Criminal responsibility may be invoked for such offences as intentional bodily injury, murder, threatening to commit murder or to inflict serious bodily injury and others.
Domestic violence & Crimes
Domestic violence is not defined as a specific or separate crime in the Criminal Code, yet the perpetrator may be held criminally responsible if the acts are committed in “conditions of domestic violence” according to the definition in the Criminal Code. Those are, for example, murder, bodily injuries (severe, moderate or minor injuries), the threat to kill or cause severe bodily injury, illegal restraint, stalking and others.
According to the Criminal Code the crime is committed “in conditions of domestic violence” if it is preceded by systematic physical, sexual or psychological violence, placing the person in economic dependence, coercive restriction of personal life, personal liberty and personal rights, and is enforced against persons in ascending and descending order, a spouse or ex-spouse, a person with whom one shares a child, a person with whom one is or has been in a de facto marital cohabitation, or a person with whom one lives or has lived in a common household.
Crimes against children
The Criminal Code also provides a specific provision to prevent cruelty and violence against children, recognizing cruel or violent treatment of a minor as a crime, if physical or mental suffering has been inflicted upon the minor, and if such acts have been inflicted by a person on whom the victim is financially or otherwise dependent. Therefore, domestic violence against a child is considered a crime, even if it has not caused a certain level of bodily harm.