Description
The Verstka team will use specialized parsers to download hundreds of thousands of court rulings on cases of violence from the websites of Russian courts and courts in territories occupied by Russia. Then, using a specially designed prompt developed by journalists, these documents will be analyzed. From this dataset, journalists will select court rulings related to violence against children and adolescents. Together with researchers from the University of Helsinki, journalists will analyze these cases and prepare a study. Two years will be examined — 2021 and 2025. The goal of the study is to understand how the Russian state prosecutes violence against minors. The researchers aim to determine whether the state’s approach to cases of violence against children has changed since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“Closed police statistics show that after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia saw a surge in violence against children. Police recorded the highest number of such cases in many years. The overwhelming majority of these crimes occur within families. In Russia, the punishment for killing or raping a child under 14 is harsher than for violence against an adult. However, there is no law that protects children from systematic domestic violence. If police become aware that a child is being beaten at home, the parents will most likely be fined just €50. Russian-language media usually report only isolated, especially high-profile cases of child abuse.”
Project Team
Media outlet
Research organisation
