Crime of passion

[1] A high level of social and legal acceptance of crimes of passion has been historically associated with France from the 19th century to the 1970s,[2] and until recently with Latin America.

After the Napoleonic code was updated in the 1970s, paternal authority over the members of the family was ended, thus reducing the occasions for which crime passionnel could be claimed.

[10] Crimes of passion and honor killings often have similar triggers, particularly related to the sexual behavior (real or imaginary) of the victim, such as extramarital sex, premarital sex or homosexuality; and there have been accusations that the Western media creates artificial differentiation between the 'foreign' forms of domestic violence, such as the honor killings that are most prevalent in the Middle East and South Asia, and the crimes of passion that are relatively common in North America, Europe and Latin America.

In recent years, advocacy and legal reform has focused on several areas of laws: Crimes of passion are often committed against women due to beliefs about female sexuality and are often present in societies dominated by strong double standards related to male and female sexual behaviors, particularly related to premarital sex and adultery.

In traditional societies, women could not complain about mistresses, concubines, and in many cultures even other wives (such as polygyny); whereas male sexual jealousy was recognized as the highest emotion that could justify even murder.

[22] In the Roman Empire the Roman law Lex Julia de adulteriis coercendis implemented by Augustus Caesar in 18 BC permitted the killing of daughters and their lovers who committed adultery at the hands of their fathers and also permitted the killing of the adulterous wife's lover at the hand of her husband.

Men have been acquitted for killing wives due to a variety of reasons, including infidelity, attempting to leave the relationship, and refusing to have sex.

[25] Nevertheless, the legitimate defense of honor has continued to be used, including in a 2017 case of attempted murder where a man was acquitted for stabbing his ex-wife.

[28] The Supreme Court unanimously considered that the legitimate defense of honor is contrary to the principles of gender equality, human dignity and protection of life provided for in the Constitution of Brazil, for which reason it prohibited its direct or indirect use during trials.

[30] In Australia, as in other common law jurisdictions, crimes of passion have traditionally been subjected to the partial defense of provocation, which converts what would have been murder into manslaughter.

[31] In Queensland the partial defense of provocation in section 304(1) of the Criminal Code was amended in 2011, in order to "reduce the scope of the defence being available to those who kill out of sexual possessiveness or jealousy".

Although this defense was not explicitly stipulated in the 20th-century Criminal Code, it has been successfully pleaded by lawyers throughout the 20th century, in particular in the countryside, though less so in the coastal big cities.

[42] In practice, however, many domestic violence crimes resulted in acquittal by the juries, which alarmed jurists and led them to question whether the citizen jurors of the Third Republic were competent to render justice.

Prior to 1997, Belgian law provided for mitigating circumstances in the case of a killing or assault against a spouse caught in the act of adultery.

[43][44][need quotation to verify] In Luxembourg, Article 413 (repealed in 2003) provided mitigating circumstances for murder, assault and injury of an adulterous spouse.

According to the Honour Based Violence Awareness Network, the penal codes that were enacted under the Napoleonic Empire influenced the development of laws in North Africa and the Middle East.

In Corsica, a place influenced throughout the centuries both by Italian and French culture, there was a strong custom of vendetta, which required Corsicans to kill anyone who wronged their family honor.

The same sentence shall apply to whom, in the above circumstances, causes the death of the person involved in illegitimate carnal relations with his spouse, daughter, or sister.

"[64][65] Portugal has a long tradition of tolerating, and even encouraging, crimes of passion, under the "legitimate defense of honor", which was also brought to Brazil.

Although improvements in tackling domestic violence have been achieved, particularly with legal reforms in 1982, lenient punishments continue to be given by judges, partly due to the strongly patriarchal ideology that still persists in the judicial system.

This article is very broad in scope, is subject to interpretation, and has a very low punishment of only 1 to 5 years, which due to the regulations of the Portuguese Penal Code, usually results in suspended sentences.

[68] Furthermore, the Criminal Code under Articles 71 and 72, provides guidelines to sentencing for crimes, making reference to honorabale motives and provocation by the victim.

[68] The international GREVIO expert body which is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Istanbul Convention by the State Parties (which include Portugal) has called on the Portuguese authorities to reform the Criminal Code, to ensure that it is compatible with article 42 of the convention,[69] which states that "Parties shall take the necessary legislative or other measures to ensure that, in criminal proceedings initiated following the commission of any of the acts of violence covered by the scope of this Convention, culture, custom, religion, tradition or so‐called “honour” shall not be regarded as justification for such acts.

[74] In 2009 a man was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter by reason of provocation for stabbing his partner and his best friend to death when he found them having sex.

[80] There has been considerable controversy regarding the application by the courts of the new law; although section 55[81] states "(6) In determining whether a loss of self-control had a qualifying trigger (...) (c) the fact that a thing done or said constituted sexual infidelity is to be disregarded", in a controversial decision by Lord Judge in R v Clinton in the Court of Appeal, Lord Judge interpreted the new offence as allowing for sexual infidelity to count under the third prong of the new defence (see Baker and Zhao 2012).

The French dueling culture,[93] meant to uphold honor, was also exported to Latin America, and was extremely strong in Uruguay.