In law, this is called a reversal. While for several weeks the government suggested that there would be no change to the law defining rape, the debate is clearly accelerating. Friday March 8, on the sidelines of the sealing ceremony of the law constitutionalizing the voluntary termination of pregnancy, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, declared that he would “register in French law” the notion of consent.
A few days earlier, in Le Figaro MadameEric Dupond-Moretti, Minister of Justice, argued the same thing, however less affirmatively. “On the issue of rape, my objective is to constantly improve our tools, including legal ones. Also, if I call for caution when it comes to criminal law, this is normal in my role as Keeper of the Seals, I do not refrain from thinking about the question of the definition of rape.he asserted.
Rape is a massive crime, little or poorly prosecuted. According to statistics from the Ministry of Justice, the number of convictions for rape has, however, been increasing since 2017. Seven years ago, there were 960 convictions for rape, compared to 1,260 in 2022. An increase of 30%.
Is the low judicialization of rape a legislative problem, linked to an article of law – whose genesis dates back a little over forty years – which deserves to be strengthened, or a more operational issue, which could be improved by allocating more resources and better training for investigators and magistrates? At the European level, the legislative approach was encouraged.
In its initial project, presented on March 8, 2022, the Commission proposed a “crime of rape” either “characterized” since the victim has not “not consented to the sexual act ». Surprisingly, France was nevertheless one of the member states (like Germany, the Netherlands and Hungary) which opposed a community definition of rape on a European scale, based on the notion of consent. Result: the European Union (EU) finally gave up.
A subject as difficult as it is flammable
The chancellery defends itself against any change of mind: “They are two different subjects. Concerning the debate at European level, it is a subject which has been exploited by some within the framework of the European campaign [porté notamment par la tête de liste du Parti socialiste, Raphaël Glucksmann], we didn’t want to get into that, especially since the EU is not competent to define the crime of rape. The seriousness of the subject requires us to be serious and we are always in the same position. On the definition of rape, the minister has always said that he was willing to improve all tools, including legal ones. This is also what he did in 2021 with the “Billon” law, which allowed a major breakthrough with the principle that a minor under 15 cannot consent to a sexual act with an adult. . And also with the sliding statute of limitations, which made it possible to judge certain prescribed rapes when they were committed in series and one of them was not prescribed. »
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