An Overview of Criminological Research on Violence in Slovenia Since 1991

Abstract

Violence is a phenomenon that has been present in every human society since the emergence of the first communities. Currently, it represents an urgent problem of modern society. Not only who and how or against whom violence is caused, the important questions refer also as to why does violence emerge and in what way it could be avoided. The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of research on violence in Slovenia since 1991. During the last 16 years, over 30 studies were conducted that focused on different forms of violence in Slovenia. Despite the fact that the majority of them focused on physical and sexual violence, research on other forms of violence has not been neglected (institutional violence, psychological violence etc.). Slovenian researchers focused on domestic and juvenile violence (a large number of studies), and developments in the region in the 1990s (Balkan wars) influenced the study of special forms of violence that usually present taboo subjects in modern societies. In the 21st century, new forms of crime (e.g. cybercrime, environmental crime etc.) influenced researchers to explore new forms of violence in Slovenia. Violence is sometimes difficult to detect and study, as it is evolving in accordance with changes in the environment. Violence between partners, violence in health care, institutional violence, bullying and violence in the workplace, including sexual violence, are seen as areas of future research on violence in Slovenia.