Violence in the Family vs. Violence over a Family

Abstract

Natalia I. Lovtsova – Doctor of Sociology, Professor, School of Psychology and Applied Sociology,
Yuri Gagarin State Technical University, Saratov, Russian Federation. Email: natasha_lov@mail.ru

Dmitry V. Zaitsev – Doctor of Sociology, Professor, School of Psychology and Applied Sociology,
Yuri Gagarin State Technical University, Saratov, Russian Federation. Email: zaitsevd@bk.ru

Political and media debate over the direction and the content of family policy and child protection in Russian Federation have been colored by the idea of a renaissance in traditional family values. The strengthening of parental authority has been one of the most discussed components of this concept. Discussion about parental power was focused on aspects of family violence that have also become a subject of active legislative activity in Russia in the period 2012–2018. The review below examines how the Family code has been reformed, including amendments to the law on protection of children from information that damages health and development, changes to the Criminal code of the Russian Federation decriminalizing family violence, as well as the legitimization of a traditionalist logic of violence in family policy and child protection policy. Construction of policy on the principle ‘reverting back’,
where socio-political practices are developed on the basis of opposition to points of Council of Europe Strategy for the Rights of the Child (2016–2021), is leading to controversial interpretations of violence and discrimination phenomena both in daily parental practices, and in legislative discourse. Perhaps new discussions, such as those regarding a new bill for domestic violence prevention, will draw attention to NGO initiatives calling for the eradication of gender violence in Russia as well as overturning the direction of family policy from opposition to ‘western values’ in favour of family support and child protection from any forms of violence and discrimination.