Protection for the Victims of Domestic Sexual Violence in Iran's Criminal Justice System

Legal systems in various societies have emphasized state intervention by special laws, ratified to protect the victims of domestic sexual violence. In Iran, lack of criminalization of sexual/domestic violence, especially domestic sexual violence, has caused challenges in recognizing the victimization of this type of violence in the courts. The main question of this research is how the system of criminal justice of Iran reacts to the phenomenon of domestic violence and what supportive mechanisms women, victim of this type of violence, have. To answer this question, a qualitative approach and a case study method including deep interviews with 15victims, 10criminal justice judges and a content analysis of 15 cases in Tehran province has been used. The findings indicate that women's criminal complaints often fail to be responded under this title, which has resulted in prohibition of prosecution, only in the case of injury and damage lead to punishment. In the implementation, the difficulty of proving and the lack of objective criteria in determining the scope of admission has led to personal interpretations of judges, deliberate neglect, and overall varying judicial approaches to the problem. Therefore, considering the inadequacy of existing criminal mechanisms, from a substantial and procedural point of view, and the ineffectiveness of proofs in this matter, the first and most important supporting technique is the necessity of criminalization of domestic sexual violence in legal discourse, along with the determination of the guarantee of implementation in accordance with the needs of the victim and differential proceedings in criminal courts