Each sixth Moldovan woman aged between 15-64 is subject to domestic violence during lifetime, shows the accessible statistical profile of the women victims of violence launched by UN Women Moldova and the National Bureau of Statistics, IPN reports.

Violence outside the family is spontaneous in character, while domestic violence in a cyclical phenomenon that does not stop by itself and increases in intensity and gravity in time. The place of residence, the social and economic status and the age of the woman plays an important role in terms of vulnerability to domestic violence.

During their lifetime, 7 out of 10 adult women (between 45-59 years), 6 out of 10 women with higher education women experienced at least one form of violence from their partner. 1 in 10 adult women (35-59 years) has suffered from all types of violence from their partners. More than half of women are victims of psychological abuse. Every second female victim suffered multiple cases of physical violence. One in five adult women (35-59 years) is a victim of sexual offence. From 10 women victims of violence from others than their partners, 5 were abused by their parents, and 3 by their siblings.

The forms of domestic violence are multiple. About 60% of the women experienced psychological abuse, 55% – forms of psychological violence aimed at social isolation, while each tenth woman suffered because of economic violence. Also, about 40% of the women were subject to physical violence at least once, while about 19% - to sexual violence. Some 12.3% of the women experienced joint forms of psychological, physical and sexual violence from the husband or partner.

Despite the rather high rate of reporting of cases of violence against women, many of these remain unreported. About 1/3 of the women victims of domestic violence and over 1/5 of the victims of violence from other persons never reported these cases. The women from rural areas are more willing to report cases of violence.

The women can also be aggressors, not only victims of violence. The crime rate among women is of 96 cases per 100,000 women, while among men is of 1,107 cases per 100,000 men. In Moldova, violence affects women mainly because of the persistent stereotypes and convictions about the traditional patriarchal roles in the family and society.