The study of Internet messages and comments on them is an additional source of information about the specifics of spousal violence due to the fact that victims do not ask for help from official authorities for various reasons. The authors expand and complement scientific research by offering a comprehensive list of parameters that can be extracted from messages of Russian Internet users about spousal violence. The purpose of the study was to identify the specifics of ideas about spousal violence against women through the eyes of Russian Internet users. 10,000 messages from open sources on the Internet containing a description of spousal violence were analyzed using data extraction methods in the Kribrum system, data preprocessing, message tagging, and statistical methods (frequency analysis, cross-tabulation, Pearson’s chisquared test). The features of spousal violence against women are presented according to the selected parameters: 1) type of aggressor (male, female); 2) kind of violence (physical, sexual, psychological, economic); 3) type of narration (from the first or third person); 4) type of violence (systematic violence and control; resistance and defense; situational violence, provocative violence, breakup); 5) tone (positive, negative, contradictory, neutral); 6) position (condemnation of violence, justification of violence, support for victims, neutral attitude, contradictory attitude); 7) type of support n the comments, if any (informational, emotional); 8) type of activity of victims (action and inaction). It is shown that in 88,5 % of the messages the violator is a man. The problem of violence is latent. Victims are not ready to talk about facts of spousal violence, most of the messages are written in the third person — 90,9 %. Physical violence against women occurs more frequently (91,5 %) than other kinds of violence and it is a systematically repetitive behavior (70,4 %). The causes of situational violence (24,5 %) are the state of intoxication or extreme emotional irritation of a man. 5 positions of the authors of the messages regarding spousal violence against women were identified: neutral (45,6 %), condemning (35,6 %), supportive (10,5 %), justifying (7,1 %) and contradictory (1,2 %). The authors of the messages whose position is connected with condemnation of violence (35,6 %) are ready to provide the victim with emotional (9,7 %) and less often informational support (1,9 %). A female victim of spousal violence is more likely to be inactive (9,5 %), she experiences a lack of opportunities and rarely resolves a crisis situation actively (0,95 %).
Read in PDF
