Legal Definitions in the EU Member States

Rape is committed by a person who forced a woman to engage in sexual intercourse (coitus) by using violence or threat of immediate violence, or who for such an act abuses a woman’s vulnerable situation.

Slovakia uses the term "sexual violence", which is committed by a person who using violence forces another person to oral sex, anal sex or other sexual activities or who in order to commit such crime abuses another person’s vulnerability.

Verbal, non-verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that is aimed at or can cause a violation of the dignity of a person and creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.

In Slovakia, "dangerous pursuit" is committed by a person who continually pursues another person in a way evoking danger to life or health to that person, to life or health to a person’s close persons, or worsens his/her quality of life by threats of harm to health or death to a person or person’s close person, by pursuing a person, by contacting a person by a third person in writing or electronically against this person’s will, by exploiting this person’s personal data in order to personally or otherwise contact a person, or otherwise limits this person’s usual way of life.

In Slovenia, "family violence" denotes any form of physical, sexual, psychological or economic violence exerted by one family member against the other (i.e. including violence against children), or disregard of any family member as found in the Article 2 of this Act regardless of the age, sex or any other personal circumstance of the victim or perpetrator of violence. Physical violence denotes any use of physical force that causes pain, fear or shame to the family member regardless of the fact whether injuries were inflicted. Sexual violence pertains to handling with sexual content that is opposed by one family member, or if he or she is forced into acting them out or because of his or her stage of development they do not understand their meaning. Psychological violence denotes such actions with which the perpetrator of violence exerting it against a family member induces fear, shame, feelings of inferiority, endangerment and other anguish. Economic violence is undue control or setting of restrictions of any family member concerning disposing with one's income or in other words managing the financial assets with which the family member disposes or manages and it can also mean undue restricting of disposing or managing the common financial assets of family members. Disregard falls under those forms of violence in which a person does not provide due care for the family member who is in need of it due to illness, disability, old age, developmental or any other personal circumstances.

The Criminal code, article 191.

(1) Whoever within a family treats badly another person, beats them, or in anyother way treats them painfully or degradingly, threatens with direct attack on their life orlimb to throw them out of the joint residence or in any other way limits their freedom of movement, stalks them, forces them to work or give up their work, or in any other way puts them into a subordinate position by aggressively limiting their equal rights shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than five years.

(2) The same punishment shall be imposed on whoever commits the acts under the preceding paragraph in any other permanent living community.

(3) If the act under paragraph 1 is committed against a person with whom the perpetrator lived in a family or other permanent community, which fell apart, however, this act is connected to the community, the perpetrator shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than three years.

Whoever compels a person of the same or opposite sex to submit to sexual intercourse with him by force or threat of imminent attack on life or limb shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not less than one and not more than ten years.

Any form of undesired verbal, non-verbal or physical action or behaviour of a sexual nature with the effect or intent of adversely affecting the dignity of a person, especially where this involves the creation of an intimidating, hateful, degrading, shaming or insulting environment.

The Criminal code, article 197. (1) Whoever degrades or frightens another person at the workplace or in relation to work with sexual harassment, physical violence, ill-treatment or unequal treatment, shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than two years. (2) If the offence under the preceding paragraph results in psychological, psychosomatic or physical illness or reduction of work productivity of an employee, the perpetrator shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than three years.

See "intimate partner violence," where stalking is criminalised if it occurs in the context of family violence.

Article 1. (Organic Act 1/2004 of28 Decemberon Integrated Protection Measures against Gender Violence)

Purpose of the Act

1. The purpose of this Act is to combat the violence exercised against women by their present or former spouses or by men with whom they maintain or have maintained analogous affective relations, with or without cohabitation, as an expression of discrimination, the situationof inequality and the power relations prevailing between the sexes.

2. The present Act establishes integrated protection measures whose goal is to prevent, punish and eradicate this violence and lend assistance to its victims.

3. The gender violence to which this Act refers encompasses all acts of physical and psychological violence, including offences against sexual liberty, threats, coercion and the arbitrary deprivation of liberty."

When the sexual assault consists of vaginal, anal or oral penetration, or inserting body parts or objects into either of the former two orifices, the offender shall be convicted of rape with a sentence of imprisonment from six to twelve years.

Whoever offends against the sexual freedom of another person, using violence or intimidation, shall be punished for sexual assault with a sentence of imprisonment from one to five years.