France outlaws psychological violence in attempt to tackle domestic abuse

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

France outlaws psychological violence in attempt to tackle domestic abuse
Law proposed by members of parliament from ruling majority and opposition wins backing of centre-right government
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 June 2010 20.05 BST

Reuters Paris

The French parliament has approved a groundbreaking law that makes psychological violence an offence as part of a broader range of measures aimed at improving protection of victims of domestic abuse.

Magistrates have criticised the bill, fearing that it will be hard to define what exactly constitutes such mental abuse. They say it will be difficult to prove in court. The law was proposed by members of parliament from both the ruling majority and the leftist opposition and won the backing of the centre-right government.

"We have introduced an important measure here, which recognises psychological violence, because it isn't just blows but also words," Nadine Morano, the minister for family affairs, told the lower house of parliament.

Anyone found guilty of breaking the law faces up to three years in jail and a €75,000 ($91,530) fine. The bill defines mental violence as "repeated acts which could be constituted by words or other machinations, to degrade one's quality of life and cause a change to one's mental or physical state".


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/29/france-outlaws-psychological-violence

[SunnySong]

1. Yikes why don't we just put all divorcing couples with disputes in jail and save time.

And not for nothing if you are going to put people in jail for "repeated acts which could be constituted by words or other machinations, to degrade one's quality of life and cause a change to one's mental or physical state" you are going to have to build a lot more Woman's prisons because that sounds like a legal definition of nagging to me....


On the plus side this might be the opportunity we have been looking forward to to put our in-laws in jail... hello upside.

[reggie the dog]

6. I am getting divorced in France

and this law scares me. We argue about dividing everything.

[xultar]

2. If we passed that law here we could put republicans and teabaggers in jail

[cigsandcoffee]

3. If we passed that law here we could put a lot of people in jail...

...it would all depend on who was interpreting things.

Scary stuff, IMO.

[proteus_lives]

5. +1

[Downwinder]

9. Put the Government in jail.

[Trillo]

14. And schools.

No more peer-to-peer bullying allowed, nor "manipulation" as teachers both define the word and practice it.

Wait a minute, as I think about it, if a similar effort were implemented fairly for everyone (corporations and goverments as well), and not just targeted at households or domestics, it certainly describes or characterizes a better world than the one we have right now.

However, the limited targeting "of citizens" is key to this proposal's hypocrisy. Some institutions can legally practice PsyOps against children, insuring these kids grow up and practice it themselves in their own "personal lives" as adults, thus getting them jailed, and insuring a continual flow of new inmates to prison institutions.

[SunnySong]

18. If by better world you mean everyone in prison... It's not the fact that we all may

be guilty of this from time to time (I certainly have been... and lord knows I have been the victim no coffee stains ion the counter in my house anymore) it is the fact that we may run into the hypersensitive or Psychotic who twist our innocent actions.

[Trillo]

19. no, thought is more along the lines of 'cycles of violence.'

if cycles of violence can be stopped at their root cause, they won't grow into huge issues later (such as yours where you were apparently manipulated by some perp for spilling small drops of coffee, better to have a society that doesn't create such perps in the first place).

however, it seems our current society uses psychological violence by those who are never or rarely held accountable, then 'money' is later made by a few treating those 'illegal symptoms' caused by earlier psyops. It seems near-perfectly Machiavellian.

[SunnySong]

20. By perp you mean the constant daily reminders by wifey then yes maybe I should

alert the French authorities... do the have a special hot-line for toilet seat up or towels on the floor.


The problem is one persons psychological violence is an other persons helpful daily emasculating reminders. (If we include "don't forget your jacket" can we arrest mom I forgot my jacket in 1984 I am not sure why she still has to say it every time I see her.)


When people get divorced esp with child custody issues the rational goes out the window. This law is simply to broad not to entrap every person in France.

[krabigirl]

16. Yep.

[Zoeisright]

4. Great idea. Psychological violence can be worse than physical.

It's really just bullying. And it needs to be stopped.

[SunnySong]

7. Yeah but we put too many woman in jail already for "physical" altercations can

you imagine the sheer flood if we can jail people for complaining to their spouse?

[krabigirl]

17. Wow..let's just legislate everything so we can live in a perfect, kumbaya society.

[Lagomorph]

22. While desirable....

people could argue that DU (among many) violates such a law. There are a lot of snarky, insolent people in the forums. It's either entertaining or abusive, depending on who the target is and your point of view.

Having experienced such abuse, I try to avoid using it, which has lead some people to attack my positions based on their erroneous assumptions.

For a lot of people, it's not enough to win, the loser must suffer. That's also abusive.

[redqueen]

8. It'd sure be nice if people would read the whole article before commenting.

I guess it only makes them look stupid though, so... whatever.

[SunnySong]

10. I did read the article I'm not sure what nugget of information in the article

isn't reflected in the OP.

[redqueen]

11. So glad you (sort of) asked.

Morano said witnesses could be called on to testify in such cases, and doctors' certificates detailing a patient's descent into nervous depression could be used as evidence.

"The judge could take into consideration letters, SMSs or repetitive messages, because one knows that psychological violence is made up of insults," she added.

The law can be used to protect both women and men who might suffer from such abuse. Parliamentarians have acknowledged, however, that women are the main victims.

So all these comments about how it's going to criminalize stupid inane bullshit are just that... bullshit.

[SunnySong]

12. Repetive text messages and insults seems close to stupid insane bullshit

And if I learned one thing you can always find a psychatrist to say anything. (for a fee)

I still think this is open to incredible abuse (paticularily during custody hearings) and I can easily see woman bearing the brunt of the charges.

[hughee99]

13. Huh?

This is about one way the law COULD be used, not an explicit description of how it will be used. What, in what you've posted, says anything about how this law can't be used to criminalize stupid inane bullshit?

[krabigirl]

15. Wow..scary stuff. So if you yell at your husband few times, you go to jail?

I mean, all he would have to do is say your words repeatedly hurt him, and thats it, 3 yrs in the slammer.

[SunnySong]

21. Other papers seem to have realised this as well.

For starters, there's the question of defining an act of psychological violence: as it stands, the legislation would appear to cover everything from nagging, to false accusations of infidelity, to sustained campaigns of verbal abuse, to a failure to supply the correct answer to the question: "Does my bum look big in this?"

Most people have horror stories about relationships past and present. But it would be incredibly hard to draw a line between the normal friction thrown up by two human beings going through life's frustrations together, and the actions of the criminally cruel. Even the most flippant jokes can inadvertently create lasting insecurities – one friend of mine has become paranoid about the size of her hands after years of enduring her boyfriend's affectionate nickname of "Sausage Fingers". And who's to say this law won't be misused for seemingly trivial cases? I'd certainly be prepared to argue that my fiancé's threat to wear an all-white, gangster-style suit on our wedding day would cause me psychological damage.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/6942834/Nagging-your-husband-is-not-a-crime.html

[Xithras]

23. "That dress makes you look fat"

At what point does being an asshole become criminal psychological abuse?