Ministry of Internal Affairs considers decriminalization of domestic violence is justified

The government department refused to tighten administrative responsibility under the article of the Administrative Code “Beatings”, which also qualifies the domestic violence.

- These changes are considered inappropriate because the disparity is seen administrative and criminal responsibility - TASS publishes the words of the representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Under this article of the Code of Administrative Offenses, a fine of 5-30 thousand rubles or arrest up to 15 days, or up to 120 hours of compulsory labor is provided. Moreover, the article “Beating by a person subjected to administrative punishment” of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for a fine of up to 40 thousand rubles.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs called the decriminalization of beatings justified, since "the transfer of most of the criminally punished beatings to the category of administrative offenses made it possible to highlight a significant number of latent acts and positively affected the prevention of serious and especially serious crimes on domestic grounds."

Recall that the law on decriminalization of family beatings was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2017. The document transferred beatings against close relatives from the category of criminal offenses to administrative offenses in cases where the misconduct was committed for the first time. In a repeated incident, he will qualify as a criminal offense. However, they can be prosecuted if the victim proves that she was beaten on the grounds of political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred.

It should be noted that during the period of self-isolation in Russia, the number of complaints related to domestic violence increased 2.5 times. But the problem of domestic violence was acute in the country long before the introduction of "coronavirus" restrictions. It is really huge.

This becomes clear, just look at the statistics - most women who are serving sentences in Russian prisons defended themselves from their spouses and partners. Of course, they could not "get off with a fine", but ended up in jail under criminal articles. For exceeding self-defense, 91% of women tried to escape from male relatives, husbands and cohabitants. Moreover, 3% of men were serving their sentences under the same article.