Domestic Violence Law: New in 2021 Law

Domestic violence is a fairly common problem all over the world. Both men, women, and children suffer from this phenomenon, but the last two categories are most at risk. In 2020, many developed countries have laws that allow domestic tyrants to be brought to administrative and criminal liability. In Russia, a whole controversy has developed around the bill adopted in 2021 with the participation of politicians, lawyers and even the Russian Orthodox Church. How things stand in the Russian Federation with this law and how to legally and safely protect yourself or a loved one in such a situation.

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What is domestic violence?

The concept of domestic violence includes a number of actions of a physical, psychological, sexual and economic nature. Physical violence includes:

pushing, slapping;
beatings with fists, spankings;
beatings with sticks, belts, hammers, and other heavy objects;
cuts and punctures with a knife or other sharp objects;
hair pulling, spitting, head banging against walls, etc.

Psychological violence includes the following circumstances:

humiliation;
constant criticism;
constant control, surveillance, including checking correspondence, telephones, the use of spyware, security cameras;
threats to kill the victim or her loved ones;
use of derogatory words in address;
creating conditions in which the victim becomes dependent on the abuser and is unable to ask for help;
creating a negative opinion about the victim, presenting her as mentally ill in order to cause distrust of her if she complains;
blackmail, manipulation.

Sexual violence includes not only acts of penetration, but also forced exposure to nudity, touching of genitals, watching pornography or a partner masturbating, and performing reproductive tasks.

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Pavel Yurievich

Area of scientific interests: civil law, automobile law, inheritance, migration law, social law

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An abuser can also use a form of economic violence: not allowing him to work, creating conditions for dependence, controlling expenses by providing all receipts and invoices for purchases, not allowing the use of personal hygiene items, irregularly paying child support, and also blackmailing a partner with money in case of refusal. from sexual intimacy.

Domestic violence is sometimes called domestic violence, and the phenomenon is legally defined not only among legal spouses, but also in couples living in a civil marriage.

Exclusion of domestic violence from the Criminal Code: arguments for and against

Members of the LDPR faction unanimously supported the idea of decriminalizing beatings in the family, and party leader V. Zhirinovsky spoke traditionally eccentrically about this. In his opinion, women simply need to be more careful when choosing life partners. Zhirinovsky also noted the high percentage of fictitious marriages in Russia as a problem.

Human rights organizations, oddly enough, also supported making adjustments. In particular, parent committees argue that the rights of parents must be protected no less diligently than the rights of children, because now any bruises and abrasions on a child’s body are blamed primarily on those who raise the child. Deputy Speaker of the State Duma A. Isaev agrees with this opinion, arguing that in Western Europe excessive attention to protecting the rights of children has led to the fact that children have turned into all-knowing “Pavlik Morozovs”, constantly “knocking” on their own relatives to the police. The Commissioner for Children's Rights under the President of the Russian Federation, A. Kuznetsova, noted that she does not see a great tragedy in the abolition of criminal penalties for “domestic” violence, since “the legislation already has many mechanisms for protecting children.”

Opponents of the new law include not only communists, but also the church. The Russian Orthodox Church does not clearly justify its position, limiting itself to a reference to the Holy Scriptures, which in Russia, alas, does not have legislative force. The Church says parents have the right to use “loving” physical punishment on their children, but decriminalizing domestic violence would do “more harm than good.”

Lawyers and jurists also join the opponents of the law, but they have a mercantile interest: no violators, no income. According to lawyers, criminal liability is the very deterrent that does not allow citizens prone to aggression to go to great lengths. Administrative liability, according to lawyers, scares few people today - the famous lawyer S. Gurevich cites the example of punishment under the Code of Administrative Offenses for “drunk” drivers, which, obviously, has not yet brought any fruit.

Bill on domestic violence in Russia 2019

In 2021, a bill on Domestic Violence was submitted to the State Duma, since there are quite a lot of prerequisites. In the 21st century, many families still live according to medieval laws, while law enforcement agencies say to victims and their relatives: “If he kills, then we will imprison you.”

In domestic violence, grievous bodily harm is rare, but murder at the domestic level occurs in 70% of cases if there is tyranny in the family. Moreover, sometimes the victims commit murder in the process of self-defense, after which they are accused of exceeding their authority and sent to serve their sentence.

What does the law say? According to Art. 4 The purpose of the law is to support and preserve the family, as well as to provide social and medical assistance to the injured party. The violator will be subject to protective orders, which may result in eviction, provided there is room, and a ban on having any contact with the victim.

If you delve into the essence of the bill, then, if adopted, it will introduce a number of changes to the process of legal interaction between victims of violence and abusers.

However, all of them are aimed at preserving the family, and not at protecting the rights of victims. Therefore, the ongoing controversy around this legal act is completely justified. What are the disadvantages of the law?

Domestic battery is being decriminalized. Previously, for such a violation, the violator could receive up to 2 years in prison. According to the new bill, this is now an administrative violation, for which a fine of up to 30 thousand rubles is expected.
In the absence of evidence, the maximum that the victim can count on is a preventive conversation.
If there is evidence of beatings, the court may issue an order stating that the offender has no right to contact the victim under any circumstances. However, the potential danger for the victim in such situations increases significantly, since this can only anger the tyrant. In addition, the fine will be paid from the family budget, therefore it is indirectly paid by the victim herself.
The text of the bill does not say anything about sexual violence, as a result of which it turns out that partners obviously agree to any actions of an intimate nature.

The investigation is being conducted by a local police officer

“To draw up a protocol under 6.1.1, you need to collect all the same materials as in a criminal case and conduct an examination. In Moscow it is held in only one place, on Tarny Proezd, in the area of Proletarsky Prospekt. So there is no difference, it has not become easier,” says the local police commissioner of one of the districts in the west of Moscow.

In addition to examining the injuries received, it is necessary to interview the victim, the attacker and possible witnesses. The Administrative Code does not provide for any undertaking not to leave the place, much less isolation of the aggressor. The evidence collection procedure is called an administrative investigation and takes about two to three weeks. Criminal cases of beatings took months to be investigated.

But the point here is not that an administrative investigation is somehow very simple, but that there is a vicious practice of delaying the investigation of criminal cases. This is what the former prosecutor and now lawyer for Sitting Rus', Alexey Fedyarov, thinks so. In the 2000s, he worked in Chuvashia, was the deputy prosecutor of Novocheboksarsk and was responsible for overseeing the actions of local police officers. “The time frame for the investigation went wildly upward when oversight over the time frame for the investigation was taken away from the prosecutor’s office,” explains Fedyarov. “In cases of domestic battery, there should be twenty days from the initiation of the case to the transfer to court, no more is needed.”

In court, an administrative case differs from a criminal case in that the administrative protocol drawn up by the district police officer is itself evidence. In addition, it will not be possible to delay the process: if the offender does not appear, the court can consider the case and make a decision in absentia. “They treat the administrative process like this: think about it, administrative, we’ll look at it without the accused or victims, we’ll make a decision,” says Fedyarov.

Since beatings in the family became an article of the Code of Administrative Offenses, such cases began to be heard not by magistrates’ courts, but by district courts. “The courts will consider it normally if the investigation is carried out properly,” the district police officer avoids answering the question about the return of administrative cases. According to statistics from the Judicial Department, in the first half of 2021, the courts returned every seventh administrative case to the police for revision.

“Many times this year we have been faced with a situation where an application was accepted, administrative cases were initiated - but in fact no administrative investigation was carried out. For example, a policeman collected all the documents, but did not send the victim for examination - and that’s it, the person avoided punishment. The court dismisses such a case. Or here’s another violation: such cases should be considered by the district court, and the materials were sent to the magistrate’s court. And he even made a ruling! But this is clearly a basis for appealing the decision, which is what the offender did - and avoided punishment,” says INGO lawyer Galina Ibryanova.

According to the district police officer, he and his colleagues in the district draw up two or three reports of beatings per month.

“By the way, women are not always the victims. With minor injuries, according to the administration, these are more likely to be men. They rarely come themselves, but they call us from emergency rooms: a man came with beatings, they ask where from, and tell us that this is domestic violence,” says the policeman.

Based on all the protocols drawn up in 2021 at his site and the sites of his colleagues under Article 6.1.1, the courts issued decisions on fines.

What do lawyers and human rights activists say about the law?

Experts say that there are no penalties for repeat offenders and that in case of severe violations, the culprit will receive a real sentence.

If DV is recorded for the first time, the person will be fined. The condition is also the severity of the violation, that is, if it is limited to spankings, slaps, etc. Unfortunately, the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation does not regulate the concept of beatings; accordingly, it relies only on bodily injuries, and if there are none, then proving assault will be problematic.

In addition, victims themselves often do not talk about the current situation, since they often consider such behavior to be the norm. After all, at the level of mentality in the Russian Federation, such statements are “He hits, that means he loves,” “She provoked it,” etc.

Consequently, the salvation and protection of the rights of victims of domestic violence are in the hands of the victims themselves. At least for now.

“Better only for the treasury”

A fine is the most common type of punishment for beatings throughout the country. Of the 51,689 people found guilty of assault, 6,794 were sentenced to compulsory labor - they will have to sweep streets, paint benches or clear snow during their free time from their main work or study. Another 4,395 people were arrested for up to 15 days.

40,477 people were fined. The total amount is almost 220 million rubles, that is, the average fine is 5,419 rubles.

“The peculiarity of administrative proceedings is that the offender is notified, but may not come. The question arises: where to catch him later if he is sentenced to arrest. Therefore, it is easier for the court to fine,” explains Mari Davtyan the logic of court decisions.

“I talked to local police officers in the Vladimir region, they say that women are filing fewer applications because they know that there will be a fine for this, which will have to be paid from the family budget. And for the province, 5 thousand is serious money,” says Alena Sadikova, director of the women’s crisis center.

The center where Sadikova works provides temporary shelter for women and children affected by domestic violence.

“The effect is not that victims have become better protected, but that there are more appeals, more cases - this is probably better only for the treasury,” concludes Sadikova.

The problem of the common budget of the rapist and the victim was also recognized by the head of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, separately emphasizing that the share of arrests and compulsory labor in such cases is “insignificant.”

“But in general, the goal is not to deprive as many people of freedom as possible,” recalls Marie Davtyan. — When the punishment was criminal, there was also little choice: the court could sentence them to compulsory labor, correctional labor, or a suspended sentence. It seems that a suspended sentence is not a punishment, but it deterred a relapse - because by beating again, one could get a real sentence. The point is not how hard we can hit you on the head for committing a crime. It’s about how effectively we can deter a new crime and protect the victim from a new attack.”

In addition to statistics on cases considered by courts under certain articles of the Criminal Code, the Ministry of Internal Affairs keeps statistics on “crimes involving violent acts against a family member,” its data published by Rosstat. We are talking about cases of beatings, torture, and severe and moderate injuries registered by the police. Since 2012, the number of such crimes has grown by 5-10 thousand cases per year: in 2012 - more than 32 thousand crimes, in 2014 - almost 42 thousand, in 2021 - more than 64 thousand.

In the first six months of 2021, police recorded 18,830 such crimes. If the indicators for the second half of the year are comparable to the first, then the decriminalization law has undoubtedly improved the statistics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

What is the responsibility for domestic violence?

While the Bill on the Prevention of Domestic Violence has not been adopted, law enforcement officers rely on Article 116.1. Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The punishment in case of proof of domestic violence will be:

fine up to 30 thousand rubles. or in the amount of salary for a period of up to 3 months;
community service for up to 240 hours;
correctional labor for up to six months;
arrest for 3 months.

Criminal liability for repeated cases of beatings and rape occurs only in the case of relapses, and this causes concern among lobbyists.

Why did they decide to remove beatings from the Criminal Code?

Where does the current high-profile law “grow legs” from? Battery began to be removed from the Criminal Code back in July 2015 - only then it was about beatings that were inflicted not on close people, but on strangers. A set of legislative changes dubbed the "spanking law" by newspaper wits has caused surprisingly little fuss. Citizens who, starting in 2021, could find themselves beaten on the street with almost impunity, had very reasonable grounds for indignation. However, the changes were not widely publicized. You can be sure: every second Russian is not aware that the Criminal Code has ceased to protect citizens from aggressive street fighters.

Almost immediately after the decriminalization of street beatings, Senator E. Mizulina was indignant at the absurdity of the current situation in Russian legislation: it turns out that it is possible to beat strangers, but not your own? The absurdity of the law is eloquently emphasized by the following theoretical experiment: if children in 2 families have done something wrong, it is wiser for parents to temporarily exchange children and spank the strangers - then they will face a maximum fine. If you spank your own, you will be condemned to the fullest extent of the Criminal Code! Senator E. Mizulina argues that the decriminalization of family beatings will minimize “external interference in the social unit” and “protect traditional ways of raising children in the family.” However, if in a country beating children and spouses is considered a tradition, then something is probably wrong with this country.

There is another reason for the decriminalization of beatings (not in the family, but in general): in 2015, cases of beatings in court accounted for almost 50% of the total number of cases, while in the early 2000s this figure was much more modest - only 15 %. Probably, the Russian courts simply turned out to be unprepared for the fact that citizens will learn and, most importantly, show a desire to restore justice using civilized methods.

The strangest thing in the story with Senator Mizulina and her project was that the Duma, the Federation Council, and even the Supreme Court, which a year earlier initiated the decriminalization of beatings from outsiders, voted against the amendments. However, Mizulina inexplicably managed to achieve the favor of the head of state and senior executives. Further, the State Duma supported the decriminalization of beatings in the family. The amendments were approved and adopted in the shortest possible time - 3 readings took no more than 2 weeks.

What to do in case of domestic violence?

Victims of domestic violence must carefully consider their exit strategy. Most do not dare to take real steps due to the fear of aggravating the situation, causing severe anger from their partner, which often leads to more serious consequences.

What a person experiencing violence should know:

Start talking about the problem with loved ones. Talk about what is happening, focusing as much as possible on all the facts.
Be sure to prepare a place where you can go: visit friends, rent an apartment, if possible.
Keep documents with you.
Contact the police and write a statement in writing.
Record beatings in a medical facility.
Ask neighbors for help if they hear screams and ask them to call the police.
Contact the support center in such situations.

What about society?

Society split into two approximately equal camps. If you believe the results of the VTsIOM survey, over 50% of respondents (the majority) were in favor of the decriminalization of beatings in the family, and only a third were against it. This does not mean that VTsIOM chose notorious sadists for the study - on the contrary, almost 80% of respondents said violence is unacceptable. It’s just that, according to people, the adoption of the law will not increase the level of violence, but on the contrary, it will fall (in the worst case, it will remain the same).

However, opponents of the new law turned out to be more active citizens than supporters, and even tried to organize a rally against the decriminalization of beatings - the procession was supposed to take place on January 28, 2021 on Bolotnaya Square. However, the event was not approved by the capital authorities - according to the mayor's office, there was not enough space on the square for 1000 people (this turned out to be the declared number of participants), and such a large-scale procession would create obstacles for transport. The organizers announced their intention to resubmit the application so that the rally could still take place in early February. This effectively “suffocated” the popular resistance to the decriminalization of beatings. The latest news only mentions various petitions against the decriminalization of beatings, however, as practice shows, such petitions are of little use.

So what is the bottom line: is it reasonable to exempt domestic aggressors from criminal liability? Statistics should answer this question: from the beginning of 2015 to September 2021, there were more than 1,700 murders within families. Every 11th murder in Russia is committed by a relative. “Domestic” violence in our country is not uncommon; it is a large-scale problem. And decriminalizing beatings seems to be an effective way for senior officials to turn a blind eye to this problem.

What is important to know about self-defense

Quite often, women suffering from domestic violence try to respond to their partner in the same coin, but the line between self-defense and abuse is quite thin. The human body is designed in such a way that in a critical situation it uses all resources for survival and a sharp surge of adrenaline can lead to disastrous consequences.

The law allows the victim to defend his life and integrity, but prohibits inflicting bodily harm or harm to the life of the offender. Therefore, of course, it is better, at the slightest preconditions of tyranny, to contact law enforcement agencies and record incidents.

Where can victims go for help?

Women suffering from domestic violence, children, and elderly people should not remain silent. There are several organizations in the Russian Federation that help in the fight against codependency and domestic tyranny:

Project “Nasiliu.net” https://nasiliu.net/.
Crisis center for assistance to women and children in Moscow – https://krizis-centr.ru/. Phone - etc.
Independent charity center for survivors of sexual violence “Sisters”, telephone.
Help hotline: 8-800-7000-600. You can call there for free.

On January 27, the State Duma adopted a controversial law on domestic violence in the third reading. 380 parliamentarians voted for amendments to Article 116 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, excluding “beatings against close persons” from the list of criminal offenses, 380 parliamentarians voted against, and there were no abstentions. Thus, beatings inflicted on close relatives for the first time were transferred to the status of administrative offenses. Responsibility for them includes a fine of 5 thousand to 30 thousand rubles, arrest for a period of 10 to 15 days, or compulsory labor for a period of 60 to 120 hours.

In case of recidivism, the offender faces a fine of up to 40 thousand rubles or in the amount of the salary or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to 3 months, or compulsory work for a period of up to 240 hours, or correctional labor for a period of up to 6 months, or arrest for a period of up to 3 months. . In case of causing harm to health, the offender will bear criminal liability.

As Andrey Isaev, first deputy chairman of the United Russia faction, explained, the adoption of the document in this form proves the fundamental reluctance of Russian legislators “to follow the path of pressure on the family.”

“If, let’s say, a single mother, coming home after her second job and finding drugs in her child’s bedside table, in the heat of the moment slaps him, today she is a criminal under the Criminal Code. And if her son gets a black eye on the street from someone else’s uncle, then he is not a criminal at all, this is at most an administrative liability. Different penalties are provided for the same act; this does not comply with the Constitution,” o).

A similar point of view is shared by the LDPR. According to Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the adopted amendment will make it possible to “preserve and not destroy the family.”

In turn, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation fears that the new law will contribute to an increase in domestic murders.

“The bill is anti-family and anti-society; it will significantly relieve the workload of magistrates' courts and investigators. We can say that the law will enshrine violence as a norm of behavior in our country,” said the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on State Construction and Legislation, Yuri Sinelshchikov (TASS).

Members of the A Just Russia faction did not participate in the debate during the third reading.

According to Children's Rights Commissioner Anna Kuznetsova, the law decriminalizing beatings will protect the family.

“We are now saying that beatings are unacceptable. All violent actions are classified under other articles. Respected legal scholars now list them, of course, there are about 50 of them. Maybe more. Therefore, families are protected by existing provisions of the law,” the ombudsman said on the Rossiya 1 TV channel.

Decriminalization of beatings will help avoid provocations in the family, says lawyer, expert at the Foundation for Support of Legal Culture Yana Teplyakova: “There are often cases when spouses, being in the stage of divorce, provoke each other and then write a statement to the investigative authorities... Decriminalization will help avoid such provocations.” .

“My opinion is supported by the majority of Russians. Namely, 59% of those surveyed by VTsIOM, despite a general negative perception of beatings, nevertheless spoke in favor of mitigating the punishment for the first case of beatings between close relatives,” the expert notes. (izvestia.ru).

The amendments to the law on domestic beatings were ironically welcomed by the poet and publicist Dmitry Bykov.

“Some people see this decriminalization as a permission to freely beat up their family, but personally, I really like the fact that now an oppositionist cannot be prosecuted under an extremely controversial, widely interpreted article,” the writer states on the pages of the Profile magazine.

“Every state step in Russia is a double-edged sword, since the interests of the people and the state almost never overlap. So, the abolition of any criminal threat is good for the people, simply because the atmosphere in society improves,” D. Bykov is sure.

Psychologist Pavel Volzhenkov notes that the new law on the decriminalization of beatings in the family contains “the correct principle of increasing punishment for systematic offenses.”

“For an accidental blow in the midst of a quarrel, a spouse should only be warned about possible liability. It’s a different matter if for a man to beat his wife is in the order of things, or if for a woman to beat her husband is in the order of things. In this case, the punishment definitely needs to be increased. And it is very good that this is precisely the principle laid down in the new law. It is also important that the principle of gender equality is preserved,” emphasizes the specialist (oblgazeta.ru).

At the same time, according to his colleague, candidate of psychological sciences Elena Shcherbakova, the document adopted by the State Duma is a serious provocation, since impunity gives rise to permissiveness (“kuban24.tv”).

Referring to modern research in psychology, Irina Kirkora, director of the author, member of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation: “The first, as a rule, happens in front of numerous witnesses. With relatives, the domestic tyrant is practically unlimited in his “methods of communication,” and the victim trusts a loved one and is not protected from his desire to “waving his fists.” And how hard should you beat so that a loved one is ready to report violence.”

“When I hear opinions that criminal liability for beating family members “violates traditional family values,” I want to ask how domestic violence can be considered a “traditional value”?” T. Kirkora (izvestia.ru) is perplexed.

Among the opponents of the amendments is lawyer Alexander Karabanov, who is confident that the transfer of responsibility for domestic battery from the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation to the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, in addition to an increase in the number of crimes, will have a negative impact on the conduct of divorce cases.

“We periodically encounter domestic violence in divorce proceedings when determining the future place of residence of children. And this factor is decisive when characterizing the spouses. And in this case there will be two consequences of the adoption of this law. Firstly, it will be very difficult to determine which parent the child remains with, because this criterion is completely removed. Secondly, the more loyal the norm of the criminal code, the more crimes are observed in this area,” said the NSN lawyer.

“I believe that it was the corpus delicti of the crime – beatings in the family – that was a deterrent to solving family problems in a non-violent way. And now we have actually legalized this violence. Based on the fact that most people have a low level of legal awareness, this will lead to domestic violence increasing several times,” the expert is sure.

According to writer and public figure Maria Arbatova, liberalization of punishment for beatings will lead to a real social catastrophe.

“As several police colonels told me, they are already seeing new cemeteries where beaten women and children will lie,” said M. Arbatova (“NSN”). – Today, at the instigation of the Kremlin, the Duma is giving a free hand to domestic abusers who will abuse their loved ones to their hearts’ content... And the main disgrace is that this is supported by certain “operetta organizations,” which we call parent meetings. They somehow receive some kind of grants, they are somehow affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church. This is the same mythological movement as the bikers who travel around Europe at the expense of millions of taxpayers, but at the same time they also shout “Don’t touch our right to beat and rape children!” This is a chain of global immorality, covered up allegedly by the fight for the family. This is not a family in which one beats the other with impunity! Sorry, this is a zone! When the Russian Orthodox Church says - “You can beat” - this is just the edge! Because the ideas of Christianity are completely opposite.”

On January 28, opponents of the law planned to hold a rally with the participation of up to a thousand people on Bolotnaya Square, but the Moscow administration did not approve the action, citing the lack of a platform for holding a public event with the stated number of participants. The initiator of the action, Alexandra Voskresenskaya, hopes to soon gain the right to hold a rally in the capital’s Sokolniki Park.

Meanwhile, on January 28 in Irkutsk, more than 30 citizens came out to picket against the decriminalization of domestic violence. The gathering of dissenters was announced in the official group of the action on the social network VKontakte.

“We didn’t think that so many people would come, and this means only one thing – this problem affects a very wide range of people. People are concerned that the State Duma so quickly, so easily and so irresponsibly adopted this bill, which could lead to dire consequences,” the coordination committee said in a statement, activists promise.

The Commission on Gender Equality of the Confederation of Labor of Russia opposed the adoption of changes to Article 116 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. In the statement “There is no such thing as violence without violence!”, posted on the official website of the KTR, social activists draw attention to the fact that “the law is adopted in a hurry without full public discussion, without sufficient analysis of its social and economic consequences.” The authors of the letter cite official data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which allows them to assert that violence in Russian families “is widespread and causes serious damage to society”: “Every year, 600 thousand women are subjected to violence from a partner, and up to 3 thousand children die at the hands of their parents a year. According to Russian studies, physical violence against wives is used by 25 to 40% of husbands... At the same time, physical violence is combined with other manifestations of power and control - psychological, economic and sexual violence.”

“The Commission on Gender Equality of the Confederation of Labor of Russia considers the position of the authors of the project to be erroneous and capable of causing serious harm to the family, which deputies care so much about, gender equality in the social and labor sphere, and the well-being of Russian women and citizens whose interests they are supposed to represent. We join the number of experts and public organizations opposing the bill on the decriminalization of beatings and demand that its adoption be rejected. The only alternative should be the adoption of a separate law, which will be aimed at ensuring effective measures to prevent domestic violence, punish the perpetrators, and help the victims,” says the open letter of KTR (ktr.su).

On January 31, on the eve of the vote on the bill in the Federation Council, Novaya Gazeta published an appeal from Russian human rights activists to the Chairman of the Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko. The text, entitled “No time for domestic violence,” was intended to convince the speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament to prevent the approval of a law decriminalizing beatings. Among the signatories of the petition are a group of members of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights, the Information and Methodological Center, the Independent Charitable Center for Assistance to Survivors of Sexual Violence “Sisters,” lawyers and public figures.

“Beatings are not spankings, beatings are blows, often multiple, often with foreign objects, which, by a lucky chance, did not lead to more serious damage than bruises and abrasions, which can take months to heal on the victims’ bodies,” the authors of the message remind. – That is why, since the times of the USSR, an article on beatings has been contained in the criminal code. The main task of this so-called preventive crime is to prevent the commission of more serious crimes, which could end much worse for the victims.”

According to experts, “due to the complexity of the private prosecution procedure, the majority of victims completely refuse to protect their rights”: “Thus, a person who has already been subjected to administrative liability will not be criminally punished under Article 116.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Battery by a person subjected to administrative punishment,” since the majority of victims will refuse to go to the magistrate’s court. Consequently, it is the worst offenders who will go unpunished, which clearly contradicts the goals pursued by legislators.”

“We, human rights defenders, lawyers, public figures, experts in working with victims of domestic violence, concerned citizens of the Russian Federation, women and men, ask you to personally protect our interests as citizens of the Russian Federation and the interests of victims of domestic violence and speak AGAINST beatings for a fine and for complex solving the problems of domestic violence in the form of adopting a separate law,” summarize the signatories (novayagazeta.ru).

Let us recall that earlier on the pages of Rossiyskaya Gazeta Valentina Matvienko herself was forced to admit that the authorities’ efforts to protect children from abuse were “insufficient.”

“And if you call a spade a spade, then they are simply poorly protected from this,” the head of the Federation Council emphasized. – This problem in our country is still far from being resolved. We still have to work on this and work on it.”

However, on February 1, the controversial bill was nevertheless approved by the Federation Council.

Hitting cannot be judged: opinions for and against the decriminalization of domestic beatings

More details on TASS:

https://tass.ru/obschestvo/3971405

Bottom line

Psychologists say that such unions rarely become normal and problems in relationships will only get worse. The developers of laws have a different opinion and are making efforts to preserve the unit of society at any cost.

As a result of domestic violence, not only women suffer, but also children, who risk falling under the “hot hand” or watch it and suffer serious psychological trauma. Whether it is worth keeping the family in this format or not is, of course, up to the partners to decide, but we must also remember that even love has its limits.

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What is the essence of the law on the decriminalization of domestic violence?

Law No. 8-FZ, adopted on January 27, 2021, contains amendments to Article 116 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. It is dedicated to minor beatings that do not cause significant harm to health. After such slaps, slaps, and slaps on the head, a person does not seek medical help. The victim suffers only short-term pain. The victim does not lose his ability to work even for a short time. In the old version of Article 116 of the Criminal Code there was a mention that it establishes liability for beatings against loved ones. These people include:

children;
parents;
Grandmothers and grandfathers;
spouses, including common-law spouses;
stepmothers and stepfathers;
stepdaughters and stepsons.

Important! In the new Article 116 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the mention of close people has been removed. Thus, in accordance with the adopted amendments, citizens can no longer be held accountable for light beatings of relatives.

Offenses under this article that do not have qualifying characteristics were transferred to the category of administrative ones. Criminal penalties for them were abolished. Now, if a family member who has suffered a beating writes a statement to the police, the guilty person will receive punishment only for an administrative violation. His actions are not subject to criminal liability. An important condition for decriminalization was that such cases should be one-time. If the beatings are repeated within one calendar year, the domestic tyrant will be punished under a criminal article. It is only necessary to testify to all the facts of the beating.