Germany plans to treat the use of date rape drugs like the use of a weapon in prosecutions as part of measures to ensure justice for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe classify date rape drugs, which are increasingly used as a widespread tool in crimes, as weapons. This creates the basis for significantly stricter prosecutions,\u201d , Alexander Dobrindt, the interior minister, said on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are committed to clear consequences and consistent enforcement. Women should feel safe and be able to move freely everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearly 54,000 women and girls were the victims of sexual offences in Germany in 2024 \u2013 an increase of 2.1% on the previous year \u2013 of which nearly 36% were victims of rape and sexual assault.<\/p>\n
A parliamentary debate over a bill calling for a mandatory minimum five-year prison sentence for the use of date rape drugs in sexual assaults was postponed last month.<\/p>\n
Police last year registered a record high of almost 266,000 domestic violence victims, a 3.8% increase on the previous year.<\/p>\n
However, there were a high number of unreported cases, the head of the federal criminal police office, Holger M\u00fcnch, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must work to ensure that more victims find the courage to report crimes in order to improve the protection and support for victims,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Although there is no uniform federal definition for femicide in Germany, nearly 1,200 women and girls were recorded as victims of homicide or attempted homicide in 2024, a slight decrease year on year.<\/p>\n
The German government this week approved a draft law allowing the use of electronic ankle monitors to track perpetrators of domestic violence.<\/p>\n
Victims can also request a separate device to warn them when the perpetrator is nearby.<\/p>\n
Dobrindt said the government had also secured funding for the national rollout of an app allowing domestic abuse victims to secretly document abuse incidents to be used later in court.<\/p>\n
In the UK, Rape Crisis<\/a> offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland<\/a>, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland<\/a>. In the US, Rainn<\/a> offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect<\/a> (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org\/rcip\/internl.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Germany plans to treat the use of date rape drugs like the use of a weapon in prosecutions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824],"class_list":{"0":"post-584901","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-germany"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115588257725520228","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}