Sexual violence in Serbia: Vicious cycle of distrust towards women and tacit approval of rape

An example of minimum sentence of 3 years of imprisonment for the man who last year attempted to rape a woman in his apartment in Novi Sad, says a lot about the penalties in Serbia.

That notwithstanding, there are examples where penalties were much more severe, and for serious criminal acts against children. One of them, Ninoslav Jovanovic, known as "Barber of Malca", this year has been convicted to life sentence for abduction and rape of a twelve-year-old girl;

A verdict from 2017 well-known to the public, when Vladica Rajkovic was convicted to (at the time) maximum 40 years of imprisonment for rape and murder of a three-year-old girl.  

Strict penalties for rapists are not common in Serbia. Dismissals of cases and rejection of reports from women as there is no concrete evidence for the claim are very common in Serbia –- if the woman is not beaten, there is no evidence that she was raped, and it does not help when the man in the recording states things that are basis for the investigation, which is the case with Danijela Stajnfeld rape complaint against Branislav Lecic.

Despite legal framework, rape and similar criminal acts are rarely reported in Serbia. According to the analysis conducted by the Autonomous Women’s Center, there have been 201 sexual abuse reports, 25 dismissed reports, 155 reports have been investigated, and only 36 persons have been convicted.

31 perpetrators were convicted, there were no acquittals at that time, but the low percentage of indictments also means that fewer perpetrators were convicted. It is especially difficult to talk about sexual violence in relationships and marriages - we live in a time when most citizens think that rape in a relationship or marriage is impossible, which is far from the truth.

Old story good laws and poor implementation

Andrijana Radoicic Nedeljkovic, Master of Social Work in the Citizens Association for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and All Forms of Gender-Based Violence "Atina" says for 021.rs that it is somewhat true that Serbia has good laws, but it is lacking implementation of them for the purpose of protecting women from rape. Most commonly it happens that a woman, empowered to report a criminal act, alarms the system and seeks for the protection of authorities; however, she either does not get any help or she doesn’t get it in a timely manner.

"Why is that so? I simply can’t and I refuse to believe that professionals working in the system don’t want to implement perfect laws that we have. Somehow, it seems to me that there is a link between possibility to implement the laws and human resources in the system, there is a distance. When the response is needed, we notice numerous flaws in those ideally written laws, and women are being additionally victimized, retraumatized, and it often happens that people working with them lack sensibility and knowledge to deal with this issue", our speaker believes.

021.rs asked a question who is the weakest link in "first line of defense" - police, prosecution or centers for social work; she believes that it is  it's ungrateful pointing fingers at one segment of the system or at a profession within the system where professionals shift the blame onto each other for the poor work on the protection of victims.  "In essence, the whole system has no responsibility for what it does or does not do, and there is no message of responsibility sent to victims, potential victims, citizens. In fact, if someone in the system fails to do their job will not bear the sanction and that evasion of responsibility leads to the fact that we do not have results that are adequate when we talk about the prevention and suppression of violence against women", says Andrijana Radoičić Nedeljković for 021.

Natasa Elenkov, an activist of the organization Woman’s Solidarity, also shares the opinion that institutions are not working in the interest of the victim. She claims there is progress, however, she ties it to the decades of work of feminist organizations on tackling issues with institutions and their vain perceptions.

"First of all, it refers to treating victims as victims, to trust women, in fact feminist organizations have enabled us to recognize marital rape as a crime, which was not the case until the early 2000s. Domestic violence has become part of the criminal code thanks to many years of advocasy. Reporting sexual violence is a form of gambling because we still have a big problem of disbelief in women, and I would mention that the definition of rape in our legislation is outdated - the definition implies the use of force, not the lack of consent of the victim because you expect the victim to defend herself, but experience shows us that the most common reaction is actually freezing the body in a state of shock ", notes Natasa Elenkov.

This means that, she adds, vast number of reports doesn’t even pass the "first step" owing to the lack of evidence of use of force.

"Also, a large number of reports that go to court result in suspended sentences or the release of perpetrators. We need to understand traumatic memory much better - it is not linear in the sense that you remember every detail chronologically, but it is fragmented and it is possible to talk about trauma only when women are trusted, when they feel safe and when you don't look for holes in her story. Procedures and laws must serve women, and bullies must be behind bars, and that is not happening at the moment, especially when we talk about sexual violence," she said. from Women's Solidarity.

Are men aware of this?

The perpetrators are also aware of the violence they are committing, Elenkov emphasizes. She says that they are socially enabled to be bullies, and it is especially common for individuals to ask when mentioning the rape of women - what about raped men?

"I think it's, first of all, an insult to raped men, every time we talk about male violence against women, raped men are taken out of the drawer to prove that men also survive sexual violence. Men who emphasize such things have no will to really deal with them and to support them, but they are doing it only to reduce importance of violence against women and the importance of statistics and women's experience. We can see men as allies, but men, if they want to be allies, must stop paternalizing women and to start listening to them. Men have to trust women. I believe that we can do better than this and that men can do better because the criteria are never lower ", our interlocutor believes.

Despite the claims of the authorities, tolerance of violence against women is extremely high and this is especially evident in rape in a partnership. An example of the normalization of violence against women, says Andrijana Radoičić Nedeljković from the association "Atina", is the presentation of that violence as a part of culture or a common norm of a social group.

"There is nothing that can make violence someone's culture. Violence is violence anywhere, anytime and against anyone, and that is the only message that should be sent," says Radoičić Nedeljković. When asked by 021.rs whether the changing consciousness of the Balkan, stunted society is based on the young, she answered that she would not give up the older generations so easily.

"I think that the messages that should go to the older generations and point out this problem are not socially targeted enough. I certainly think that young people have greater potential for change and will naturally inherit this society, and the messages to them are more intense. But when we talk about various forms of violence against women such as marital rape, it is a fact that many forms are still not recognized, and even though they are recognized legally, you have many examples of online violence that occurs primarily to women in the form of persecution, 'revenge porn' and other forms that are legally recognized, but when you look at the number of court judgments and reports, you see that there is no interest of the system in these cases. We are in a vicious circle of non-recognition, denial and, ultimately, perpetuation of that violence. "

In her documentary "Hold me Right", Danijela Stajnfeld is facing the rapist and that scene, according to Natasa Elenkov from the Women’s Solidarity, is an excellent depiction of the response to 021.rs question: do the aggressors regret the criminal act.

The violence that men commit gives them a sense of power. It is very difficult to repent for actions that allow you to have that feeling. World research has even shown that most perpetrators would be violent, perhaps more violent if there were no legal sanctions which is depicted in the movie by Danijela Stajnfeld. When talking to the rapist in question, it is clear that he does not repent, but is furious that he received as much punishment as he received. Repentance is not essential for the treatment of women, but we need to take a step back and not allow a social climate that allows men to be violent," Elenkov concluded.

Report violence:

Violence, regardless of the form, can be reported directly to police (192 or 0800-100-600), Center for Social Work in your place (for Novi Sad 021/64-65-746) or Basic Public Prosecution, in writing, by phone, e-mail or in person. Someone else can also do it instead of you.

You can call SOS Women’s Center 021/422-740 from 17h to 21h or Autonomous Women’s center SOS helpline 0800-100-007 on working days from 10h to 20h, as well as support of the organization "From circle-Vojvodina" 021/447-040, 066/447-040 or 0800-10-10-10 on working days from 09h to 16h.

Broadcast on this topic we have discussed with our speaker within the program "You are not alone" on Radio 021 can be listened hereinafter.

The original text can be found via the following link: https://www.021.rs/story/Info/Srbija/289242/Seksualno-nasilje-u-Srbiji-Z...