Considerations on the Improvement of the Legal Framework Necessary for Preventing and Combating Violence against Women in the European Union

• Author: Tache Bocaniala
• Pages: 698-705

European Integration - Realities and Perspectives. Proceedings 2015

698

Considerations on the Improvement of the Legal Framework Necessary for

Preventing and Combating Violence against Women in the European Union

Tache Bocanială1

Abstract: Violence against women is a common phenomenon in all social layers and in all society, regardless

of their stage of development, political stability, culture or religion, with particularly negative consequences.

Combating violence against women requires, besides the sanctioning, repressive measures against

perpetrators, and also a series of preventive protection measures and services for victims. Reforming the

criminal law of Romania, but also a number of regulations adopted by international organizations, especially

the European ones, be it European Union or the Council of Europe, attest encouraging legal developments in

this area. The conclusions drawn in th is paper from the daily practice of judicial bodies, as well as specialized

studies highlight the need for improvement and adaptation of specific legislation in order to prevent and

combat crime and violence targeting women, highlighting a few directions in this regard.

Keywords: gender violence; domestic violence; reporting acts of violence; law enforcement agencies

1. Introduction

Despite the fact that domestic violence and, in particular, violence against women represents a subject

of debate for decades, the international community has failed, so far, to end this form of violence

extremely destructive.

Violence and fear of being victimized undoubtedly affect the quality of life of any person. In practice

it has been found, however, that different groups, such as women, children and elderly persons, are

usually regarded as the favorite targets of violence, as evidenced by statistics and judicial bodies. With

regard to scientific interest on the domestic violence phenomenon, especially against women, it did not

know the proportion according to its dimension, especially on the need to identify the best ways and

means to prevent, control and mitigate its extremely harmful effects. The specialized literature records

only a few studies based on prevalence data regarding gender-based violence, and less on procedures

and mechanisms of accountability of the perpetrators.

A general definition of violence, as formulated by the World Health Organization, is “the intentional

use of physical force, on oneself, to someone else or on a group or community, resulting in physical or

psychological trauma.”

1 Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, “Danubius” University of Galati, Romania, Address: 3 Galati Boulevard, 800654 Galati,

Romania, Tel.: +40.372.361.102, fax: +40.372.361.290, Corresponding author: tache.bocaniala@univ-danubius.ro.