The “Invisible Data” project aims to empower the Bulgarian civil society to recognize, raise awareness of, and demand meaningful change regarding the cyber and technological dimension of domestic violence (CTDDV). This open source platform provides you with access to data on CTDDV and the key findings of the project, supporting the work of NGOs, policymakers, researchers, and advocates in Bulgaria, the EU, and worldwide.
The Invisible DataBase contains statistical information on domestic violence cases registered in the practice of the organizations “H&D Perspectives” and “Demetra” for the period July 1 – December 31, 2025. The information concerns all victims of domestic violence who sought support and protection at the Social Service Complex, the Consultation Center for Prevention and Support of Victims of Domestic Violence (for Haskovo, Dimitrovgrad, and Svilengrad), and the Crisis Center – Dimitrovgrad of the “H&D Perspectives” Foundation in the Haskovo region; at the Temporary Shelter and the Center for Protection and Assistance for Victims of Trafficking and the Shelter for Subsequent Reintegration, the Crisis Center for Children and Persons Victims of Violence, the “Vselena” Support Center for Victims of Sexual Violence, the Center for Social Rehabilitation and Integration for Persons Who Have Experienced Violence, and the Center for the Prevention of violence and crime in the city of Burgas of the “Demetra” Association in the Burgas region, and reports received via the “Demetra” Association’s National Hotline for Victims of Domestic Violence.
The registered cases of cyber and technological violence in the context of domestic violence are distributed by settlements as follows:
39% in the town of Haskovo.
37% in the town of Burgas
13% in the city of Sofia.
11% are scattered among Aytos, Asenovgrad, Blagoevgrad, Varna, Dimitrovgrad, Dobrich, Lovech, Pazardzhik, Pernik, Pleven, Plovdiv, Svilengrad, Stara Zagora, Yambol, Haskovo-region, and Sofia-region.
“Constant calls and messages filled with offensive content, including cursing, humiliation, and verbal attacks. Stalking via phone calls from different numbers after the victim has repeatedly changed their phone number in an attempt to break contact. The perpetrator’s actions have caused the victim constant fear, anxiety, and a sense of danger. The victim feels like they are constantly under surveillance and exposed to a real risk of physical violence, even after they no longer share a common space with the abuser.”
– Testimony from a frontline practitioner in the fight against domestic violence
Within the perpetrators:
86% are men, 14% are women
Within the victims:
91% are women, 9% are men
The perpetrators are predominantly male, and the victims are predominantly female. It is more likely for women to be perpetrators, than it is for men to be victims.
The average victim is slightly younger (36 years old) than the average perpetrator (40 years old).
Non-binary people are poorly represented in the database. This points to the difficult access and the unlikelihood for the LGBTQI+ community to reach protection, institutions, and seek support.
“The victim’s partner restricts their freedom and autonomy through constant pressure, threats, and isolation. Particularly concerning are the manifestations of digital and ICT-related violence. The perpetrator monitors the victim’s correspondence when they use the free internet connection, provided in their village, the perpetrator restricts the victim’s access to devices, pawns their phone, or takes it without consent. The perpetrator controls all of the victim’s online and phone contacts. This behavior severely hinders the victim’s ability to seek help and further increases their dependent position.”
– Testimony from a frontline practitioner in the fight against domestic violence
Violence committed by men against women in the context of an intimate relationship predominates.
95% of cyber or technological violence within an intimate relationship is committed by men.
54% of cyber and technological violence in an intimate relationship is committed in past relationships (between former spouses or partners).
53% of cyber and technological violence in kinship is committed by women.
“When the victim had a phone, strict technological control was exercised over them – monitoring of communications, checking messages and calls, as well as restricting contacts with relatives and friends. In some cases, the victim was forced to give up their device so its content could be checked. The mother-in-law used phone calls as a means of psychological harassment, including insults, threats, and manipulative suggestions. The victim described cases in which they were deprived of the opportunity to contact their family to ask for financial help or support, and cases where they were in pain from a physical condition and were prevented from receiving medical assistance due to the mother-in-law’s actions. The perpetrator’s goal was to isolate the victim from the outside world, to deprive them of independence, and to establish full control over the victim’s personal life, decisions, and access to resources.”
– Testimony from a frontline practitioner in the fight against domestic violence
“The victim’s ex-spouse does not want to accept that his ex has left him and that parental rights for their son have been awarded to the victim. The perpetrator creates a closed group on Facebook, to which they add all their mutual friends and relatives. In the group, the abuser posts manipulated recordings of their private conversations and claims that the victim is mentally unstable and unable to care for their child. The perpetrator uses fake profiles to flood the victim’s business page with negative comments, which makes their future clients think twice about using their services. As a result, the victim also suffers financial losses.”
– Testimony from a frontline practitioner in the fight against domestic violence
“The ex-spouse gifts their child with a large plush toy and a tablet. It doesn’t cross the victim’s mind that there might be a camera and a bug in the toy, and that the perpetrator can turn on the microphone from the tablet and listen to what is being said. The victim figures this out later because the perpetrator repeatedly talks about things, of which they could have no way of knowing. After these surveillance devices are removed, the victim is under constant stress that someone is watching them, constantly checks for hidden devices, and relies of painkillers.”
– Testimony from a frontline practitioner in the fight against domestic violence
Violence “by proxy” is the practice of dispersion of violence among people close to the victim. Easy access to online and technological tools provides perpetrators with channels through which violence metastasizes from the victim to their immediate circle. This includes relatives, friends, loved ones, and children. Most often, violence by proxy takes the form of threats, insults, and humiliations against the victim, expressed by phone or in text messages from the perpetrator to the victim’s loved ones. Often, perpetrators send video or photographic materials to the victim’s loved ones, in which the victim is seen in an intimate moment, in a sexual act, or naked.
“The perpetrator often calls the victim’s mother, who is also the grandmother of their common child, via phone and apps with a camera. The perpetrator hurls accusations at her that she is to blame for the breakdown of his relationship with the victim, threatens her, insults her, and threatens physical violence.”
– Testimony from a frontline practitioner in the fight against domestic violence
“The perpetrator used a moment of misjudgment at the beginning of their relationship and filmed the victim naked and in intimate situations. Then they used these photos to threaten and blackmail the victim into remaining in the relationship, into giving money, and doing whatever the perpetrator told her to. During a subsequent argument, the perpetrator sent the photos via Viber to various people who know the victim, to demonstrate serious intent in the spoken threats. The perpetrator told the victim that even if they complained, the perpetrator would delete everything and they wouldn’t find anything, and if someone reported it, the perpetrator could always say that someone else had sent it from their phone.”
– Testimony from a frontline practitioner in the fight against domestic violence
“The perpetrator installed video surveillance cameras in all parts of the home, through which he exercised constant control over the victim’s behavior, surveillance without consent, and recordings of acts of violence. This represents a form of digital surveillance, violation of personal space, and use of technology as a tool to cause fear, submission, and isolation. The internet and connected devices were used mainly for remote monitoring and control. This represents an unusually high degree of control and technological invasion, which intensifies psychological trauma and creates a sense of a complete lack of safe space.”
– Testimony from a frontline practitioner in the fight against domestic violence
“The perpetrator is a former partner who used to live with the victim. The victim became a guarantor for the perpetrator’s bank loan. Due to stalled payments, the victim is forced to cover the installments and is experiencing difficulties. The perpetrator contacts the victim by phone and online to threaten them, to demand payments, to blackmail, and to harass. During their relationship, there was also physical, psychological, and economic violence. The perpetrator uses the internet to threaten the victim, to harass them with offensive messages, to manipulate them through social media, emails, text messages, and other communication channels. This also includes cyber-blackmail, such as demands for money or other actions under the threat of spreading compromising information.”
– Testimony from a frontline practitioner in the fight against domestic violence
“The perpetrator is the father of the victim’s spouse. The perpetrator harasses the victim with advances for intimate relations, sends obscene messages, stalks, records, but the victim fears that if she tells her spouse, it will get worse. Either the spouse won’t believe them and will hurt them, or the spouse can hurt their father in a fit of rage, which would get him into legal trouble.”
– Testimony from a frontline practitioner in the fight against domestic violence
“In online communication, the perpetrator uses chats, photos, or audio recordings taken out of context, which they share with third parties. In this way, the victim is presented as the aggressor or as unstable. The internet allows for easy dissemination and difficult correction of these suggestions. This leads to social isolation and loss of trust.”
– Testimony from a frontline practitioner in the fight against domestic violence
“The victim couldn’t keep a job because their employers were annoyed by the victim’s constant phone rings and conversations with the perpetrator during work hours. After the phone calls, the victim couldn’t concentrate on their work; became distracted and uneasy. Sometimes the victim would cry and couldn’t pull themselves together emotionally.”
– Testimony from a frontline practitioner in the fight against domestic violence
With the financial support of the Bulgarian Fund for Women and the European Union. The views and opinions expressed, however, are solely those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Bulgarian Fund for Women, the European Union or the European Commission Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers. Neither the Bulgarian Fund for Women, the European Union, the European Commission, nor any of their respective structures or entities can be held responsible for these actions or outcomes.
