scholarly journals The Wolf-Pack Case and the Reform of Sex Crimes in Spain

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 847-859
Author(s):  
Patricia Faraldo-Cabana

AbstractThe controversial trial of five men accused of gang-raping a young woman during the 2016 San Fermín festival and their conviction not for rape, but for a lesser crime of sexual abuse in 2018, known as La Manada (the Wolf-Pack) case, brought the Spanish law under intense public scrutiny. The case led to an outpouring of protests across the country and called for the urgent reform of rape laws, which then led to the drafting of new provisions to address the outcry. To set the analysis in the context of feminist activism, this Article is organized around the hashtags used during the protests. Accordingly, this Article examines three aspects of considerable debate: Namely the distinction between sexual abuse and rape (“it’s not abuse, it’s rape!”), the murky legal understanding of consent (“only yes is yes”), and the introduction of the gender perspective in the legal system (“sister, I believe you”). By addressing these issues, this Article demonstrates the pervasive influence of feminism over recent Spanish law-making, and the continued resistance which such efforts meet. This Article concludes by scrutinizing this effect and examining the conditions under which a civil society network may succeed in challenging socially outdated legal provisions.

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-216
Author(s):  
Marlina Marlina ◽  
Mahmud Mulyadi

Children as the next generation of national and state struggles will determine the success and progress of the nation in the future. The rise of internet development and promiscuity through face books, wa, instructors raises the concern that children will be involved in the crime of sexual abuse. Protection and attention of parents, family and government for the development and future of children. Protection and legal policies as well as supervision and the social system of the community are very helpful in efforts to prevent the crime of sexual abuse and the effects of molestation on children. In partner villages, there are many parents, community leaders, traditional leaders and village officials who do not know the limits of criminal acts of sexual abuse and the effects of molestation on children's development in the future. In addition, the natural conditions of the partner villages are abundant with forests and hamlets as well as residents' houses within distance and level low education and income of citizens causes a lack of attention to the growth and development of children. The team considers it important to do legal education in partner villages. The method is with lectures, tutorials and distributing guidebooks to the community related to the theme of devotion. The results of the dedication show that there are 148 community cadres in partner villages who already have legal understanding and legal awareness about the factors that cause the crime of sexual abuse, the legal provisions for criminal acts of crime, criminological theories that cause delinquency and the impact on children and the collaboration of all components of society, parents, government villages and sub-districts in prevention efforts.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-35
Author(s):  
V. V. Ershov ◽  

Introduction. As a result of the application in scientific research of descriptive and objectiveteleological methods of studying legal phenomena, a number of foreign and Russian scientists often describe only truly objectively existing legal phenomena, including “judicial law-making”. Theoretical Basis. Methods. From the position of scientifically grounded concept of integrative legal understanding, according to which the system of law first of all synthesizes only the principles and norms of law contained in a single, multi-level and developing system of forms of national and international law, implemented in the state, the article concludes that it is possible to highlight two types of “judicial law-making” in the special literature: “moderate” and “radical” types of “judicial law-making”. Results. “Moderate judicial law-making” is allowed only outside the law, its results are not binding on other courts, as the “norm” created by the court is only applicable ex post, only to a particular dispute and is not binding on other courts. In the opinion of the author of the article, this result of “moderate judicial law-making” is theoretically more reasonable to be considered as a kind of wrong – as “court positions” obligatory only for participants of individual judicial process, developed in the process of consideration and resolution of individual dispute as a result of interpretation of principles and norms of law. Discussion and Conclusion. Researchers – supporters of the “radical” type of “judicial lawmaking” allow the development of “judicial precedents of law” “through the law, beyond and against the law” (contra legem).It seems to the author that this type of “judicial lawmaking” is based on the scientific discussion concept of integrative legal understanding, according to which the heterogeneous social phenomena – right and wrong – are synthesized in the unified system of law (for example, law and individual judicial acts, including those containing specific positions of the court).New concepts and their definitions have been introduced into scientific circulation. The author concludes that the “radical” kind of “judicial law-making” is theoretically debatable, and practically counterproductive.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (2021) ◽  
pp. 55-74
Author(s):  
Serghei BRÎNZA ◽  
◽  
Vitalie STATI ◽  

To ensure a proper prevention and combating of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse against children the provisions of the special parts of Moldovan and Romanian Criminal Codes should be in line with art. 18-23 of Lanzarote Convention. However, Moldovan and Romanian Criminal Codes do not reflect entirely these provisions. Unjustified deflections from the provisions of art. 18-23 of Lanzarote Convention have a negative impact on unifying the international provisions on preventing and combating sexual exploitation and sexual abuse against children. To facilitate the compatibility of the special parts of Moldovan and Romanian Criminal Codes with Lanzarote Convention, the authors of this article highlight solutions to improve legal provisions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 67-73
Author(s):  
Ekaterina A. Petrova

The article gives the authors interpretation of legal intellection as a special kind of professional thinking. It is underlined that legal intellection is directly connected with lawmaking, since the law is a result of both of these processes. The main directions of its influence on the elements of the lawmaking mechanism are considered. The author interprets lawmaking mechanism as a set of interrelated and interdependent technical and legal elements that support law creation. These elements include the law-makers; law-making methods and techniques; the rules of claw; forms (sources) of law. It is noted that the lawyers belonging to a particular type of legal understanding determines the understanding of lawmaking process. The author analyzes the influence of legal thinking style, determined by legal traditions of various legal families, on application of various forms of law as a result of lawmaking. The examples from Russian and American legal reality are given. The problem of legal intellection level of lawmakers is discussed, because of its influence on the quality of sources of law. It is concluded that legal intellection as a special kind of professional thinking permeates all types of legal activities and, first of all, directly affects the specifics of the lawmaking mechanism, determining the content of its main elements: the law-makers are the holders of legal intellection; methods, techniques of law-making are determined by the stylistic features of legal thinking; the quality of the forms of law created in the lawmaking process directly depends on the legal thinking level of their creators.


Author(s):  
Nataliia Onishchenko

The article is devoted to the value-communicative potential of modern legal science in building a mature, active civil society. In particular, the role of legal science in establishing the general discussion between man, civil society and the state is emphasized. A separate vector of consideration is the coverage of the role of legal science in modern law-making processes: increasing the role of legal culture, legal consciousness, overcoming the phenomena of legal nihilism and legal pessimism, as well as the importance of civic education in modern democratic processes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-204
Author(s):  
Richard W. Garnett

A crucial, but often overlooked, dimension of the human and constitutional right to religious freedom is the autonomy of religious institutions, associations and societies with respect to matters of governance, doctrine, formation and membership. Although the Supreme Court of the United States has affirmed this autonomy in the context of American constitutional law, it is vulnerable, and even under threat, for a variety of reasons, including a general decline in the health of civil society and mediating associations and a crisis of confidence and authority caused by clerical sexual abuse and churches’ failure to respond to it.


Author(s):  
Charles O. Jones

The creative work involved in writing the Constitution of the United States in Philadelphia in 1787 has been interpreted and analysed in political and policy debate ever since. ‘Inventing the Presidency’ considers how the Founders of the United States tried to create unity in a separated system. Why was the title of president selected? What was the role of president going to look like? How long should the single executive serve? Should the person be term-limited? Providing a legislative or law-making role for the president was the subject of considerable debate at the beginning. Inventors solve problems: they tinker until they have a workable device. The creation of the presidency was a process of trial and error.


Author(s):  
Mark C. Stafford ◽  
Donna M. Vandiver

Sex crimes and sex offenders generate considerable public fear and worry, yet many public perceptions about sex offenders are inaccurate. Links between fear of sex crimes, especially rape, and fear of other types of crime are considered. The essay reviews research on public perceptions of sex offender laws and policies, including registration laws, notification laws, residence restrictions, punishment and treatment of sex offenders, and civil commitment. Discussion focuses on the perceptions of criminal justice officials, lawmakers, sexual abuse professionals, and survivors of sexual assaults. Inaccuracies in public perceptions of sex crimes and sex offenders are explored, with a special focus on rape myths. Despite the inaccuracy of many public perceptions of sex crimes and sex offenders, what cannot be overlooked is the harm that sex offenders actually cause.


Author(s):  
Anne Marie McAlinden

This essay examines the use of restorative justice in sexual offending. Restorative forms of intervention have been used in cases of violent or sexual offending, from first-time and ‘acquaintance’ rape as well as young sexual abusers to high-risk sexual offenders in the form of circles of support and accountability. Such schemes are often presented as a counter to the failings of retributive forms of justice and are premised on Braithwaite’s notion of ‘reintegrative shaming’ that seeks to reintegrate offenders into the community. The essay sets out and seeks to counter arguments against using restorative justice for sex crimes. For the most part, restorative justice has not reached its potential as a full-fledged sentencing rationale and has not been used in more serious cases. The essay examines barriers to restorative justice in contemporary penal policy and highlights some of its controversial applications, including those related to clergy sexual abuse.


Sexual Abuse ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 706-726 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julien Chopin ◽  
Eric Beauregard

The current study investigates the modus operandi specificities for the sexual abuse against the elderly. A comparison between sex crimes against adult and elderly victims is conducted following the criminal event approach. The comparison is based on the precrime, crime, and postcrime phases of the modus operandi, operationalized through 53 variables. The sample comes from a French national police database including a total of 1,829 cases—including 130 cases of elderly sexual abuse and 1,699 cases of sexual abuse against victims aged between 18 and 45 years. Bivariate and multivariate analyses are performed to examine the differences in the two groups. Several differences are observed between the two modus operandi. Findings indicate that the precrime phase is the most important to explain these differences, and this phase of the criminal event affects the rest of the decisions taken during the crime and postcrime phases. Specifically, we have highlighted that sexual crimes against the elderly are more violent and occur more often in the victim’s residence. This study suggests that offenders targeting the elderly use specific crime characteristics, and this allows to highlight practical implications in terms of investigation and offender management.


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