Justina's Writing Corner

Lian was a twenty-three-year-old lady. She was also a survivor of domestic violence. A man had beat her, cut her off from her family, and raped her. Local Chinese officers did make a record of the event. They might have written something that alludes to domestic violence. However, without the specificity needed to be persuasive in court. Lian did not get the justice she needed. Police officers at her local station didn’t understand her pleas for help and told her to “just work it out.” 

Domestic violence is tragically universal, cutting across ethnicity and nationality. Globally, one in every four women would experience it throughout their life. About 24.7 percent of Chinese people have suffered domestic violence. 

Domestic violence is a civil infraction, not a criminal offense in China. China is one of ten countries that has not criminalized rape in marriage, an issue not resolved by the Domestic Violence Law. Under the Domestic Violence law, penalties for convicted abusers are low. If the abuser violates the protection order, they may be fined up to about one hundred and fifty-two dollars, held in custody for up to fifteen days, or face light criminal charges. These penalties, of course, only apply if someone is convicted, which requires a victim to come forward, provide evidence, pay for a lawyer, endure a trial, and persevere long enough to make the system work for them. 

So what is the problem with the legal system? While America passed its first anti-domestic violence law in 1994, there was no national legislation with the term “domestic violence” in China, and there are still no laws prohibiting marital rape or sexual harassment. The national law came into effect finally in March 2016. For example, marital rape or often called spousal rape, an act of sexual intercourse with one’s spouse without the spouse’s consent, is still legal. 

Second, the domestic Violence Law is largely ineffective. It creates barriers at every step, from evidence-gathering where the victims have to do it themselves, to win in court to seeing protection orders properly enforced. Poor enforcement practices where law enforcement officials are often unwilling to enforce the law’s mandates or lack the training of how to collect evidence. 

Law enforcement in China lacks the awareness to support victims. They may dissuade the couple from filing a report, advising them to work it out themselves. Mediation is not a substitute for law enforcement intervention. It is, in essence, a state-sanctioned signal that victims should “just work it out.”

 Last but not least, courts and judges are intended to be a line of defense for victims, but protection orders, the judicial system’s primary means of offering immediate sanctuary to victims, are rarely approved and largely unenforced, demonstrating the disconnect between the principles of law and the practices of those who implement it. Even though one might win the court, one might still lose custody of the children. 

However, America, a country who puts more time and energy into prohibiting domestic violence, still have some flaws. 

So what could we do about this? Well, we, as citizens of the world have the right to freedom from torture and inhumane treatment and equal treatment before the law. We could change the world. We want to change it where the law enforces more on the convicted abusers harder so that no one would continue to harm.