The dominance of men in the creation and application of law is a fact that feminist writers have rightly drawn attention to. Although criminal law, that is based on the principle of legality and lex certa as its segment, should be gender neutral, its norms still leave room for different interpretation. This is a consequence of vague definitions of criminal offenses and the discretionary power that the court must have in determining the type and amount of the criminal sanction. This paper consists of three parts. The first part focuses on the analysis of gender competent legal knowledge of public prosecutors and judges who deal with domestic violence in practice and importance of specialized domestic violence courts. The second part of the paper is devoted to analysis of domestic violence legislation in Serbia and the empirical analysis of 81 judicial verdicts of seven basic courts in Serbia. The aim of the qualitative analysis is to determine how judges apply criminal law in relation to intimate partner violence, whether dominant prejudices regarding partner violence are present and whether crucial etiological factors that lead to violence are recognized. In the third part, author points to the importance of gender competent legal knowledge in international legal documents.