The article titled“What We (Don’t) Want When We Amend Criminal Law. A Preliminary Analysis of the Changes to Offenses Against the Person Introduced by the Law on Preventing and Combating Femicide and the Violence Leading Up to It,”written by Associate Professor Andra-Roxana Trandafir, Ph.D.

This article analyzes the changes made to crimes against the person by the Law on Preventing and Combating Femicide and Precursor Acts of Violence, adopted in March 2026 by the Romanian Parliament.

The new aggravating circumstances in the context of aggravated murder—which do not distinguish between whether the victim is a woman or a man—are presented in detail, along with guidance on interpreting the new concepts used by the legislature, such as “control” and “domination,” as well as guidelines on interpreting the gender-based aggravating circumstance and the new form of murder committed in the context of a relationship breakup. Similar aggravating circumstances regarding offenses of inciting or aiding suicide and those against bodily integrity or health are also analyzed.

The article also identifies legislative errors, inconsistencies, or problems in the application of certain legal provisions, as well as difficulties in the legal classification and application of penalties through the system of successive aggravations, which result in increases in sentence length by fractions of a unit.

Without disputing the usefulness of the other provisions of the new law, the article emphasizes that the preventive effect of the amendments to the Criminal Code is debatable, given that studies show no real progress in hyper-repressive systems, and calls for caution when amending criminal law.

The article also outlines the new rules regarding the initiation of ex officio criminal proceedings for domestic violence offenses involving physical assault, rape, sexual assault, and aggravated home invasion, as well as some of the issues raised by these regulations. 

Keywords: femicide; gender-based violence; aggravated homicide; control; domination; causing or facilitating suicide; battery or other acts of violence; domestic violence; rape; sexual assault; home invasion.