2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE EIGHT - Public Welfare and Charitable Institutions (§§ 1 — 1422) › Chapter 29 - Domestic Abuse Prevention and Intervention Act (§§ 601 — 664) › Subchapter I - General Provisions (§§ 601 — 602) › § 602 - Definitions

For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the meaning expressed below:
(a) Law enforcement officer.— Shall mean any member or officer of the Puerto Rico Police Corps or any Municipal Guard duly trained and accredited by the Commonwealth Police Department.
(b) Shelter.— Means any institution whose main function is to provide protection, safety, support services and temporary housing to surviving victims of domestic violence and their daughters and sons. This definition shall not apply to the term “lodged” as used in subsection (a) of § 632 of this title. For the purposes of said subsection the term “sheltered” shall be understood to have its common and ordinary meaning.
(c) Sheltered.— Means that surviving victim of domestic violence who temporarily resides in a shelter as defined in this section.
(d) Cohabitation.— Shall mean maintaining a consensual intimate relationship similarly situated to a spouse regarding cohabitation, regardless of the sex, civil status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or the immigrant status of the persons involved in the relationship.
(e) Employee (male or female).— Means any person who provides a service to any person, partnership or corporation that employs one or more persons under any express or implicit, oral or written service contract, including among these those men or women whose work is of an accidental nature.
(f) Grave emotional harm.— Shall mean and arises when as a result of domestic abuse, there is evidence that a person recurrently shows one or several of the following characteristics: paralyzing fear; feelings of despair or helplessness; feelings of frustration and failure; feelings of insecurity, ineffectiveness, isolation, weakened self-esteem, or other similar conduct, resulting from repeated acts of commission or omission.
(g) Intimidation.— Shall mean any act or expression which, when used recurrently, has the effect of exerting moral pressure on a person’s animus who, in fear of suffering emotional or physical injury of his/herself, his/her property, or another person’s self, is forced to perform an act against his/her will.
(h) Order for protection.— Shall mean every order issued in writing under the seal of the court, which dictates the measures addressed to an abusing party to abstain from committing or performing certain acts or conduct which constitute domestic abuse.
(i) Employer.— Means any natural or juridical person who employs one or several male or female employees, laborers, workers and the male or female chief, officer, manager, official, agent, administrator, superintendent, foreman or forewoman, steward, agent or representative of said natural or juridical person.
(j) Persecution.— Shall mean keeping a person under constant or frequent surveillance by their presence in places that are immediate or relatively near to the home, residence, school, work or vehicle in which the person is, to cause fear or dread in the animus of a prudent and reasonable person.
(k) Respondent.— Shall mean any person against whom an order for protection is filed.
(l) Petitioner.— Shall mean any person who applies to a court for an order for protection.
(m) Intimate relationship.— Shall mean the relationship between spouses, former spouses, persons who are cohabiting or have cohabited, persons who have or have had a consensual relationship, and persons who share a child in common, regardless of the sex, civil status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or the immigrant status of the persons involved in the relationship.
(n) Sexual relations.— Shall mean any sexual penetration, whether vaginal, anal, oral-genital, digital or instrumental.
(o) Court.— Shall mean the trial court of the General Court of Justice, and the offices of the municipal judges.
(p) Domestic abuse.— Shall mean a constant pattern of conduct involving physical force or psychological abuse, intimidation or persecution against a person by his/her spouse, former spouse, a person with whom he/she cohabits or has cohabited, with whom he/she has or has had a consensual relationship, or a person with whom he/she shares a child in common, regardless of the sex, civil status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or the immigrant status of the persons involved in the relationship, to physically harm them, their property, or another person, or to cause him/her serious emotional harm.
(q) Psychological abuse.— Shall mean a constant pattern of conduct performed to the dishonor, discredit or scorn of personal worth, unreasonable limitation to access and handling of common property, blackmail, constant vigilance, isolation, deprivation of access to adequate food or rest, threats of deprivation of custody of sons or daughters, or destruction of objects held in esteem by the person, except those that privately belong to the offender.
History —Aug. 15, 1989, No. 54, p. 199, § 1.3; Jan. 14, 1995, No. 1, § 1; Sept. 23, 2004, No. 480, § 1; Sept. 29, 2004, No. 525, § 1; Sept. 30, 2004, No. 538, § 1; Dec. 28, 2005, No. 165, § 1; May 29, 2013, No. 23, § 2.