Violence against women and teaching at higher education institutions in Serbia

Abstract

The paper has two aims. It aims to present first steps in introducing the topic of violence against women in higher education institutions in Serbia as well as to present results of exploratory research about the current situation regarding the place that violence against women as a topic has in teaching at the selected higher education institutions in Serbia. In the first part of the paper, the first time inclusion of this topic in one criminology textbook and the syllabi at the Law Faculty (University of Nis) in 1998, and later (2004) at the Faculty for special education and rehabilitation - FASPER (University of Belgrade) is described. The importance of the cooperation of the author of this paper and professor Slobodanka Konstantinovic Vilic, persons and circumstances that were beneficial for their ideas to be realized, as well as further development of teaching about violence against women at these faculties is emphasized. In the second part of the paper current state of teaching about violence against women at the Law Faculty (University of Nis) and FASPER is examined within a larger context of the situation at similar faculties in Serbia. The analysis is focused on the visibility of the violence against women topic in the syllabi of the faculties of three state universities: University of Belgrade, University of Nis and University of Novi Sad. Apart from the Nis Law Faculty and FASPER, the analysis included the law faculties of the University of Belgrade and University of Novi Sad, as well as Special education and rehabilitation studies at the Faculty of Medicine in Novi Sad. The analysis is based on the data contained in the syllabi (undergraduate, master and doctoral level) that were available online on the internet sites of the given faculties in October 2018. Qualitative analysis of the syllabi was performed. It included the following data: course title, goals, outcomes, content and reading materials. The results suggest that violence against women topic is included in teaching at the majority of the faculties encompassed by the study, while at the same time there is inconsistency in dealing with different forms of violence. The topic of domestic violence is the most common, while sexual violence and trafficking in people (women) are less present. Some faculties have courses specifically dealing with either domestic violence or trafficking in people. Other forms of violence against women, such as stalking, work-related abuse and violence against women in general, are rarely present in syllabi, i.e. only at certain faculties. We can assume that these topics are only sporadically taught, or are not taught at all. The topic of violence against women is most prominent in undergraduate level syllabi, while it is somewhat less represented on the master level and in doctoral studies. However, on the other side, some master courses are completely or largely devoted to topics related to violence against women (e.g. courses called Domestic violence and Trafficking in people). The main weakness is the fact that most of the courses that have violence against women as a part of their syllabi are optional courses, which means that all students are not educated for adequate dealing with violence against women in their future practical work. Based on the study results, the author concludes that the current situation regarding the inclusion of the violence against women topic is better than twenty years ago. However, it is necessary to conduct larger and more detailed study in order to give reliable estimation of whether education that future professionals obtain at faculties in Serbia is appropriate to assure adequate social response to violence against women in terms of its suppression, prevention and victims support.