Domestic abuse and femicide: a Dutch perspective

• In Event: Gender in criminal law and policy: Europe-wide perspectives

Abstract

Dutch criminal law and policy on gender-based violence has been notoriously gender-neutral in the last decades. This is in stark contrast to the gender-sensitive and contextual approach advocated by human rights standards (mainly the Istanbul Convention and the European Court of Human Rights). In recent years however, there has been a visible shift in the approach of the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) to femicide (in the sense of the killing of a woman by an intimate (ex)partner). While a specific criminalization of femicide is not a serious topic of political debate (yet), this recent policy does entail a more gender-sensitive approach in cases of domestic abuse, mainly to ‘optimize’ the criminal law response to domestic abuse, better protect women and also in order to prevent femicides. At the same time, the Dutch criminal law response to domestic abuse is plagued by a lack of coordinated and comprehensive policies, lack of specialist training for professionals (mostly law enforcement) and a general lack of capacity. These problems impact the judicial response to cases of domestic abuse: while an underreported crime already, the investigation and prosecution of the reported incidents also lag behind. Moreover, the cases that do reach the court rooms, are oft times punished with low sentences or are even sent to mediation. This raises the question whether and to what extent the severity of domestic abuse is recognized, categorized and legally assessed by Dutch criminal courts. In our contribution we discuss how Dutch courts deal with cases involving domestic abuse as well as femicide, and to what extent the gender-sensitive approach preached in the PPS policy is noticeable in these judgments.

Authors

• Ellen Gijselaar, Leiden University

• Mojan Samadi, Leiden University