For victims of domestic violence, obligatory lockdowns aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19 have trapped them inside the home with their abusers 24 hours a day and isolated them from the people and resources that could help them. Due to the countrywide lockdown, the abusers are continuously present in the victims’ lives and have a greater ability to terrify them and control their lives. Home has become a double-edged sword for the victims of domestic violence – the safest place from the Coronavirus and the most dangerous place because they are isolated with their abusers. This research aims to explore how COVID-19 social restrictions have affected the occurrence of violence against closely related persons in Croatia. To this end, police data will be compared and analysed on the number of reported cases of violence committed to the detriment of a closely related person during the lockdown period and immediately before and after it. Special attention will be paid to the qualification of criminal offences committed against a closely related person and to the sociodemographic characteristics of perpetrators and victims of that violence. Based on the interpretation of the data, we assess whether significant discrepancies in the cases of family violence committed during lockdown can be detected. The conclusion points to certain shortcomings in the manner of monitoring the trend of violence among closely related persons in Croatia and the need to address this phenomenon systematically and comprehensively.
The paper is divided into two parts to facilitate a clearer understanding of different aspects of the violent death of previously abused female victims. The first part offers a brief overview of the most recent phenomenological conclusions on violence ending in death and explains the need to focus on gender differences in homicide victimisation. A bulk of research has confirmed that most women are more vulnerable to homicide within home and that the lethal outcome is an escalation of previously experienced abuse. In order to contribute to a more in-depth study of female intimate homicides, the authors focus on a variety of definitions and draw a clear line between the term femicide and the aggravated murder of a closely related person. In the second part of the paper, the authors have analysed the case-law of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia in which the perpetrators were found guilty of the criminal offence of aggravated murder of a closely related person (Art. 111, Para. 3 of the Criminal Code) in the period from 1 January 2013 to 1 June 2020. The research primarily focused on the circumstance of previous abuse, especially on the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator, the duration and frequency of abuse, and the reaction of the environment and competent authorities in cases where they knew about the abuse or when it was reported.
Problematika obiteljskog nasilja u fokusu je hrvatske znanstvene išire javnosti zadnja dva desetljeća. O ovoj temi napisani su mnogi radovi, no mali je broj studija o slučajevima teškog ubojstva žrtava kojeje počinitelj ranije zlostavljao. Kako bi se pridonijelo raspravi i upotpunila uočena praznina u znanstvenoj i stručnoj literaturi, u prvomedijelu rada objašnjava se zašto je to kazneno djelo posebno u odnosuna ostale delikte nasilja. Upozorava se na činjenicu da žene nose pojačani rizik od gubitka života od počinitelja s kojim ih veže odnos bliskosti i da njihovo ubojstvo može predstavljati kulminaciju prethodnihrazličitih oblika zlostavljanja. S posebnom pažnjom analizira se postojeći normativni okvir za suzbijanje obiteljskih / intimnih ubojstava iobjašnjava zašto je zakonodavac za kazneno djelo iz čl. 111. toč. 3. propisao najtežu kaznu. U drugom dijelu rada istražena je sudska praksai provedena analiza na uzorku od 23 pravomoćne presude Vrhovnogsuda, 20 presuda županijskih te dvije presude Visokog kaznenog suda.Cilj je analize ustanoviti na koji način sudovi primjenjuju kompleksnapravila o izboru vrste i mjere kazne počiniteljima teškog ubojstva ranijezlostavljane osobe te pokušati u njima pronaći izvjesne zakonitosti, kaoi uočiti eventualna odstupanja.
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