What Slovak women perceive to be domestic violence.

This research examines attitudes and perceptions of Slovak women towards do mestic violence. Domestic violence is understood mainly as physical and psy chological violence perpetrated by husbands/partners. Attitudes and percept ions are operationalised in four dimensions. The dimension of legitimacy in vestigates whether in some situations women would consider violence justifi ed. The dimension of the perpetrator intends to capture the most typical im ages of violence between husbands/partners, held by respondents. The dimens ion of public versus private is created to measure the extent to which dome stic violence is perceived as a private, inner family issue, or a widesprea d social problem deserving public attention. The dimension of comparability serves to detect to what extent do Slovak women's perceptions of intimate violence resonate with the well-established Anglo-American concept of domes tic violence. The sample consists of 163 women selected in Nove Zamky, Slov akia. The findings indicate that domestic violence is perceived rather as a private, intimate issue, which women would most likely discuss with their husband/partner in the first place. Furthermore, women with elementary educ ation have a stronger tendency to regard the use of violence by the husband /partner justified in certain situations. 'Violence between intimate partne rs' is associated with the multiple facets of domestic violence, often desc ribed in Western literature, such as sexual, economic or social coercion. T he most typical perpetrator is viewed as an alcoholic. egoistic and rough. Women with a lower educational level would most often choose the category o f an alcoholic, while women with a university degree tend to see aggressive husbands/partners as uneducated. In conclusion, data analysis is linked to the present social-legal situation in Slovakia and policy implications are drawn.