Violence against women and domestic violence in relation to the Istanbul Convention

• Author: Panagiota Petroglou
• Pages: 119-127

119

10Violence against women and domestic violence in relation to the Istanbul

Convention

10.1General (legal) context

10.1.1Surveys and reports on issues of violence against women and domestic violence

Act 3500/2006472was the first systematic attempt to deal with domestic violence in

Greece. According to Act 3500/2006, domestic physical injury constitutes a specific offence

and is punished more severely than the common physical injury. A big novelty of Act

3500/2006 was the institution of penal mediation in the Greek penal system for the first

time, in implementation of the Decision-Framework of the European Council of 15 March

2001 (2001/220). ccording to the Greek case law,473 penal mediation is a specific

procedural condition for the exercise of criminal prosecution: the Advocate General has to

examine the possibility of penal mediation before following the penal procedure, otherwise

the latter is null and void.

An interesting survey providing insights into issues of domestic violence was published in

2015. It is based on empirical research into cases involving penal mediation between

spouses and partners by the District Attorney of the city of Thessaloniki in Northern

Greece.474 The introduction of penal mediation has been criticised due to the lack of entities

to conduct the therapeutic/counselling programme. The empirical research was conducted

in 2011 and concerned cases put forward for penal mediation from the entry into force of

the said Act until 2010.

Most of the cases involved violence between spouses (56 %). Of 27 perpetrators 26 were

male and only one female, who happened to be the victim as well (case of mutual

violence). Of 29 victims, 23 were female and 6 male (3 of whom were perpetrators as

well), i.e. there was an over-representation of men among the perpetrators and of women

among the victims. In 5 out of 18 cases of violence between spouses there was a minor

child in the family who, according to the Act, is considered to be a victim of domestic

violence. Among the people involved, 59 % were Greek nationals whereas 41 % were

citizens of the ex-Soviet Union and the Balkans. According to the survey, this shows that

the factors which lead to domestic violence deteriorate due to the traumatic experience of

immigration. However, among the cases where the procedure of penal mediation was

recalled,475 the percentage of foreigners was 71 % (five out of seven perpetrators). 50%

of the cases concerned physical violence, 40 % psychological violence and 10 % verbal

violence. The author criticised the implementation as typically bureaucratic and to a great

extent impersonal and time-consuming and the therapeutic/counselling programme as

particularly short and not likely to prevent relapse; the victim has a secondary role in the

procedure and her/his protection is not secured.

According to the author, penal mediation could be successful if: (i) there were more

entities competent to run the therapeutic/counselling programme; (ii) the less serious

cases were selected for penal mediation following an expert opinion by a psychologist or

a social worker; (iii) the social services of the local authorities were involved. Moreover,

more hostels for the victims are needed along with awareness-raising campaigns. Long-

472 Act 3500/2006, OJ A 232/24.10.2006.

473 SCPC (Penal Section) 498/2019.

474 Hatzispyrou, Th. (2015), ‘  &  .     

  /       

 Σ(ΡDomestic violence and penal arbitration. A theoretical study with emphasis on

violence between spouses/partners and an empirical study of penal mediation cases by the District Attorney

of ThessalonikiΣ),  (Criminology) (2015), pp. 117 et c.

475 According to the system of penal mediation, if the perpetrator complies with the conditions of the penal

mediation for a period of 3 years, the procedure is concluded and there is no penal sanction by the State.

During the penal mediation, the criminal act is not time-barred until the penal mediation is concluded. In

case the perpetrator breaches on purpose the terms of the mediation, the penal mediation is recalled and

the penal proceedings continue. In this case, a new petition for penal mediation is not allowed.