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Domestic violence: “There is a lot of work to support victims that must continue”

What penal response to a perpetrator of domestic violence? The Mamoudzou public prosecutor’s office has defined an increasingly precise criminal policy over the past year, in order to establish a graduated judicial response, and to offer victims a rapid and protective reaction from the justice system. A policy that seems to be bearing fruit, even if avenues for improvement remain to be worked on, in particular on the filing of complaints, the identification of victims and their support. A job has started.

“The first thing that was done was to accompany the police and gendarmerie services to modify the nature of the treatment of this type of file”, explains the prosecutor. “Changing the nature of the processing means first of all supporting a training process for investigators to better welcome victims. It is also with the hospital and other partners to identify victims so that there are reports and complaints are filed. It is a long-term work which continues and which is accompanied by a reinforcement of the assistance to the victims of domestic violence, to also support them in the process of filing a complaint.

But to achieve this, it was already necessary to settle the complaints that sometimes languished in the drawers.

“The second line of work was to clear the stocks of procedures in the brigades and at the police station, with now processing of all cases in the time of flagrante delicto. Before they were often treated in preliminary investigation, today it is in 24 hours renewable. We have already cleared the entire stock in a few months, ie 150 files very quickly, which means that today files can be processed within 24 to 48 hours when a complaint is filed” continues the prosecutor.

Once the complaint has been filed, several scenarios are put in place depending on the seriousness of the facts, from the alternative to prosecution to incarceration. First exercise, sorting out the proven facts, settling scores that do not concern justice.

“In terms of domestic violence, we have an elucidation rate of almost 100% because the perpetrator is identified, it is the companion. The prosecution rate is also close to 100% when the facts are recognized. The question is the rate of prosecutable cases, because we also have complaints lodged that we must examine with caution because it may be a question of a judicial instrumentalization of problems of couples which are not criminal matters. We must therefore have an emergency approach, but a reasonable and balanced approach. That’s why we want medical certificates, testimonials but also confrontations, and this quickly”.

Once this step has been taken, the proven facts give rise to a systematic referral to the prosecutor or his substitute.

The anti-reconciliation bracelet helps prevent the recurrence of domestic violence

From warning to prison

“When the facts are objectified, we initiate proceedings which are graduated according to the personality of the perpetrator and the nature of the violence. When we are, without relativizing, in a small jostling of a couple in conflict, and not on recurrent or extremely serious violence, and that the couple itself does not ask for legal proceedings but is in the withdrawal of the complaint and in an approach of separation, we can have a first level of penal response which is to do an internship on domestic violence, and to simply record the separation by prohibiting one or the other from meeting the one who could be his victim . This first level is that of the alternative to prosecution.”

When the facts are more serious, the legal response hardens quickly too.

“The second level of criminal response is facts that are beginning to show some seriousness. There we will be in the deferment, with a so-called guilty plea procedure which allows an immediate and binding response. In 90% of cases, these are probationary reprieves with bans on contact. In 99% of cases it is respected. Because we are in violence which presents a certain gravity but in which we intervened immediately. Hence the interest of having a criminal response in the context of flagrante delicto which does not allow violence to take hold”.

The objective is of course to avoid these situations which are repeated at the national level, of individuals reported several times, and who sometimes end up killing their spouse.

“Finally there are these more serious situations, either because intrinsically they are serious violence with significant ITT, or else with people who, even if it remains marginal, are in recurrence of violence. There we go to the next phase which is the referral followed by an immediate appearance. There the sentences handed down are often mixed prison sentences. In recent cases, it went up to 1 to 2 years in prison, not to mention a probationary reprieve which includes the prohibitions we have talked about and reinforced internships”.

That’s for the authors. Victims often remain the poor relations of criminal justice. The Mayotte court has not forgotten them.

“Everything can be improved, but there are important steps being taken and major advances made last year,” says Yann Le Bris.

“Let there be no more impunity”

Victims are increasingly placed at the heart of the criminal justice response. Here, posters posted in the courthouse.

“Social workers come to the brigades and police stations to be in contact with the victims, and within the CHM we have staff trained in forensic medicine, who are not doctors, and we are in the process of creating a position within of the SCJE, the service of the victims of the court to project itself in the police stations, the gendarmeries and the hospital to be a relay of the judicial institution and to accompany the process of filing a complaint.
Within the court, the SCJE is present in court to accompany the victim throughout the judicial process, before and after justice.”

The prosecutor intends to go even further.

“The next steps are to constantly improve the circuits between the various stakeholders, to reinforce the information of the victims on their rights, and to ensure that they are not alone in the legal proceedings”.

In fact, domestic violence accounts for between 150 and 200 cases each year referred to the courts. A figure set to increase with awareness campaigns and complaints.

Another major criminal project for the prosecutor, violence against children, including sexual.

“We also have a major problem around sexual violence” deplores the head of the Mamoudzou public prosecutor’s office, “and even on the very perception of what constitutes sexual violence with regard to minors. If we only see our power, we never move forward. We have a strong evolution of the information reported to the prosecution, there are the associations but also the rectorate which is at the forefront in the reports that are reported to us. It remains to strengthen the effectiveness of the investigations and our ability to mobilize experts to move even faster in the processing of these files, and to strengthen the reporting channels so that there is no longer any impunity”.

Y.D.

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