Shelters in Denmark For Battered Women - European Commission

Introduction
The aim of this report has been to establish a knowledge base around the topic of sheltering
services to women experiencing domestic violence (crises centres) in Denmark. The report
has been produced as part of an European project under the EU Daphne programme, and is
structured according to the guidelines for the partners in the project.
The report has to a large degree been carried out as a desk study, collating and reporting on
literature and a few reports on statistics in this field. Apart from that interviews have been
carried out with two representatives from the National Organisation for Crises Centres
(LOKK), two experts within the field and a postal questionnaire study among the centres,
carried out in the first months of 2004. We want to thank the centres for their willingness to
answer our questions. We also want to thank senior researcher Else Christensen for her
comments to the report. The material has been collated and the report written by
bach.scient.soc.Lucia Caceres in close cooperation with senior researcher Inger Koch-
Nielsen, The Danish National Institute of Social Research (SFI).
1. Domestic Violence in Denmark - Short National Overview
1.1. Origins and evolution of the public debate on domestic violence
It was not until the breakthrough of the Women’s Movement in the 70’s - probably for the
first time at a public meeting arranged by Joan Søstrene (The Joan Sisters) 1 - that domestic
violence appeared on the public agenda. Up until then ‘wife battering’ had in large been
seen as part of marital life and therefore as a private matter inside the family and intimate
sphere.
This historical period is what the American sociologist Nanette J. Davis calls the 1 st phase
in the development of the debate on domestic violence in the Western societies. She identifies
3 phases: the traditional structure, the deconstruction and at last the reconstruction (Järvinen,
1993). Based on this division, the following section offers a short overview of the
main characteristics of the development in Danish society that has influenced the cultural
view on and approach to domestic violence. In this description we have chosen mainly to
focus on the themes of development in the Women’s Movement, women’s position on the
labour market, the breakthrough of the Welfare State, the changing family patterns and of
course as a result of all these the changes in gender relations.
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