lThe so-called “Mazan rape” trial put the issue of sexual violence on the front page of the newspapers. The adjournment of the session behind closed doors, at the request of the victim, Gisèle Pelicot, made it possible to publicize the content of debates until now practically unknown and the type of questions and suspicions to which victims of sexual violence are exposed. . during police and judicial proceedings. The question of the victim’s consent thus occupied hours of hearing, considered as a determining element of the accused’s guilt: could they ignore that the victim did not give her consent?
Although it does not appear in the criminal code, the notion of consent is implicitly at the center of judicial and police qualifications of rape. The investigation, which follows the filing of the complaint and feeds the possibility of a judicial process, depends closely on the way in which investigators receive the complaint and evaluate the reported assault. Océane Perona studied for several months, within an investigation department of a police station in a large French city, the way in which complaints of rape were investigated.
In an article published in 2022 in Contemporary societiesanalyzes police perceptions of sexual consent. The sociologist shows that researchers interpret complainants’ stories to determine whether they really did not give consent based on three logics: situational, relational, and social properties.
For police officers, situational logic means examining the situation in light of the social norms that govern female sexual behavior. For most police officers, these are rules of caution and restraint. A complainant who has contributed, through her attitude and speech, to the defendant thinking that she was giving consent, will have a more difficult time convincing people of her lack of consent.
Doubts about the sincerity of the complaints
The relational logic also brings into play the proximity between the accused and the complainant. The representation of rape as an act committed by a stranger, in a public space, which exerts strong physical coercion and provokes resistance from the victim, is widely shared.
The fact that the accused is a close relative raises the suspicion of a necessarily consensual relationship and distances the reported attack from a matter of public order, which mainly mobilizes investigators. In cases of marital or domestic rape, the police may perceive the report as an attempt to seek revenge or gain advantage in private disputes, such as divorces or custody proceedings.
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