Crimes

Criminal responsibility may be invoked for such offences as intentional bodily injury, murder, threatening to commit murder or to inflict serious bodily injury, rape and others.

Domestic violence & Crimes

Domestic violence is not defined as a specific or separate crime in the Penal Code, yet the perpetrator may be held criminally responsible if the acts committed correspond to a crime defined in the Penal Code. Those are, for example, murder, bodily injuries (severe, moderate or minor injuries), the threat to kill or cause severe bodily injury, illegal restraint, rape, sexual assault, torture and others.

Aggravated circumstance

However, the Penal Code recognizes domestic violence as an aggravating circumstance. It means that it is considered as an aggravating circumstance if the criminal offence is committed against a person who is in a financially dependent relationship with the offender, a former or current family member of the offender, a person who lives with the offender, or a person who is otherwise in a family relationship with the offender.

Therefore, if the violent act (for example, bodily injury or sexual violence) is committed against a relative or an intimate partner, the perpetrator will be held responsible for the specific act, which, in addition, has been committed in aggravated circumstances. Such a conviction provides for a more serious sentence. Thus, the Penal Code recognizes domestic violence as a more severe act of violence compared to a single or isolated act of violence against a person who is not in a relationship with the perpetrator.

Crimes against children

The Penal Code also recognizes crimes committed against children more seriously – the commission of an offence knowingly against a person who is less than eighteen years of age is considered an aggravating circumstance.

In addition, pursuant to the Child Protection Act, neglect of a child, mental, emotional, physical and sexual abuse of a child, including humiliation, frightening and physical punishment of a child, also punishment of a child in any other manner which endangers his or her mental, emotional or physical health is prohibited.

Human Rights Guide

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