is not a violence. 

Foto: Pixabay

Peer educator in the project Sanja Pavlovic said that young men don't recognize all types of violence, and that there is a difference the man experience it and in which way the girls experience.

- Sexual harassment as part of jokes and growing up is, for example, completely acceptable to every fourth young man, while every 25th girl thinks the same. This is because girls are the most frequent victims of sexual harassment, and they understand their consequences very well, while young men do not recognize it as violence - says Pavlovic.

Foto: Tanjug/Dimitrije Goll

The greatest resistance and least understanding are shown to the LGBT community, so every other young man considers that a guy who is in love with another guy should be beaten, while every 25th girl agrees with that claim.

One of the strongest myths is that it's her own fault if the girl who wears a tight shirt and a mini skirt is being attacked by a man. 

- It is especially problematic that even girls believe so, which shows that there is still a lot of work to change that patriarchal consciousness that transfers responsibility for violence to the victim - says Pavlovic.

Foto-Ilustracija: Profimedia/Alamy

The Autonomous Women's Center will organize a series of workshops this Autumn to encourage female students to recognize all forms of sexual harassment, but also, to develop the internal acts about preventing and punishing the sexual harassment in this institutions.

The campaign "I can say no. Love is not violence" is a part of the project "Zero Tolerance on Gender-Based Violence" led by AWC, and which is supported by the UN Fund for the Suppression of Violence against women and it will last for two years.

(Telegraf.co.uk / Tanjug)