Judicial Officers on Domestic Violence against Women in Greece Representations, Beliefs, Stereotypes

The aim of this research is to understand the construction of the phenomenon of domestic violence against women in our country through the investigation of the social representations, beliefs and stereotypes of the actors involved in the management of the phenomenon. In this particular case, institutional actors exercising official social control, such as judicial officials (judges and prosecutors), whose intersubjective interpretation contributes to the social interpretation and its modes of reproduction, highlighting the social and cultural dimension of the issue.

For this purpose, twelve in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted using the snowball technique and analysed using the qualitative method, between the months of February-April 2021, with respective judicial officers of both genders, who have managed a sufficient number of cases of domestic violence against women in the exercise of their duties, present or past. Of these, half come from the prosecution service and half from the judiciary.

It is worth noting that although the survey was completed in 2021, it is still relevant in terms of the issues under investigation, as qualitative social characteristics, such as beliefs, stereotypes, etc., change very slowly over time.