Domestic violence is a prominent issue in today’s society and Italy has one of the highest rates of domestic violence rates in Europe with 39% of Italians saying they knew a woman in their neighbourhood who has been a victim of domestic abuse in 2014. In 2016 alone 59 women were killed during incidents of domestic violence, making it the country with the highest femicide rate in Europe. At the heart of this issue is that Italian society today continues to be very “machista” with many Italian men continuing to view themselves as superior and women as property and sexual objects which is evidenced by the late development of Italian laws protecting women against violence. It was only in 1966 that the first laws were created to protect women with the law number 66 “Norme contro la violenza sessuale” which defined violence against women as violence against the person and then in 2001 law number 154 was passed against family violence. Currently, the new family minister that has been appointed, Lorenzo Fontana is regarded as homophobic, anti-abortion and not supportive of women’s rights which is having a negative impact on the rights of women. Historically, in Italy domestic violence has been condoned often being viewed as a private affair between a man and a woman and something in which the state should not interfere. An additional complexity is that cases of domestic abuse are often not binary. There is not just a perpetrator and a victim but also children, the broader family, teachers, police and law enforcers who are all involved in the reporting and law enforcement surrounding a case as well as the protection of victims. It can also often be difficult to know when people are suffering from domestic abuse and for victims to report their sufferings as a result of trauma. Furthermore, it can be even more challenging to prove the abuse. Against this background, it is therefore important to consider, especially in cases where children are involved and can fall victim to violence and suffer psychological damage, to what extent does the vulnerability of women in cases of domestic violence exempt them from moral responsibility with regards to protecting their children?
First it is important to consider what constitutes domestic violence. Under Italian law it can be both physical and emotional; including physical assault, sexual domination, emotional torture and financial control as corroborated by John Harris “An act of violence occurs when injury or suffering is inflicted upon a person or persons by an agent who knows that his actions would result in the harm in question.” Under Italian Law acts such as forced marriage, sexual trafficking and female genital mutilation (FGM) are also all considered forms of domestic violence. Domestic violence is a global issue that was only officially recognised as a form of torture in 2000 by the UN, which underpinned a European Campaign on fighting domestic violence in 2004 stating “States have an obligation to exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and punish acts of violence, whether those acts are perpetrated by the state or private persons, and provide protection to victims. In order to be able to fulfil this obligation, member states, including Italy, need to have evidence-based comprehensive and coordinated policies in place, including adequate resources for effective implementation, monitoring and evaluating.”
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Women, men and children can all be victims of domestic violence however, in the majority of cases it is women who are the main victims as domestic violence often occurs in a social context in which it is part of female subordination. As a result of the violence women can suffer it means they are often more prone to suffering from mental disorders or anxiety meaning it can be difficult for them to make a decision about leaving a relationship or decide how to protect their family as supported by Karlekar ”twice as many women than men are afflicted with common mental disorders such as anxieties, phobias and obsessive-compulsive behaviour…PTSD is a “persistent response,” and one that can impede the functioning of some of those exposed to the particular trauma.” Women are also more vulnerable sexually than men and along with their lesser strength in comparison to men which means they are often more likely to suffer violence. This can be supported by past texts which maintain the historical view that women are inferior and deserve to be victims to violence “A woman, a dog, and a walnut tree, The more you beat, the better they be.” This can be additionally corroborated by statistics showing that in 2014 one in seven women in Italy said they had suffered physical or sexual violence by their partners. It was also estimated that in 2014 there were 350 women who were victims of FGM in Italy. Over the last few years there have been a number of initiatives by the EU to try and combat domestic violence on a bigger scale such as the creation of a European Task Force in 2008 to deal with the issue which was able to create an official council in 2011. There also exists the European Institute for Gender Equality. There are laws under the Italian Penal Code that supposedly protect and punish crimes against the person such as article 581 against battering, article 582 against personal injury and article 609 against sexual assault.
It is also important to define moral and parental responsibility which in this case is the moral responsibility of the parents over the care and wellbeing of their children with regards to where the children live, education, health and medical care and religion. In this case moral responsibility is not the same as legal responsibility. Children are the most vulnerable in society and can easily be subjected to violence from their parents in a setting where they are supposed to be safe and protected. Under Italian law parents have responsibility for their children which merely confirms the moral obligation that pre-exists. In Italy biological mothers have automatic parental responsibility towards their children. Biological fathers who are or were married to the mother also have parental and moral responsibility. In Italy law 151 passed in 1975 resulted in men and women having the same moral responsibility over their children and had the same rights and responsibilities. Despite this, it is estimated that between 3.3 and 10 million children witness domestic violence each year.
Firstly, in defence of the argument, it can be argued that women should be exempt from moral responsibility because, as a result of abuse, women often suffer from battered women syndrome. In homicide cases this syndrome is often used to defend a woman who has murdered her husband and claims she was only using self-defence. It is argued that women are in a passive and traumatized state or have been forced to stay in an abusive relationship for a long period of time, leaving them and their children at risk. Battered women syndrome was first used in the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1984. Over time long-term serious domestic violence can lead to mental instability, a type of post-traumatic stress disorder. Women often feel passive and demoralised and, in many cases, develop a sense of helplessness that leads them to believe that the abuse is justified and that there is no way of escaping it. This means women remain in violent relationships unable to protect themselves or their children, leaving them in a position of vulnerability as in the case of Hedda Nussbaum and Joel Steinberg in the 1980s in New York where after a long time suffering severe violence Joel Steinberg murdered his daughter after her mother had supposedly done nothing to protect her. Many women are also scared to report their abuse to the police or discuss it with friends and family. In Italy the biggest issue is that those who do report the abuse to the police are often not believed as many times it can be very difficult to prove psychological or emotional abuse and thus women receive very little help as supported by Lella Paladino the president of Di.Re an Italian advocacy group that fights against violence towards women “When a woman tells her story, authorities rarely believe her, so in the end women stop speaking out.” There are many cases of violence towards women in Italy where it is alleged that the woman is at fault for her abuse because she was dressed in a short skirt or was drunk. In February 2018 a man in Turin was acquitted by the courts of raping a woman in hospital with the judge claiming she did not scream loud enough. In Italy there are limitations and women must report incidents of violence within three months. This is too short a period of time as often women take a long time to gather the courage to report cases. Therefore, it can often be difficult for women during divorce or separation to raise domestic abuse as part of the equation as they are often not believed.
Women’s vulnerability can also exempt them from moral responsibility when their failure to protect their child is justified strategically as a better option than intervening in the violence between a father and child. If the woman intervenes or leaves her partner it may mean that the violence increases or becomes more severe. Homocide rates are always higher amongst women who have left their partners than women who have remained with them. Furthermore, women who have been abused for a long period of time usually have a greater awareness of the thinking and desires of their abuser, knowing what will result in the most violent response. If a woman does not intervene to protect the child the woman is passively protecting the children, especially if she believes that greater harm will be caused if she does intervene. In this situation a women’s vulnerability arguably does exempt her of moral responsibility. In 2013 reforms were made in Italy in an attempt to deter acts of violence, when Law No 119 was created strengthening the “ammonimento” in cases of domestic violence where children under 18 were witnesses and where there were particularly vulnerable victims such as pregnant women.
Another major problem in Italy that often prevents abused women from leaving their husbands, exempting them of moral responsibility, is that they are financially dependent on their partners. If they were to separate from their partner, they would not necessarily gain rights over the children as they are unable to support them financially meaning they would be unable to protect them. This is especially an issue for foreign women married to Italian men who under Italian courts have no rights as emphasised by the manager of the Casa delle Donne refuge in Reggio Calabria, Denise Insigne, “Their husbands and their husband’s families tell them: you are nobody here, you are worth nothing. Nobody cares about you.” Until recently Italian Law condoned the killing of women if it was by family members classing it as a private matter. It was only in 1981 that for the first time a man could be punished for killing his wife. Initial changes in law were always about protecting and maintaining family structure rather than protecting women and allowing them a way to be free. In 1981 under the Italian Penal Code law no. 442 the notion of honour killings was eradicated. Prior to this under article 587 men who killed women in their lives in defence of their honour were given a reduced sentence; the article states “He who causes the death of a spouse, daughter, or sister upon discovering her in illegitimate carnal relations and in the heat of passion caused by the offence to his honour or that of his family will be sentenced to three to seven years. The same sentence shall apply to whom, in the above circumstances, causes the death of the person involved in illegitimate carnal relations with his spouse, daughter, or sister.”
The new family minister of Italy, Lorenzo Fontana has plans to introduce new laws that state couples wishing to divorce must see a professional mediator to create a parenting plan under which the child has to spend at least 12 days a month with each person and be registered as a resident under both parents. This new law puts women who are dependent on the financial support of their husbands in a particularly vulnerable situation as it removes the need for child maintenance and means money is only given as and when fixed sums appear. Seeing that it is women who are often left to care for the children this puts them in a more vulnerable situation. In addition, forcing mediation goes against the Istanbul Convention which aims to fight against violence towards women and domestic violence. The bill forces women into a more vulnerable situation and leaves them further unable to protect their children as it removes the need for child. In response to these changes in law there have been protests in over 60 Italian cities to fight the bill which clearly denies the issues of domestic violence. Over 100 women from the feminist movement Non Una di Meno in Rome went from the Colosseum to the Capitoline Hill dressed up as characters from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale to protest the change in law.
In cases where women are financially dependent on the partners arguably, they can also be exempt of moral responsibility over their children as in reality they are doing the best they can to protect them by remaining with their violent partner. However, under Italian law this is not always accepted as a reason for not protecting children as there exists a Parental Alienation Policy which originated from the League. Many politicians have called for parental alienation to be criminalised. In legal cases men often use this Policy to stop their partner gaining many rights to the child and to justify why their child should be allowed to see them on the basis that the mother has rejected and alienated the child. The laws in Italy do not protect women and often the laws that do exist are not followed, according to Palladino “For example, there is one that says violent men must be removed from the home, but it doesn’t work.” The new laws the family minister of Italy, Lorenzo Fontana is wishing to introduce addresses parental alienation. This new law prejudices mothers and means judges cannot do their work properly as they are under tight constraints which can be corroborated by Italian family lawyer Marcelle Pirrone “This law is not even trying to hide its intent. It is against women. He has a very clear ideology and this is a very ideological law. It is punishing the woman and it is punishing them back into a very dependent situation where they are not able to take autonomous decisions or get away from a bad situation.” In the last few years the Italian government has taken action to help victims of domestic violence in 2015 adopting the “Special plan against sexual violence and gender-based violence,” which aims to help increase the number of services to help women leave their husbands. On the other hand, it can also be argued that there is no excuse for women not leaving their husbands if they have the emotional and mental capacity to as in Italy there exits 486 women’s shelters which can provide help and refuge for these women and their children. There also exists an anti-violence and anti-stalking helpline to help support those suffering from gender-based violence. This helpline runs 24/7 and runs in multiple languages to assist women of all nationalities.
It can also be argued that many women can be excused from moral responsibility as a result of their background suffering from abuse which justifies their inability to protect their children and leave a violent situation. Many women who are victims before the age of 14 both of sexual and domestic violence more generally are twice as likely to be subject to it in later relationships as adults. Sexual victimization among university women is higher for those who have been sexually abused as children. This means that there are many women who expect this kind of behaviour and treatment from men and as a result when they find themselves in an abusive later in life feel there is nothing they can do to fight the situation or protect their children.
Women can also often be exempt from moral responsibility as legally cases of emotional abuse are often more nuanced and difficult to prove meaning the position of women in the defence of their children can be hard to prove. Emotional abuse can include continuous financial abuse, humiliating or degrading a person, controlling where they go, telling them what to wear and when to sleep threats as well to expose personal information. One key issue is that often it can take a long time for women to realise that they are victims of emotional abuse or the impact it is having on them or their children thus they cannot protect them. In many situations physical abuse and emotional abuse come hand in hand as corroborated by the UK charity Women’s Aid “Coercive control is at the heart of domestic abuse…”. In an attempt to help women in cases of emotional abuse in 2001 laws number 60 and 134 were passed in Italy to help provide women in difficult and abusive relationships with financial aid to facilitate their ability to leave the relationship however, in practice this does not help women as much as it claims especially as it can be difficult to report domestic and emotional violence and often police do not believe women. Especially in the cases of violent acts where the women must report it within three months.
There also exist arguments which suggest women cannot be exempt of moral responsibility for example because legally whoever is the custodial caretaker of the child has a prima facie responsibility to protect the child from abuse by anyone. Societal roles and the law suggest that women are the primary carers of their children undertaking most of the daily tasks and being responsible for most of the emotional support as corroborated by Heather Skinazi as she quotes a letter to the editor of the Los Angeles Times “A mother protects her child against all odds-I don’t care if that mother is battered to a pulp.” Despite the legal position that the law punishes the abuser more severely it does not excuse the mother’s failure to protect as this should always be her priority and she should not allow her children to be victims.
In conclusion, it can be argued that to a large extent the vulnerability of women does exempt them from moral responsibility as there are many consequences to the mental and physical health of women suffering from domestic violence which can affect their ability to protect and defend their children for example battered women syndrome. Women often feel weak and that they deserve the treatment they are receiving leading them to be submissive or coerced by their partner and unable to see a way out of the situation. Furthermore, in many situations the law and state does not protect women. They are not provided with physical protection or financial support and thus feel they must stay with their partners in order to protect the children. Despite arguments that women should protect their children above anything else in reality this is often very difficult and women are not always able or do not have support or courage to be able to do this.
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