France Proposes Tagging, Psychological Abuse Measures Against Domestic Violence

It is estimated that 1 out of every 10 French women is a victim of domestic violence, and each year 160 women die in France as a result of it. Recently, pushed by Secretary of State for Family Affairs Nadine Morano, the French parliament has proposed a serious of innovative laws dealing with domestic violence.

One such law stipulates that men who have been dealt restraining orders will be "tagged" with electronic bracelets engineered to go off if the men violate these orders. How exactly this will work is unclear. Generally there are specific locations, such as the victim's house and workplace, which are off-limits, so a certain proximity would set off the alarm. But would the wife also wear a "tag" that will trigger the husband's if he approaches her? At the least, the device reminds abusers that their movements are being monitored.

Another measure proposed by Parliament is jail time for psychological violence, characterized as repeated verbal insults over an extended period of time which are intended to harm a spouse mentally and/or physically. Proponents of this measure, which appears to have equal support on the right and the left, say that psychological violence often evolves into physical violence and should be monitored with the same vigilance. Critics argue that psychological violence is difficult to police; at what point does a typical marital spat become "psychological violence?"

France has taken a somewhat controversial legal approach to many social issues in the past year, most notably the increasing prevalence of eating disorders, which the government argues are spurred on by "pro-Ana" (pro-anorexia) websites that new laws aim to criminalize with jail sentences and fines. While I actually support this initiative, the law against psychological violence seems to take a heavy-handed and one-dimensional approach to a problem that might not be best resolved in the courtroom.

The proposed law does provide a "protection order" that would place victims in temporary housing and grant temporary child custody if a partner is convicted of psychological violence, but it seems hard to imagine that a woman who is suffering from such violence (particularly of the kind intense enough to be effectively prosecuted) stepping up to endure a lawsuit. The damage needs to be combated with therapy and assistance for the victim, and with institutions that will help spouses escape their situations and rebuild their lives without fighting a legal battle. The law does not seem like an effective deterrent to psychological violence, which is far more slippery and insidious than physical violence.

The tagging concept, as crude as it sounds, is a solid measure in that it deters already convicted domestic violence offenders from stalking their wives. It is a concrete response to a concrete problem -- a husband is prohibited from approaching and abusing his wife, and a tag is a way of monitoring that. But psychological violence is a different beast, one that I don't think the government can simply slap a law (or a tag) on.

France has declared 2010 the year of the "grand cause." One would think, in such a climate, that the French government and society could come up with solutions that weren't simply weighty legal mandates. Domestic violence, and particularly psychological violence, needs to be stopped through prevention and support policies long before it gets to the point where a victim might be able to convict her husband of a crime. Hopefully, whether this law is passed or not, women's organizations in French society will heed the call to help women identify, address, and escape domestic violence before its too late.

Photo credit: Meggganhope