Beschuldigd van intrafamiliaal geweld voor het Hof van Assisen van het Scheldedepartement / de provincie Oost-Vlaanderen, 1811–1867
Authors: Monballyu J. 
Published: August 2023

Accused of domestic violence before the Assize Court of the Scheldt Department / Province of East Flanders, 1811-1867. – Studying the criminal prosecution of intrafamily violence in the Scheldt department / province of East Flanders between 1811 and 1867 is only possible by consulting the archives of the Assize Court of that region. Because this Assize Court only dealt with the most serious criminal cases, one can only study the tip of the iceberg.

Between 1811 and 1867, the Assize Court of the Scheldt Department / Province of East Flanders in Belgium treated 203 criminal cases involving interfamily violence. 107 (53%) of these cases involved violence against a child and in 94 of those 107 cases (88%) an infanticide. In total 103 people were charged with an infanticide, but in the end only 38 were punished with death, being the then legal punishment for this crime. All other accused were acquitted or, after a reclassification of the facts listed in the indictment, sentenced for another crime such as an involuntary manslaughter of a child or concealing a child. The main reason for this was the fact that an infanticide, which was usually committed without witnesses, was very difficult to prove. Thirteen other criminal cases for violence against a child dealt with violence against a no longer new-born child. The Court of Assizes applied the normal penalties in these criminal cases. This usually involved mostly intentional manslaughter, murder or attempted murder of such a child.

In the period 1811–1867, the Court of Assize also tried 73 people for violence against a parent or grandparent. Of those 73 persons, 15 were acquitted and 58 (7 women and 51 men) punished. Three persons accused of elder murder were punished: one for intentionally beating his father, one for murdering his father and one for murdering his mother. The 55 other accused were punished for intentional hits on an ascendant.

Partner violence was the category of interfamily violence that was least dealt with by the Assize Court. In total, the Assize Court handled only 25 criminal cases for marriage partner violence, involving 27 people as perpetrators or accomplices. Six of those 25 criminal cases dealt with poisoning of the partner and 12 criminal cases with murder or attempted murder of the partner. In only five of the last 12 criminal cases, the accused was sentenced to death, but in the end only one of them was guillotined. The four other death row inmates were given a kingly grace who commuted their death sentences to a hard labour. In the other seven of those 12 criminal cases, the case was reclassified to intentional manslaughter or intentional hits and wounds and punished as such.

The Assize Court also treated five criminal trials in which a person was charged from the outset with intentional manslaughter of the marriage partner. In three of those five criminal cases, the accused was also punished for such intentional manslaughter, in one of those five criminal cases, the offences were reclassified to intentional hits and wounds causing illness or disability of more than twenty days, and in one of those five criminal cases, the accused was acquitted. Finally, the Assize Court also treated two criminal cases in which a person was charged from the outset with intentional hits and wounds against his marriage partner. In one of those two criminal cases, after a reclassification of the facts, the Court sentenced the accused to two years’ imprisonment and a fine of 200 francs. In the second criminal case the accused was acquitted.