To be sentenced to 6 months to 3 years in prison, without prejudice to the sentences corresponding to the aggressor of domestic violence for the result caused in each case, the aggressor must have been previously sentenced for three or more crimes or an offence of battery, and in the period of the 5 years prior to the moment of commission of the crime. The professor Juana María Gil Ruiz refers to “habituality” as a penal argument in her work published in the book «Legal analysis of violence against women», which has just been edited by the Institute for Women’s Studies.
The professor of the Universidad de Granada refers to the article on habituality in domestic violence: «To detect the habituality mentioned in the previous paragraph, they will deal with the number of proved violent actions, as well as their temporary proximity, irrespective of whether such violence has been exerted on the same or different victims or whether the violent actions have or not been object of judgment in previous processes».
According to Professor Gil Ruiz, «the habituality of the type that constitutes the crime has historically generated a diversity of opinions with regard to its interpretation. However, the content has been specified in a restricted sense in section 161 of the project of constitutional law of the Penal Code of 1992». The text says: «For the purpose of this article, there is habituality when the offender has been sentenced for three or more crimes or offences of battery against the persons of the previous section in the period of 5 years prior to the commission of the penal infringement.»
With this law, the aggressor spouse would have to give the victim several thrashings, and these thrashings should have been reported, judged and sentenced by the judge three or more times and in a period of time of less than 5 years.
According to the author of the work, «insisting in the dogmatic application of the criterion of habituality means to ignore the specificity of this crime in which the victim is forced to a cohabite with the aggressor and in which the effectively threatened and damaged juridical goods, go beyond personal safety».
Further information:
Prof Juana María Gil Ruiz. Dept of Philosophy of Law and Political Philosophy. Universidad de Granada.
Phone numbers: 677 75 12 14, 958 243 426 and 958 248 584. E-mail: jgil@ugr.es
