On the Need for Integrated System and Cooperation for Preventing and Combating Domestic Violence (Estonia’s experience)

Abstract

The article addresses, based on studies carried out in Estonia, cooperation between specialists in preventing and combating domestic violence in Estonia. The corresponding expert surveys were carried out by the Estonian Institute for Open Society Research in 2014-2015 and 2017, which make it possible to analyze the efficiency of the existing system in preventing domestic violence and which joins the police, prosecutors, judges, social workers, general practitioners etc. The article further analyses the aspects of juridical regulation of domestic violence in Estonia, including the necessity for drafting a domestic violence prevention act as a precondition for creating a system necessary for the specialists' cooperation. Another goal was to study cooperation between institutions and specialists in combating domestic violence and the causes of its frequent inadequacy. The article also analyses how the positions and values as well as attitude towards domestic violence have changed among the population and specialists between 2001 and 2015 and 2017.