The myth that rapes are committed by foreigners in remote places at night still persists. “Everything that comes out of this robot portrait can be difficult to recognize, whether it’s the rape of a man, an elderly woman, or the couple’s domain,” says Josep María Tamarit Sumalla, professor of Criminal Law. Open University of Catalonia (UOC) and lead author of a pioneering study that concluded Spanish courts punish less sexual assaults committed by partners or former partners.
The investigation, published in the European Journal of Crime Policy and Research, examined nearly a thousand sentences handed down by state courts between 2015 and 2022, and the conclusion is clear: when the violation was committed by the partner or a member of the partner. ex-wife (usually a man)”less punished, less punished and less compensation granted“, as summarized by the expert, a professor in the empirical and applied victimology group at the UOC.
Of the 964 rapes examined, 37% were committed by a partner or former partner; 17.6% by someone they know; 22.7% by unknown persons, 20.9% by other relatives of the victim. These rates are already Eliminate the stereotype that sexual assaults are often committed by strangers. The 2019 macro survey on violence against women also revealed that 7.5% of Hispanic women had been raped by their husbands or ex-partners.
Results
However, analysis of penalties reveals that Spanish courts penalized couples almost 17 points less (63% of cases) than other offenders (79% on average). A “statistically significant” differenceAccording to Tamarit.
The average prison sentence was 83.4 months in close relationships and 95.1 months in other cases. Well one year less for couples or ex-spouses. And they paid an average of 12,600 Euros as compensation. The rest is about 17,800 euros.
reasons
The reasons for lighter sentences are varied, but according to the professor, violations in couple relationships are often lack of evidence and also “the law allows the victim to be exempted from the duty of declaration.” Likewise, prison sentences and monetary compensation are greater when rape has a serious psychological impact on victims.
“It was not recorded because it was not obvious in many sentences. The court cannot always evaluate, because expert evaluation is not always made on this issue. There is still a long way to go to warrant a psychological assessment. of all victims”, Tamarit underlines.
To remedy this situation, the so-called ‘just yes is yes’ law places sexual assaults between couples as an aggravating circumstance, which, according to the researcher, will “probably create a change” in sentences, according to the researcher.