Legal Aspects of Domestic Violence in the Light of Amendments to the Police Act and Other Acts
Legal Aspects of Domestic Violence in the Light of Amendments to the Police Act and Other Acts

Summary/Abstract: Violence in the family is an important social issue and one of the most dangerous pathological problems leadingto victimisation. It can take various forms, namely physical, psychological, economic and sexual abuse, and each time it causesmulti-level consequences for all family members. The extent of domestic violence and its consequences show that the bindingregulations of the Act on Counteracting Domestic Violence, as well as of the Code of Criminal Procedure, referring among othersto the order for the perpetrator of domestic violence to leave the place of residence, have often proved insufficient in practice. It wastherefore necessary to introduce more effective instruments of the legal protection of a person subjected to violence into the Polishlegal system, allowing, inter alia, to order the offender to leave the place of residence with immediate effect. It was additionallyimproved by allowing the court, as a form of safeguarding measures under the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, to extendthe validity of an order or a ban issued by the Police or Military Police for a further period of more than 14 days, as well asbyspeeding up the proceedings related to obliging a violent person to leave a shared dwelling and its immediate vicinity or bar himor her from the dwelling and its immediate vicinity. This was expressed in the Act of 30 April 2020 on amending the Act — theCode of Civil Procedure that came into force on 30 November 2020 and in some other acts. The introduced regulations will makeit possible to ensure the safety of a person affected by violence who will not have to leave the dwelling to seek shelter for themselvesand their children, and should also contribute to the improvement of victims’ situation and measures taken to counteract violencein the family.

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