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“The Austrian Protection against Domestic Violence Act. 1996”

Pelikan, Christa
June 4, 2015

Source: (2006) In,Crime Policy in Europe, Council of Europe, Stragbourg: Council of Europe Publishing pp.37-46

“The Austrian Protection against Domestic Violence Act came into force on 1 May 1997.

“It is a body of special “targeted” legislation, comprising new or reformed sections of different realms of legislation, civil law – more specifically the Enforcement Code (Exekutionsordnung), and police (security) law, while criminal law in a narrow sense is not addressed. It focuses on the protection of actual and potential victims of domestic violence, protection from physical, sexual and psychological injury inflicted within the context of a household, and the intimate partnership and family relationships constituting it.

“In the new legislation, the role of protection is assigned to the police with the ‘invention’ of a new instrument devised to make this police intervention more adequately serve the purpose of immediate protection for the victim of violence. This new instrument provides for an eviction and barring order (Wegweisung and Rűckkehrverbot) that can be extended by a civil law injunction (or restraining order) that keeps the person representing a threat to the physical and/or psychological safety of other household members from re-entering the premises or a wider defined area of safety (Einstweilige Verfűgung).” (excerpt)

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AbstractCourtsDomestic ViolenceFamiliesPolicePolicyRJ OfficeStatutes and LegislationTeachers and Students
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