The Enforcement of Article 63-1 of the Domestic Violence Prevention Act by Police Officers in Taiwan

• Main Authors: WANG,SHAO-LUN, 王紹倫
• Other Authors: CHEN,TZU-HSING
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/w8945q

碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 犯罪防治碩士在職專班 === 106 === Article 63-1 of Taiwan’s Domestic Violence Prevention Act was added on February 4, 2015, came into effect a year later, and has become popularly known in Chinese as the “abusive lover article.” This article stipulates that abusive behavior in a non-domestic intimate relationship towards a partner who is at least 16 years old is to be covered by the Domestic Violence Prevention Act. Although this amendment has been widely welcomed by women’s groups and society at large, it seems that law enforcement officials have paid little attention to it, and few cases relating to Article 63-1 have been filed up to the present; thus its effectiveness remains to be seen. The aim of this research was to determine how familiar law enforcement personnel are with Article 63-1, any difficulties they have experienced in relation to enforcing it, and any suggestions they may have regarding it. For this purpose I carried out this qualitative research by conducting interviews with law enforcement personnel and collecting related information. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with five police officers and officials whose work is closely related to Article 63-1. Integrated analysis was used to formulate four themes: education and training; a passive approach towards reporting and dealing with cases of domestic violence; weak enforcement; and confusion regarding the contents of Article 63-1. The results show that even though police officers have already received short-term training regarding the criteria for reporting cases of domestic violence under Article 63-1, since they lack practical experience in this area, when dealing with actual cases they typically seek advice and assistance from their colleagues who are more familiar with the contents of Article 63-1. The results also indicate that police officers are unclear about the exact meaning of “intimate partner” in Article 63-1, making it difficult to make accurate assessments in a timely manner, decreasing the likelihood of actual cases getting properly filed, and increasing the workload of the government agencies which will eventually have to deal with the case in the long run.