Table of Contents
Once upon a time, not so long ago, crime and violence moves against women who went unpunished, considered simple acts ready to harm public morality and good costumis. These were rape and sexual violence which, however, were outrageously justified because of the consideration, implicit or not of the woman, as property of man.
Because yes, in a patriarchal, macho and stereotypical society, there were only two sex genders: the former, those who act and behave actively and the latter, the passive ones, those who can only suffer. The latter are us.
Then why woo a woman when you can have her even by force? And with the tacit consent of the rest of the company? Why be so indignant when we can minimize violence or normalize it as if it were something inexorable? Something that inevitably arises when men meet women, when they want them, even if they don’t want them. Because theirs is almost a right, or worse, a physical need to be met in order not to risk undermining personal well-being.
Surreal, right? Yet this absurd belief dominated throughout the long and shameful stages in the history of rape, up to February 15, 1996 when, finally, sexual violence has become a crime against the person.
The culture of rape
Rape is a culture, to all intents and purposes. It is to the extent that the sexual violence is justified or minimized, when the act itself is even understood, when the woman is accused of being provocative and provocative, of wearing skimpy clothes or worse, of looking for it. Do all these statements remind you of anything? Probably yes, because they are the same even today we hear and read in the headlines, the same ones that cautiously specify that a woman was raped, and not that a man raped.
Yet the violence is many, too many. An Istat survey in 2014 brought to light a truly frightening number on the Italian situation: the Italian women victims of attempted rape are 746 thousand, those who have suffered a form of physical or sexual violence are 6 million and 788 thousand. And almost all of them have been raped by a man they know.
What is a rape?
But what exactly is rape? According to the art. 609-bis of the Criminal Code, whoever commits rape by violence or threats or by abuse of authority, forces someone to perform or suffer sexual acts. The penalty is that of imprisonment, from 6 to 12 years.
But if today it seems obvious to us that this crime is committed to us, it must be prosecuted by the law, not too long ago it was not at all. Beyond the proposals that have followed one another to legally punish this crime, it is also necessary to remember the story of Franca Viola, the young woman kidnapped and raped in December 1965 by one of her suitor and forced into the shotgun wedding.
Because this was also foreseen, “thanks” to article 544 of the penal code, which acquitted any crime if the executioner agreed to marry the victim. But in that case it was Franca Viola who refused. His courage went down in history and changed it. The shotgun marriage was abrogated, then, in 1981. But in some countries, such as Haiti, it is still in force.
Before February 15, 1996
Before the law of February 15, 1996, rapes were considered simply as gods crimes against morality public and morality. Because the problem was only of a moralistic nature. Of course, no one could worry about the physical and psychological consequences of a woman.
Because if that had been the case, even the honor killing could not have existed, the one that provided the mitigation to the murder of a code that suspected or perceived a any damage to its reputation. And be careful because we are not referring to a medieval law: the honor killing was abolished only in 1981.
Why women have always been guilty, one way or another. Think that in 1928, there were great prejudices for all those who dared to report a rape. Yes, society considers them degenerate. Two centuries ago, for example, scientific theories held a single man incapable of committing sexual violence against more robust-looking women. The sentence, therefore, was only one: the women are lying. Why? According to the experts of the time, they did it only to put themselves in the center of attention. It is not clear to us by whom, obviously.
In 1947, psychiatrist Philip Piker answered all the questions of the time: women are prone to lies! And of judgments and judgments like these we could list them indefinitely and all would lead there, to Code Rocco. The law of the fascist period that defined rape as a simple crime against public morality and morality and which fits perfectly into the culture of rape.
From the Rocco Code to the law on sexual violence
The Rocco Code provided for a minimum sentence of three years which in any case allowed plea bargaining, probation and rehabilitation after 5 years. In a few years the crime was annulled, because basically the woman was the property of the man, it was meant for him.
It was not easy to arrive at the law on sexual violence despite proposals, over time, have been made. The first dates back to 1977, the second to 1980, when several feminist associations presented themselves with a popular proposal signed by 300,000 women.
And again in 1987, and then in 1995: the proposals followed the same criterion, that of considering sexual violence as a crime against the person. But to accept it, it was necessary to admit that sexuality is an essential right of a person, in this case of a woman, who owns it. And how to do it in one company monopolized by the patriarchal family?
Reform of the rules against sexual violence
The air of change was in the air as early as 1986, but it took another ten years for the law against sexual violence to be passed. The male conception, in fact, continued to win, supported by the perverse and wrong morality of the society of the time. But in the end we did it, arriving at the fateful February 15, 1996.
With the law n. 66 of February 15, 1996, called “Norms against sexual violence”, the principle is affirmed for which rape is a crime against the person, which is forced into her sexual freedom, and not against public morality.
But the story doesn’t end there. Getting out of the cultural heritage, in the following years and still today, was very difficult. Just take a look at some sentences of the Supreme Court, which intervened where the penal code was not clear and needed an interpretation at the discretion of the judge.
April 1994: It is “difficult to hypothesize” sexual violence between spouses in the event of oral coitus as the woman “could have easily reacted and escaped the fulfillment of the act she did not want”.
August 1997: If the office manager demonstrates a “deep and sincere feeling” towards the secretary, he cannot be accused of sexual harassment at work, even if he invites her to dinner and attempts to kiss her.
February 1999: Impossible to commit rape on a girl wearing jeans. Thus the Supreme Court acquitted a driving school instructor convicted of rape in the first and second degree
February 2006: The damage is milder if the girl has already had sexual intercourse
April 2006: The crime of sexual violence can be punished less severely if it is committed in a degraded environmental context. The extremely degraded living conditions in which the facts occur do not only involve the victims but also the defendants themselves.
Fortunately, things have now changed, perhaps.
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