Murder or assassination cannot establish guilt. Certainly, in the case of spouse suicide, physical or psychological violence has led to death, but :

• – It is the person themselves who, through their act of suicide, is the cause of death;
• – Most of the time he will lack the intention to kill. By definition, the perverted spouse uses his victim, needs them. His disappearance, in principle, does not help “his affairs”.

“Provoking another to commit suicide is punishable by three years of imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros when the provocation was followed by suicide or a suicide attempt.”

Although it can indeed be considered in some cases, this offense is too restrictive :

• – It is necessary to demonstrate provocations to suicide, real incitements to suicide pronounced by the accused, directly to the spouse;
• – There must be a consummate act (a suicide or an attempt);
• – There must be an intention on the part of the provocateur to cause the spouse to commit suicide Effectively ;
•  

However, as we have already mentioned previously, it will be difficult to find such intentions in someone who needs the object of their perversion.

Reading the incrimination text immediately excludes any application to spousal suicide. Indeed, article 223‐1 only criminalizes exposure to an immediate risk of death “through the manifestly deliberate violation of a particular obligation of prudence or safety imposed by law or regulation”. Only technical safety and caution obligations are considered here.

Article 221‐6 refers, for the definition of recklessness, to article 121‐3 of the Penal Code, which is one of the most complex texts there is.

The application of this text to the suicide of a spouse presupposes that this suicide is qualified as homicide, that is to say the death of another, which implies demonstrating a causal link between “imprudence” and this death. , which others have inflicted on themselves. The reasoning imposed by article 121-3 defining imprudence is full of traps, the first difficulty to resolve being that of the certainty of causality.

It is first necessary to demonstrate that death is caused by recklessness, even partially; the causal link must exist, in a certain way. Applied to our hypothesis, it is necessary to demonstrate that the violence and degrading remarks observed caused or at least contributed to the suicide.

If the causal link exists, a distinction must then be made between two types of causal link.

Article 121‐3 distinguishes between direct causality, between recklessness and death, and indirect causality.

• – The causality is direct if the imprudence was decisive in the production of the
  damage (art. 121-3 paragraph 3).
• – Causation is indirect if recklessness created the situation which allowed the realization of the
  damage, or if the respondent has not planned measures to avoid it (art. 121-3 paragraph 4).
•  

Applied to our situation : 

• – Psychological or physical violence is a direct causality if this violence is a determining factor in the suicide of the spouse;
• – Psychological or physical violence is indirect causation if this violence allowed the suicide to occur, or if the accused did not plan measures to prevent it.
•  

These complex texts were developed for situations of material accident type, and in no case for cases of psychological violence. Using them for spousal suicides adds, to the subtlety of the situation of intra‐family violence, legal subtleties that are unsuitable for the situation. Furthermore, qualifying induced suicide as involuntary homicide would imply being able to qualify psychological, or even physical, violence as “recklessness”, State of play on the notion of forced suicide in Europe p 8 notwithstanding their irreducible voluntary nature. This qualification must therefore be rejected.

The offense of intentional violence leading to death without intention of causing it, often called “fatal blows”, is criminalized in article 222-7 of the Penal Code; the penalties are aggravated by article 222-8 when they were committed by the spouse, common-law partner or PACS partner. To criminalize the suicide of a spouse, it is therefore preferable to start from the existing situation by amending it in the simplest way possible.

The reflection was based on positive law which included a text criminalizing the harassment of a spouse which could serve as a basis for criminalizing suicide caused by a spouse: « the act of harassing one’s spouse, one’s partner bound by a civil solidarity pact or his partner by repeated comments or behavior having the object or effect of a deterioration of his living conditions resulting in an alteration of his physical or mental health. Article 222‐33‐2‐1 of the penal code.

And a giant step has been taken, 10 years after the recognition of psychological violence in the couple: forced suicide has entered the Penal Code (article 222‐33‐2 1) in the same way as control. Parliament definitively adopted (law no. 2020‐936 of July 30, 2020) the law aimed at “protecting victims of domestic violence”. When the harassment led the victim to commit suicide or attempt suicide, the perpetrator’s sentence will be increased by 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 euros.

Article 222‐33‐2‐1 of the Penal Code:
Harassing one’s spouse, partner bound by a civil solidarity pact or partner through repeated comments or behavior having the purpose or effect of deteriorating their living conditions resulting in an alteration of their physical or mental health is punishable by three years’ imprisonment and a fine of €45,000 when these acts caused total incapacity for work of less than or equal to eight days or did not result in any incapacity for work and five years’ imprisonment and 75 000 € fine when they caused total incapacity for work for more than eight days or were committed while a minor was present and witnessed.

The same penalties are incurred when this offense is committed by a former spouse or a former partner of the victim, or a former partner linked to the latter by a civil solidarity pact. The penalties are increased to ten years of imprisonment and a fine of €150,000 when the harassment has led the victim to commit suicide or attempt suicide.