Psychic violence in gender violence

Abstract

The psychic lesion is a recent penological concept despite appearing hidden under generic concepts of moral damage, suffering, or other meanings that appear in comparative law. The probative problems that this type of violence presents do not go unnoticed, hence it is also known as «invisible mistreatment». Psychic aggression has an entity by itself and, not only that, but its consequences can be even more serious than those produced by purely physical attacks. Among the main problems posed by the evidence of psychological violence, there is an important lack of training among the staff of the courts, the prosecution and the intervening lawyers. The practice of the evidence in the processes followed before the Courts of Violence against women present multiple probative difficulties and a rich and complex problem, derived from the fact that, in most cases, they are crimes committed within the domestic sphere, in the privacy of the family home. The Courts of Violence against Women should necessarily have the Comprehensive Forensic Assessment Units. What is relevant for evidentiary purposes is not only to objectify the overall psychic impairment of the person, but to establish a relationship or nexus of causality between the harmful behaviors and the damage.