Criminalization of Domestic Violence and its Impact on Courts’ Punitive Policy: A Perspective from a Developing European Country

Abstract The domestic violence in Kosovo remains one of the biggest challenges despite country’s continuous attempts to harmonize its laws with EU legislation, including the enactment of the Criminal Code (2019) which foresees domestic violence as a criminal offense. This study aims to understand how the criminalization of domestic violence has impacted the courts’ punitive policy. The data are collected through semi-structured interviews with seven judges and analysis of 130 judgments on domestic violence, which were randomly selected in the Basic Court of Prishtina, covering the period January 2019 – June 2021. The results show that criminalization of domestic violence had a limited impact on the punitive policy: suspended imprisonment and suspended fine prevail as types of sentences, sentence of imprisonment is applied mostly to recidivists while guilty plea and remorse are the most common mitigating circumstances. Judges believe the mild sentences represent the right way to address domestic violence effectively.