The impact of additions and legal amendments in the prevention of domestic violence criminal offenses in Albania

• Author: Adnan Xholi
• Position: International University of Struga, Macedonia
• Pages: 165-176

European Journal of Economics, Law and Social Sciences

IIPCCL Publishing, Graz-Austria

Vol. 1 No. 2

June, 2017

ISSN 2519-1284

Acces online at www.iipccl.org

165

The impact of additions and legal amendments in the prevention of domestic

violence criminal o enses in Albania

PhD (C.) Adnan Xholi

International University of Struga, Macedonia

Abstract

This paper aims at making a fair assessment of the domestic violence o enses in the Albanian

reality within the international context, and analyzing the e orts of the state and society in

combating and preventing this phenomenon by examining them chief‌l y but not solely from a

legal point of view.

Legal amendments have positive e ects both in preventing criminality in general, and o enses

against the family in particular, since they have an impact not only on the protection of the

rights of children and women but also on raising the domestic violence victims’ awareness to

report these cases, for based on the 2016 Albanian prosecution statistics, it turns out that this

type of o ense has yet experienced an increasing trend. According to the studies conducted

and the information administered, it is noted with concerns that some of the perpetrators of

these criminal o enses have managed to escape imprisonment, not to mention the cases when

they have not been denounced or even worse; investigations have started but the perpetrators

have not been punished by the law enforcement authorities. It is therefore imperative for the

institutions to identify such cases and to take appropriate measures in order not to have them

occur in the future, as such phenomenon brings about the repetition of the domestic violence

cycle or the creation of the wrong perception “of victims “failure to react and keeping their

mouth shut” because this type of crime remains unpunished.

This paper is not just the theoretical assessment of the terms of domestic violence and penal

policy regarding the additions and amendments on domestic violence legislation, but it is also

an elaboration on the criminal policy e ects of these legal amendments as well as the issues

that emerged in the process of investigating concrete cases related to domestic violence. It will

also analyze the advantages of criminal policy, the problems that necessitate resolution, the

legal measures to be taken, and some recommendations in order to increase e ectiveness in

combating domestic violence.

Keywords: Criminal policy, violence, family, convention, prevention, reintegration.

Introduction

In Albania, like in other countries, there is an unjustif‌i ed increase in the criminal

behavior that embeds in the use of violence in general, and in domestic violence in

the family in particular, where according to statistics, perpetrators of these o enses

are males 1 in 92% of cases.

Some authors rightly name this phenomenon a contemporary feature, pointing

out that violence has involved many segments of human life in present society. It

should be noted that the understanding of the crime of violence o en does not fully

1 General Prosecution O ce- Report on Crime Situation Year 2016.