Fighting Domestic Violence

Malaysia

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3. Similarities and differences in terminology
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3. Similarities and differences in terminology Start Comparison
3.1 Domestic violence

The commission of one or more of the following acts:

  1. willfully or knowingly placing, or attempting to place, the victim in fear of physical injury
  2. causing physical injury to the victim by an act that the perpetrator knew or ought to have known would result in physical injury
  3. compelling the victim by force or threat to engage in any conduct or act, sexual or otherwise, from which the victim has a right to abstain
  4. confining or detaining the victim against the victim's will
  5. causing mischief or destruction or damage to property with the intent to cause or knowing that it is likely to cause distress or annoyance to the victim

    1.         dishonestly misappropriating the victim's property, which causes the victim to suffer distress due to financial loss

    2.         threatening the victim with the intent to cause the victim to fear for his/her safety or the safety of his/her property, to fear for the safety of a third person, or to suffer distress

    3.         communicating with the victim, or communicating about the victim to a third person, with the intent to insult the modesty of the victim through any means, electronic or otherwise

  6. causing psychological abuse, which includes emotional injury, to the victim
  7. causing the victim to suffer delusions by using any intoxicating substance or any other substance without the victim's consent or if the consent is given, the consent was unlawfully obtained
  8. in the case where the victim is a child, causing the victim to suffer delusions by using any intoxicating substance or any other substance
by a person, whether by himself/herself or through a third party, against (i) his or her spouse; (ii) his or her former spouse; (iii) a child; (iv) an incapacitated adult; or (v) any other member of the family.[7]
3.2 Stalking
No legislative definition.
3.3 Harassment
No legislative definition. Note that the Employment Act 1955 defines "sexual harassment" as any unwanted conduct of a sexual nature, whether verbal, nonverbal, visual, gestural or physical, directed at a person that is offensive or humiliating or is a threat to his/her well-being, arising out of and in the course of his/her employment.[8]
3.4 Victim
A victim of domestic violence.[9]
3.5 Abuser
No legislative definition.
3.6 Civil protection order

No legislative definition (please refer to Section 4.1 below for further information).

3.7 Causes of action
  • Every material fact to be proved to entitle the plaintiff to succeed.[10]
  • A cause of action normally accrues when there is a person who can sue and another who can be sued, and when all the material facts to be proved to entitle the plaintiff to succeed have happened.[11]
3.8 Marital rape

No legislative definition. While marital rape is not expressly criminalized in Malaysia, it is an offense for any man, during the subsistence of a valid marriage, to cause hurt or fear of death or hurt to his wife or any other person in order to have sexual intercourse with his wife.[12]

3.9 Are there any other important domestic violence terms defined in relevant domestic violence statutes and codes?

Child

A person below the age of 18 who is living as a member of the offender's family or of the family of the offender's spouse or former spouse, as the case may be.[12]

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