2024-07-27 15:19:23
Criminal law
No federal law on ankle bracelets for brutal ex-partners
Updated on 18.07.2024Reading time: 4 min.
If ex-partners are violent, an electronic ankle bracelet can provide more security. But Buschmann himself does not want to initiate any reforms in this regard. He is also cautious about cyberbullying.
Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann believes that a nationwide regulation on the use of electronic ankle bracelets in cases of domestic violence is unnecessary. In doing so, he is opposing a corresponding demand that was made in June at the Federal and State Interior Ministers’ Conference (IMK).
The FDP politician also believes that the interior ministers’ proposal to create an additional regulation on cyberbullying in the penal code is superfluous. Cyberbullying is the insult, threat, exposure or harassment of people on websites, in forums, social networks or chat rooms.
Buschmann says he also sees a need to improve protection against violence from partners or ex-partners. Countries that want to use electronic ankle bracelets for this purpose can regulate this themselves, he told the German Press Agency. The electronic ankle bracelet transmits the location – if someone approaches the affected person’s home despite a restraining order, the police are alerted.
“Domestic violence means unbearable suffering for those affected,” emphasised Buschmann. He also agreed with the interior ministers that more protection is needed here. “As Minister of Justice, I am doing something concrete to achieve this,” he added. His ministry is currently working on reforms to child custody law and family procedural law. Both projects are about better protection against domestic violence.
If the interior ministers thought that ankle bracelets were a useful tool in the fight against domestic violence, they could introduce them immediately through police law, which is a matter for the states, said Buschmann. “If you want ankle bracelets, a regulation about them would be in good hands in police law,” said the FDP minister. After all, victims of domestic violence typically turn to the police first. “That’s why it makes sense for the police to decide whether to impose ankle bracelets.”
Police law in Bavaria and Hamburg allows for ankle bracelets to be used both when police measures are ordered and in parallel with civil legal protection, Buschmann explained. “Nobody is stopping other countries from following suit.”
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) said that bans on entering the apartment and approaching the woman must be “consistently enforced and closely monitored” at the IMK in June. She was in discussion with Buschmann on this. If the perpetrators were monitored with an electronic ankle bracelet, the police could intervene more quickly in an emergency and better prevent violence against women. Faeser cited similar regulations in Austria as a model. According to police statistics, 155 women were killed by their partners or ex-partners in Germany in 2023 – 22 more than in the previous year. Among men, the figure was 24.
“In order to have a permanent and not just short-term option to control court-ordered contact or proximity bans with an ankle bracelet, the ankle bracelet must be included in the Violence Protection Act,” says Hesse’s Minister of Justice, Christian Heinz (CDU). The Union faction also made a similar move in the Bundestag shortly before the parliamentary summer recess.
Erika Krause-Schöne from the police union also sees a reform of the Violence Protection Act as a good way forward – even if the details would then have to be regulated by the states. She believes it is right that wearing an electronic ankle bracelet in serious cases of domestic violence for the perpetrators, who are mostly male, “could perhaps also be part of the punishment.”
The victim support organization Weißer Ring accused Buschmann of not only leaving the affected women alone in their suffering, but also ignoring the decision of the Justice Ministers’ Conference. “The Violence Protection Act, which is intended to protect women from domestic violence, is a federal law,” said federal chairman Patrick Liesching in Mainz. “Related regulations such as the electronic monitoring of violent offenders therefore naturally also fall within federal jurisdiction.”
Hesse’s Justice Minister Heinz announced that Hesse will soon launch a Federal Council initiative to provide stronger protection against domestic violence and to introduce electronic ankle bracelets.