how magistrates train themselves to avoid “secondary victimization” in domestic and sexual violence cases

How to deal with victims of sexual or domestic violence, better understand their trauma and use the right terms? ENM students and current magistrates train to ensure that legal treatment is not an additional problem for them.

This is a question that is more relevant than ever with the Mazan’s forced experimentin which Gisèle Pelicot sometimes felt irritated in the audience. If lawyers are to have real freedom of expression, magistrates must ensure that the debates are conducted properly. And more and more of them are being trained to avoid what we call it “secondary suffering”especially in cases of domestic violence (VIF) and sexual violence.

These are, for example, comments or questions heard during the legal procedure, when they submitted a complaint or during the trial. “What do you mean, you didn’t defend yourself? You weren’t afraid? Why did you go and wash yourself when you had to keep the evidence? List Emmanuelle Piet, doctor and president of the Feminist Convention Against Rape (CFCV). These are slaps in the face of the victim, it is heavy to bear, there is a need for real support and certainly improvements in practices.”

Her association offers a helpline and accompanies victims to the hearing when they are alone, as it is a real problem for some women. Catherine Grosjean also noticed this when she took over as head of the Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme) court of law in 2019. “I had noticed that the role of the victim was not very favorable in our justice system and quite often, we lost them along the way, explains this master. That is to say, very few victims were present at the trial. They were very happy with the judging work, our vocabulary, our dresses, our architecture. Which made this trial more stressful than a time where they could express what they had to say, and move on.”

When she arrives, this judge sets up a family crime room where five hearings take place each month. In 2024, five judges will deal exclusively violence within the family : domestic violence, harassment or even crimes directly related to minors. But the support for victims, which began the president of the court, is intended to be more extensive. Local associations will prepare them for the trial, help them on the day, and taxi places will be available to accompany them after the hearing, especially to avoid the risk of mutual assault.

The judges, too, know their job. “We have people, psychologists, psychoanalysts, support professionals, both perpetrators and victims, who attend our hearings completely anonymously, follows Catherine Grosjean. They are joining us to inform the audience and help us be better.”

“They also help us find the best vocabulary and the best way to approach things so that everyone can understand them.”

Catherine Grosjean, magistrate

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The question of the words used is even essential. The ENM, the National School of Justice, organizes training on domestic violence. “When we talk about influence, what exactly does that mean?asks the judge Marie Leal-Martini, the coordinator of this training. What is compulsive control, stress, traumatic amnesia, dissociation? These are phenomena that we hear a lot on television or radio, we, magistrates, must control them.”

The challenge is also to teach them to detect “weak signals”, sometimes crucial in cases of femicide. “When we read procedures, when we give feedback to women that we were not able to prevent, there are signs, we teach magistrates to read them, follows Marie Leal-Martini. For example, strangulation is a specific act of violence, we know that it is more dangerous than a slap and that there is a greater risk of committing the act, murder or feminism, when strangulation is attempted than any other form of violence.”

ENM training on domestic violence is offered to students and has been mandatory since 2018 for all practicing magistrates wishing to change careers. According to the school, more than 2,500 magistrates have been trained on these matters since 2019.