Sixty percent of domestic violence victims in Macedonia are women aged 30-64, with 80 percent of them unemployed, having elementary or secondary education, show the results of the national research over the state of domestic violence in households.

The percentage of domestic violence victims is higher in rural environments, although the majority of reported cases are in urban areas, shows the research in the programme "Strengthening National Capacities to Prevent Domestic Violence 2008-2012", implemented by Macedonia's competent institutions and UNDP, conducted on a representative sample of 2,100 respondents over 15 years of age in March-April.

Only 18 cases of sexual violence were reported during the research, with 78 percent of them aged between 30 and 64, 67 percent in rural environments, 83 percent unemployed, and 67 percent with elementary education or less.

The majority of perpetrators (62 percent) are men, but there are also women, especially mothers-in-law and wives.

"The main goal of this research was to obtain a comprehensive analysis of domestic violence, including the reasons, types, incidence, prevalence and frequency, thus creating appropriate fact-based policies. Data were collected over the number of incidents within a specific demographic group and the percentage of persons-victims of domestic violence during a certain period", said the Minister of Labor and Social Policy Spiro Ristovski at Wednesday's press conference.

He added that 91 percent of respondents knew that domestic violence is a crime, while 76 percent were acquainted with the existence of social services for protection of victims. Three-quarters of the incidents have not been reported in competent institutions, while only 45 percent of respondents are familiar with the legal steps that can be taken, especially with regard to victim protection and punishment of perpetrators.

"The research shows that programmes for economic strengthening of victims and the development of standardized packages for their protection and support need to resume, along with the raise of public awareness through campaigns, and coordination mechanisms among health, social and police services", stressed Mr. Ristovski.

According to him, a result of the joint cooperation between domestic and international institutions, and the NGO sector in the field is the new Strategy for Prevention of Domestic Violence 2012-2015.

UNDP Assistant Resident Representative Vesna Dzuteska Biseva said everyone can be a domestic violence victim.

"Men rarely report domestic violence and when they do, they report it to the police. On the other hand, women report violence in all competent institutions", she added.

A point of concern is that some respondents said they were subjected to extreme forms of domestic violence, when their lives were under threat.

"The emergence of extreme forms of violence shows the necessity to strengthen institutional capacities towards identifying such forms of violence", emphasized Dzuteska Biseva.