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How Social Workers Can Help

Intimate partner and sexual violence are the most widespread forms of violence against women and girls all over the world[1]. It does not depend on the social-economic background, age, religion or cultural context. Violence against women is also very widespread in Lithuania. According to the opinion polls[2] 31% of women from the age of 15 have experienced physical violence or (and) sexual violence, whereas 35%  have become victims of sexual harassment. According to the experts, this is only the tip of the iceberg that does not reveal the scale of the problem but rather the number of those who disclose it.

Violence that is easiest to recognise is the one that ends with physical injuries. However, violence starts much earlier than the first bruises become visible and psychological frustration is not less harmful. Therefore, social workers who communicate with different families should be able to recognise the features of violent behaviour before it turned into physical or sexual violence.

The better we understand how the perpetrators manipulate with the aim to control victims and mislead the representatives of different institution, the more efficient we become in preventing violence and protecting those who have experienced it.