Doherty: Knowing the victim should be an aggravating factor in domestic violence sentencing
Meath East TD and Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty, has spoken in favour of the Domestic Violence Bill 2017 saying: “When a violent or sexual offence is committed by a current or former partner, this should not be a mitigating factor at sentencing, but will be an aggravating factor.”
The Minister said that men who have killed their current or former partners receive prison sentences that are shorter by an average of 2.8 years than the sentences given to men who have killed women whom they did not know.
Minister Doherty criticised this, saying: “Somewhere in our judicial system, and in our wider society, our message to the woman who is lying on her kitchen floor, her eyes swollen from fists into her face; or winded from a kick into her pregnant belly; or her skin slashed by a knife taken from her own drawer; the message is: ‘Well Luvvie, it could have been worse; at least the man who did this is someone you know.’”
The Minister continued: “It is not acceptable that a man who batters a woman he knows, is considered somewhat less of a criminal than a man who batters a stranger.”
Minister Doherty was speaking today in the Dáil on the Domestic Violence Bill 2017 that aims to strengthen laws that tackle violence in the home.
Among other measures, the Bill, when passed, will provide for a new criminal offence of forced marriage, and provide for a new criminal offence of coercive control.
Where a violent or sexual offence is committed by a person against a current or former partner, this fact will not be a mitigating factor at sentencing, but will be an aggravating factor.
Minister Doherty called for cross-party unity on domestic violence, saying: “When considering domestic violence, there should be no Government and Opposition sides – no ideological differences. There is no left or right; no rural / urban divide; no rich people’s views versus the views of poorer people.”
She also stressed that domestic violence isn’t just an issue that affects women: “Although most of our comments today will assume that women are the victims, we must remember than many men and boys suffer from domestic violence too.”