Decriminalising domestic violence

sashaw

Whats with the Russian parliament voting 380-3 to decriminalize domestic violence today?
Does this mean that Russian men can beat up their wives whenever they want? WTF?!

Dr Turk Turkelton

sashaw wrote: »

Whats with the Russian parliament voting 380-3 to decriminalize domestic violence today?
Does this mean that Russian men can beat up their wives whenever they want? WTF?!

Very sexist remark, I'm sure it also means that Russian wives can beat up their husbands whenever they want as well.

Nody

Dr Turk Turkelton wrote: »

Very sexist remark, I'm sure it also means that Russian wives can beat up their husbands whenever they want as well.

Yes because that's exactly what the statistic shows (hint 14.000 women die every year from domestic abuse in Russia). As for why; it's pandering the extreme conservative right wing parties he need support from who wants to believe Father Stalin will still know how to rule; besides who else should you beat up when you're drunk if not your wife? I mean you might actually meet resistance being "man's man".

wes

Its completely insane, and just another example of Russia going down a very dark path, under Putin.

sashaw

I agree with Wes & Nody - decriminalising domestic violence is nuts!

Overheal

I voted yes to be an outsider. But thats crazy.

Jan_de_Bakker

Crazy, a friend told me about this over the weekend, I thought he was bull****ing .. is it something stupid like to reduce jail numbers cos a large proportion of prisoners are in for domestic violence - so they need the space for more serious criminals ?

Not that I don't think it's a serious offence - but in this ****ed up way of thinking ??

Jan_de_Bakker

Crazy, a friend told me about this over the weekend, I thought he was bull****ing .. is it something stupid like to reduce jail numbers cos a large proportion of prisoners are in for domestic violence - so they need the space for more serious criminals ?

Not that I don't think it's a serious offence - but in this ****ed up way of thinking ??

Nody

Jan_de_Bakker wrote: »

Crazy, a friend told me about this over the weekend, I thought he was bull****ing .. is it something stupid like to reduce jail numbers cos a large proportion of prisoners are in for domestic violence - so they need the space for more serious criminals ?

Nope; it actually only became a crime relatively recently (like a decade ago or so) and even so the police would usually not bother to investigate it. The reason for the removal is because the ultra orthodox conservative parties wants to live life like under the glory days of Stalin when women knew their place and you could slap them around as needed...

Jan_de_Bakker

Jesus ...

Nody

Only a minor bump now that Putin has signed this into law; any violence in the home with in the family that does not require hospitalization is now a minor offence which leads to fines or maximum 15 days in jail. As for some updated numbers for 2015 there were 49 579 recorded incidents of which 35 899 were against females as per official Russian state numbers.

johnnyskeleton

This is unfortunatley another scenario where bad reporting is unhelpful.

As I understand it Russia previously downgraded the penalties for assaults which do not cause injuries generally, but retained the higher penalties for such assaults amongst relatives. This bill brings the punishments for assaults against relatives into line with the ordinary penalties for assault. That is to say, you will be punished the same whether you hit a relative or a stranger.

Now, that in itself is something worthy of censure and states are entitled to and arguably should impose higher sanctions for domestic abuse as opposed to assaults on strangers.

But the sensationalist media headlines serve no purpose. In Ireland, for example, we have no express offence of domestic violence. We have breach of a barring/safety order but thats a minor offence. If a spouse commits a serious assault on the other spouse, that is prosecuted under the same law as if they assault a random person outside the pub.

This article, after the sensationalist headline, goes into it in some detail:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-decriminalise-domestic-violence-vladimir-putin-ultra-conservative-family-laws-a7541371.html

I may well be wrong in what ive said as I know nothing about Russian law. It seems to me that the big problem in Russia is not the law itself but the fact that the police dont seem terribly interested in investigating domestic abuse.