Judging Consent: A Content Analysis of Rape Judgments in China

• In Event: International Perspectives on Sexual Violence

Abstract

In criminal law, the social context of rape is often deemed irrelevant. However, numerous studies in the Western context suggest that judgments of rape are influenced by the victim’s relationship to the rapist and the victim’s personal characteristics. This indicates that gender stereotypes and rape myths persistently infiltrate the convicting and sentencing stages of a rape trial. This article aims to investigate Chinese judges’ comprehension of consent and their preconceived notions of gender stereotypes and rape myths. It does so through a content analysis of 7,000 rape judgments collected from China Judgments Online, a database maintained by the Supreme People’s Court. The findings of the article underscore the inefficacy of the present legal framework in eliminating preconceived sexist biases when addressing crimes against women. Notably, rape within either a dating or an intimate context was often judged to be less serious than rape by a stranger, as judges commonly presume that consent had been given by the acquaintance rape victims. Factors such as the victim’s age, sexual history, and marital status contribute significantly to judges’ understanding of consent and subsequently impact the outcome of the case and the tone of the judgment.

Author

• Shuai Wei, University of Liverpool