Swedish Rape Inquiry Wants Consent Clause

The head researcher on a Swedish government inquiry into the country's high rape caseload has told Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet that she and her team want to make consent central to the way cases are considered. The inquiry followed a 2014 Amnesty International report that found the rape conviction rate to be the worst in Europe,

In comments translated by The Local, head researcher Mari Heidenborg said: "Today the perpetrator has to have used threats, violence or taken advantage of a person who for example was drunk. Now, it would be sufficient to say no, that a person believes they did not participate voluntarily."

Under Swedish law, for an act to be considered rape, the perpetrator must have used force or the threat of an unlawful act, or the victim must have been incapacitated, for example through being asleep or seriously intoxicated.

In some cases, consent to sex between two conscious partners may not have been given, but if it cannot be shown that force or threats were used to coerce the alleged victim into having sex, the act may not be considered rape in law.

Heidenborg said she will advocate moving from this model to one based on consent, rather than on force. "The inquiry is not totally finished yet, but what we can say for now is that we will put forward a proposal that is based on consent, or rather a regulation based on voluntary participation," she said.

A consent-based model is the standard in the English-speaking world. Laws in England and Wales, for example, require verbal or non-verbal consent for sex to be legal.

Given that it is now widely acknowledged that the majority of rape victims know their attacker, and that rape often takes place within what were previously considered to be loving or consensual relationships, relying on evidence of obvious force can make convictions tricky.

The inquiry into Sweden's rape laws will report in late 2016.