Children exposed to domestic violence may also be considered as victims and no longer as sole witnesses of the facts, according to a decree by Prime Minister Jean Castex published in the Official Journal. This decree, published on Wednesday and co-signed by Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti, is due to come into force on February 1, 2022. The text provides that if the presence of a minor is proven when violence is committed within the couple, "
the public prosecutor then ensures that the minor can become a civil party
”as soon as the prosecution is initiated. This will allow the minor to be "
summoned as a civil party and not as a witness
" at the trial hearing, specifies the decree.
Read alsoWhen domestic violence (finally) entered the public debate
The new provisions of this text aim to "
clarify things
", estimated the Minister of Justice, Thursday on LCI. “
When you are a little one and you are a witness to this violence, naturally that has a considerable impact in the construction of the adult to come,
” he added. Recognition in criminal law of the victim status of a child exposed to domestic violence, even if it is not directly targeted, was one of the recommendations of a report published in 2017 by the Regional Observatory of Violence Made to the women of Ile-de-France. In France, nearly 400,000 children live in families where domestic violence takes place, according to a report from the High Commission for Gender Equality in June 2021.
Read also The "immense loneliness" of families and children of victims of domestic violence
In 2020, domestic violence affected 159,400 people of all sexes, including 139,200 women, according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior published on Monday, which do not count homicides.
The police and gendarmerie services recorded 125 spousal homicides in 2020, including 102 women killed by the beatings of their spouse or ex.
In 2020, 14 minor children died in the family sphere, victims of infanticide or in a context of domestic violence, against 25 in 2019, according to Beauvau.