Berlin cracks down on gender-based violence

"Severely abused by husband;" "Beaten and choked by her partner;" "She wanted to leave him, he shot her" — these are just some of the recent headlines in German newspapers.

German authorities report a high number of violent incidents against women committed by their partner or ex-partner. The most recent figures from 2020 found an increase of 4.9% on the previous year.

Women are disproportionately more likely to become victims of violence, accounting for four out of five cases.

In 2021, police also recorded 870 offenses based on discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation — 164 of which were violent crimes.

In the capital Berlin alone, hundreds of homophobic and transphobic incidents are recorded every year including insults, coercion, and threats as well as simple, dangerous, and attempted assaults.

Now Justice Minister Marco Buschmann wants to reform and expand Germany's Penal Code to allow for harsher punishments.

The adjustment is likely to be put to the Bundestag — Germany's lower house of parliament — in the fall, and stipulates that "gender-specific motives" and those "directed against sexual orientation" should be added to the list of motives indicating a "contempt for humanity" along with racism and antisemitism.

"Gender-based violence must be named as such and punished with the necessary severity," said Buschmann, a member of the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP).

Acts of violence by men against women should not be trivialized as "private tragedies" or "dramas of jealousy," he said on announcing the proposal. 

Buschmann was referring to cases in which a man kills his partner or former partner and this is then considered in court to be a homicide and not murder, with the emotional situation of the perpetrator considered to be mitigating.

"No woman 'belongs' to her partner," Justice Minister Buschmann said, rejecting the notion of a man's patriarchal claim to ownership of a woman. "No man should presume the right to determine the life of a woman. In 2022, that should be a given," Buschmann said.

A change to the law is expected to have an effect also on the sentencing in cases involving sexual offenses, including rape. In several rulings, Germany's supreme court of justice (BGH), for example, ascertained that a sexual offense committed within a relationship allows for mitigation.

The German Women Lawyers Association (djb), which has long pushed for legal changes, as well as their application in cases of gender-based violence, welcomed the planned changes.

"Explicitly acknowledging gender-based motives as an aggravating factor is an important step towards sensitizing those applying the law and ensuring the adequate punishment of gender-based violence," Leonie Steinl, Chair of the djb's Criminal Law Commission told DW.

Katja Grieger, Chief Executive of Germany's Association of Women's Counseling Centers and Emergency Hotlines (bff), also welcomed the legal proposal but said further training of judges is imperative to ensuring that the potential changes are utilized.

"Around the topic of rape, for example, there are a lot very persistent myths and stereotypes. And these also, unfortunately, exist in the judiciary. Most judges haven't received any further training on this topic, which means women affected by violence are sometimes confronted with these stereotypes, or even face victim blaming, in court," Grieger told DW. But such further training is not yet mandatory and few are willing to cover the costs.

Justice for victims of gender-based violence entails more than criminal justice, the experts say, suggesting that those suffering from gender-based violence need protection, assistance, and support.

In 2020, the German government spent some €35 million ($36 million) on the protection of women, which includes support for the 360 women's shelters nationwide, but the availability of facilities varies across Germany's 16 states, and sometimes between city and rural areas.

"That means we end up with situations where I'm trying to get counseling today for a woman who was raped last night, but the crisis management and advice centers all have to say 'I'm sorry, the next free appointment is in six weeks.' And that's simply because there aren't enough staff being financed in these advice centers," says Grieger.

An increase in media coverage of violence against women — particularly at the height of the pandemic — has also seen more victims of domestic violence contacting advice centers, Grieger says. "While it's good that more women are speaking up, what they often encounter is a system that's overstretched," she says.

Lawyer Steinl says women in Germany also need the society as a whole to "deal with the effects, root causes, and scope of the problem."

"Gender-based violence against women is a consequence of unequal power relations between women and men in society," she says. "These unequal power relations need to be tackled as a whole in order to end violence against women."

Edited by: Rina Goldenberg

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