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- They never talk about a victim's feelings: according to criminal law, feelings are not facts: Portuguese judicial narratives about sex crimesPublication . Ventura, IsabelSexual violence is a central dimension of what is generally called violence against women. Historically, the law has been one of the structures that has reinforced gender inequality and legitimized male seizure of women’s sexuality within and outside marriage: legally, married women had no right to sexual freedom regarding their husbands and, at the same time, non-wed women who pressed charges against white men were accused of lying and faced victim-blaming judicial practices. Since the beginning of the 1990s, Portuguese rape legislation has changed in order to recognize that sex crimes offend someone’s right to sexual self-determination. The Criminal Code has abandoned expressions like modesty and decency when referring to sex crimes, and a controversial mitigating penalty norm based on a victim’s provocative behaviour or on the relation between the accused and the plaintiff was repealed in 1995. In addition, criminal law has evolved to a gender-neutral formulation and expanded the definition of rape adopting the “all penetration” formula. Nevertheless, the discourses of Portuguese jurisprudence and doctrine reveal stereotyped images about rape victims’ behaviour and biased evaluations against women. Therefore, the ‘law in books’ must be analysed in its relation with ‘law in action’, which is unescapably influenced by doctrine and by magistrates’ individual beliefs. This paper aims to capture judicial representations of rape, rape victims and offenders. Qualitative data are used based on 20 semi-structured interviews with 18 judges and prosecutors and two attorneys. The interviews were analysed through critical discourse analysis using a feminist approach. This article is published as part of a collection on gender studies.
- Um corpo que seja seu: podem as mulheres [não] consentir?Publication . Ventura, IsabelEste artigo pretende contribuir para a discussão acerca da pertinência da centralidade do consentimento nos crimes sexuais. Para tal recorre-se à análise do crime de violação a partir da leitura de diversos códigos anotados (1852, 1886, 1982, 1995, 1998, 2007) e da jurisprudência dos tribunais superiores portugueses do mesmo período. Desta forma, procura-se sintetizar o percurso da gestão do consentimento nos preceitos legais que regulam os crimes sexuais no ordenamento jurídico português.