There and Back Again: Sex Crime Law Reform and Counter-Reform in Spain

• In Event: Understandings of Sexual Assault and Persistent Patriarchy

Abstract

In this article, we demonstrate how changes to Spanish criminal law produced a highly contradictory outcome, which constitutes the most astonishing volte face in the recent history of the Spanish criminal justice system. We explain how a 2023 law reform, which changes the legal regulation of rape, was a counter-reform, a backlash due to the political confluence between a disgruntled part of the feminist movement and the anti-gender conservative agenda. We argue that even a feminism that seeks more lenient penalties is susceptible to strong criticism that undermines its achievements. We offer a critical analysis of how, and under what circumstances, a gender-informed, feminist-inspired legal policy can be successfully challenged, questioning what ‘counts’ as rape and how it should be legally defined.

Authors

• Patricia Faraldo Cabana, Universidade da Coruña

• Eduardo Ramon Ribas, Universidad de las Islas Baleares