The Review of Sex Offences and Rape Law Reform: Another False Dawn?
The Review of Sex Offences and Rape Law Reform: Another False Dawn?
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性犯罪和强奸法改革的审查：另一个错误的黎明？
DOI：
10.1111/1468-2230.00358
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发表时间：
2001
影响因子：
0.9
通讯作者：
P. Rumney
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
P. Rumney
几十年来，强奸罪的定义和执行一直是许多司法管辖区不断进行评估和改革的主题。对这一进程的最新贡献是出版了内政部咨询文件《确定界限-改革性犯罪法》1第1卷和第2卷。这份报告是性犯罪审查会议审议的结果，审查会议的目的是就“明确和一致的犯罪行为提出建议，以保护个人，特别是儿童和最脆弱者，使其免受虐待和剥削，2然而，审查关于强奸法的建议是否能有效地实现这些目标，这一点值得严重怀疑。事实上，由于只注重修订强奸的法律的定义，《审查报告》无法审查强奸法目前面临的最重要问题，即刑事司法系统如何解释和执行强奸的法律的定义。正如以往的法律改革工作侧重于“黑字法”问题一样，3这次审查的狭隘重点只会掩盖刑事司法机构阻碍在这一领域有效执法的做法。因此，审查的职权范围和建议给人的印象是，这些问题可以通过对实体法进行有限的修订来解决。4本条的目的是审查性犯罪审查关于强奸雷乌斯行为的建议，特别是关于性交和同意的定义的建议。此外，本文将考虑审查的建议是否可能导致强奸法的实际执行方面的任何重大改进。它还将解释为什么强奸法改革只有在改革进程
The offence of rape, as it is defined and enforced has been the subject of an ongoing process of evaluation and reform for several decades and across numerous jurisdictions. The latest contribution to this process has been the publication of volumes 1 and 2 of the Home Office consultation document Setting the Boundaries-Reforming the Law on Sex Offences.1 This report results from the deliberations of the Review of Sex Offences which was established to provide recommendations 'for clear and coherent offences that protect individuals, especially children and the most vulnerable, from abuse and exploitation, and enable abusers to be appropriately punished'.2 Yet it has to be seriously doubted whether the Review's recommendations on the law of rape will significantly address any of these objectives. Indeed, by focusing exclusively upon the revision of the legal definition of rape, the Review was unable to examine what is arguably the most important issue facing rape law today, that is, how that legal definition of rape is interpreted and enforced by the criminal justice system. As with previous law reform efforts that have focused upon issues of 'black-letter' law,3 the Review's narrow focus only serves to obscure the practices of criminal justice agencies that hinder the effective enforcement of the law in this area. As such, the implicit impression given by the Review's remit and recommendations is that such problems can be resolved by limited revision of the substantive law.4 The purpose of this article is to examine the Review of Sex Offence's recommendations regarding the actus reus of rape, in particular, its proposals concerning the definition of sexual intercourse and consent. In addition, this article will consider whether the Review's recommendations are likely to lead to any significant improvement in the actual enforcement of rape law. It will also explain why successful rape law reform will only come about when the reform process