A Comparative Study of Legislative and Judicial Criminal Policy in Iran and the Netherlands in Criminal Protection of Women Against Domestic Violence: From Criminalization to Victim Support and Offender Rehabilitation

Domestic violence against women remains one of the most persistent challenges for contemporary criminal justice systems, particularly where legal responses must balance punishment, victim protection, family relations, and offender accountability. This article examines the legislative and judicial criminal policies of Iran and the Netherlands in order to evaluate how each system protects women against domestic violence and how far criminal law can move beyond formal criminalization toward effective prevention and safety. The main objective of the study is to compare the normative foundations, protective mechanisms, judicial practices, and rehabilitative strategies of the two jurisdictions and to identify the principal strengths, weaknesses, and implementation gaps within each framework. The study adopts a comparative doctrinal and analytical method based on legal texts, policy documents, and academic literature relating to domestic violence, victim protection, restorative justice, judicial discretion, and offender rehabilitation. Through a structured comparison of legislative criminal policy, judicial criminal policy, victim protection mechanisms, and rehabilitative responses, the article analyzes both the formal legal design and the practical challenges of implementation in the two systems. The findings show that Iran’s criminal policy is still largely based on general criminal provisions, conventional sanctions, and a family-preservation approach, which may weaken immediate victim protection where violence is repetitive, psychological, or coercive rather than visibly physical. By contrast, the Dutch model provides a more integrated framework through temporary exclusion orders, coordinated institutional responses, and risk-based intervention, although its gender-neutral approach and fragmented implementation may reduce the practical effectiveness of these mechanisms. The comparison further demonstrates that neither punitive nor restorative approaches are sufficient in isolation. Victim safety depends on the interaction between criminalization, emergency protection, judicial sensitivity, institutional coordination, and offender monitoring. The article concludes that effective criminal protection of women requires an integrated victim-centered model in which prosecution, protective orders, psychosocial support, and offender rehabilitation are legally and operationally connected. Future reforms in both Iran and the Netherlands should focus on closing the gap between legislation and practice, strengthening enforceable protection measures, and ensuring that the ultimate purpose of criminal policy is the durable cessation of violence and the preservation of women’s dignity, autonomy, and security.

کلیدواژه ها:

Domestic Violence ، Criminal Policy ، Victim Protection ، Iran ، The Netherlands