The rape trial in Mazán revives the debate about the convenience of modifying the classification of the crime of rape in the Penal Code to introduce the notion of consent. On Thursday, November 28, a bill proposed by Parisian deputy Sarah Legrain (La France insoumise) is included in the agenda for debate in the National Assembly, within the framework of her group’s parliamentary initiative day.
The text, which could not be debated due to the long-planned examination of the LFI project to repeal the pension reform, impacts the work of the parliamentary information mission on the criminalization of rape, underway for a year , and that he must submit his report. final conclusions on the subject in mid-December. Its co-sponsors, Haute-Savoie MP Véronique Riotton (Renaissance) and Rhône Marie-Charlotte Garin (Les Ecologistes), advocate the introduction of consent into the law through a transpartisan text. At the end of September, the Minister of Justice, Didier Migaud, had already declared himself in favor. On March 8, on the occasion of International Women’s Rights Day, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, also stated that he wanted to enshrine consent in French law.
The project responds to a common observation: the insufficiency of the criminal response to sexual and gender violence. According to the latest victimization survey carried out by the Ministry of the Interior, nearly 250,000 adults, including 88% women, suffered at least one form of physical sexual violence during the year 2022 (rape, attempted rape or sexual assault). Among them, 95% did not file a complaint: 24% think that it would have been of no use and 16% that their testimony would not have been taken seriously by the police or gendarmerie. In 2022, according to figures from the Ministry of Justice, only 6,500 sentences were handed down for physical sexual violence, of which 1,200 for rape.
Should we introduce the notion of consent into the law to improve this criminal response? The initiative divides feminist associations, legal professionals and political leaders.
What does the law say about rape?
The penal code establishes that “Rape is any act of sexual penetration, of any nature, or any oral-genital act committed on the person of another or on the person of the perpetrator through violence, coercion, threat or surprise.”. In France, the lack of consent of a complainant to a sexual act is evaluated in light of the behavior of the accused: rape is characterized if it is proven that the latter resorted to forms of violence, coercion, threat or surprise, notions defined by jurisprudence. The intention of the accused to have acted against the will of the complainant must also be demonstrated. “The sole evidence of refusal or lack of consent is not sufficient to characterize the crime”explained lawyer and researcher Catherine Le Magueresse during her hearing before the parliamentary information mission, in December 2023.
You have 70.91% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
