Russia Has Decriminalised Domestic Violence – As Long As You Don't Break Their Bones

In some concerning news that doesn't appear to have any logical reasoning behind it at all, Russia has introduced a new law which means perpetrators of domestic violence won't be held liable unless bones are broken in an attack.

Of course. Because any kind of physical or emotional abuse that doesn't crack a bone is basically insignificant and shouldn't be punishable in any court of law, said nobody ever.

Russian campaigners are protesting against the change in law.

METRO reports that the new limitations imposed on these sort of crimes will reduce the punishment for domestic abusers if it's the first offence of that kind, and if it doesn't cause 'serious injury'. But who should be the one to determine how 'serious' the repercussions of such injury can be? It's unquantifiable how much emotional damage it can do to a woman or a man to have been beaten by a partner in their own home; to have that trust broken and a replaced with fear. Never mind the physical damage.

Where this kind of wrongdoing would previously have been labelled battery by the courts, therefore making it punishable by up to two years in prison, now it will simply be defined as 'an administrative misdemeanour', with the only penalty being a fine.

Because such light sanction definitely isn't going to encourage attackers to do it again, is it? It's ludicrous.

Thankfully, the people of Russia are apparently standing up to their government on this issue. Protests have taken place, with campaigners arguing it will only worsen the issue of domestic violence by making it harder to prosecute those who are acting violently. It's also likely to create an atmosphere of fear among women to share when they're being domestically violated, because they may be concerned their situation might not be deemed 'bad enough' to be taken seriously.

According to the state statistics agency, says METRO, there were almost 50,000 crimes which took place within homes by members of family in 2015, and out of those, 35,899 involved violence against a woman.

It's evidently a problem, but it's one that's been concerningly disregarded by Russian lawmakers. So much for moving forward.