警察人員對於家庭暴力防治法第63條之1執法現況之實證研究

The Enforcement of Article 63-1 of the Domestic Violence Prevention Act by Police Officers in Taiwan

2015年家庭暴力防治法新增第63條之1，俗稱「恐怖情人條款」後，家庭暴力防治法正式將未同居親密關係伴侶納為家庭暴力防治一環。然而，法條新增後，實際操作模式是否如同社會期待是一個重要問題，亦是本研究之研究重心所在。本文以透過法實證之質性研究及半結構深度訪談家庭暴力防治官進行研究探測，訪談結果與研究成果如下：警察機關對於家庭暴力防治法第63條之1修正後進行相關講習，警察人員普遍於通報上能確實執行，通報正確率有一定水準，惟於進行通報流程時，卻有過度仰賴婦幼業務承辦人或家庭暴力防治官情形產生，時有致電詢問如何進行通報之情形；其次，於訪談受訪者過程，受訪者表示警察人員無實質強制法條要件因應家庭暴力事件中之行為人，僅以口頭約制並無強制力，流於形式上送達保護令；最後受訪者認為新法所規範之定義過於模糊，導致在受理時無法明確判斷，易產生犯罪黑數或後續程序處理之疑義。

Article 63-1 of Taiwan’s Domestic Violence Prevention Act was added on February 4, 2015, came into effect a year later, and has become popularly known in Chinese as the“abusive lover article”. This article stipulates that abusive behavior in a non-domestic intimate relationship towards a partner who is at least 16 years old is to be covered by the Domestic Violence Prevention Act. Although this amendment has been widely welcomed by women’s groups and society at large, it seems that law enforcement officials have paid little attention to it, and few cases relating to Article 63-1 have been filed up to the present; thus its effectiveness remains to be seen. The aim of this research was to determine how familiar law enforcement personnel are with Article 63-1, any difficulties they have experienced in relation to enforcing it, and any suggestions they may have regarding it. For this purpose I carried out this qualitative research by conducting interviews with law enforcement personnel and collecting related information. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were con-ducted with five police officers and officials whose work is closely related to Article 63-1. Integrated analysis was used to formulate four themes: education and training; a passive approach towards reporting and dealing with cases of domestic violence; weak enforcement; and confusion regarding the contents of Article 63-1. The results show that even though police officers have already received short-term training regarding the criteria for reporting cases of domestic violence under Article 63-1, since they lack practical experience in this area, when dealing with actual cases they typically seek advice and assistance from their colleagues who are more familiar with the contents of Article 63-1. The results also indicate that police officers are unclear about the exact meaning of“intimate partner”in Article 63-1, making it difficult to make accurate assessments in a timely manner, decreasing the likelihood of actual cases getting properly filed, and increasing the workload of the government agencies which will eventually have to deal with the case in the long run.