The contraversies of violence-related laws

Around the middle of June 2009 there was a small article in Helsingin Sanomat with a headline "Domestic violence needs to have limits". The article states that in recent years in Finland 20-26 women have died because of their spouces or ex-partners. The real shock was yet to come: the Minister of Justice in Finland has received a memorandum about an initiative for a law, that demands even minor domestic violence cases to fall under general procecution.

What?!? This means that such a law does not yet exist in Finland. June 19th 2009 the editorial handled this very topic revealing that at the current situation in cases of minor domestic violence it is up to the victim to start a legal process.

How can a wellbeing state like Finland be only now in 2009 going towards better legal protection for victims of domestic violence? Better now than never of course.

What is MINOR violence? Being hit with out bleeding? Where does the line go? Who gets to decide what type of violence creates more or less pain in the victim? The editorial sets to light another important perspective: the threat of violence is oppressing enough.

The last few years I have grown sceptical and critical concerning the Finnish justice system. Finland is concidered a country of absolute justice, yet as a country we are continuesly getting reclamations from the EU for the failures in the system. Recent example is the fact that legal processes take too long.

In my opinion many laws should be carefully re-evaluated. I cannot find any decent explanation to the fact that the punishment is lower for a rape that has not fulfilled the demands of a "especially brutal rape". Rape is rape. Does it really matter to the victim if the perpetrator had a knife along? One can do a lot of physical damage, not to even mention mental one, with two bare hands.

Most extreme example of an uncomprehendable grievance is: accoring to the law in Finland there is a difference between "rape" and "forcing someone to sexual intercourse".
What exactly is the difference??

The police makes 15 000 - 20 000 house calls annually in Finland that are related to violence. 4000 of these proceed to criminal processing. The prevailing conditions of people involved in (domestic) violence are often very complex and I have absolutely sympathy for the weakness of the victims to proceed leagally. That is why the society has to help those, who cannot help themselves. This new law in Finland doesn't come a day too soon.