The crime of rape and its perpetrators in the Second Republic of Poland. An attempt at preliminary characteristic Cover Image

Przestępstwo zgwałcenia i jego sprawcy w II Rzeczypospolitej. Próba wstępnej charakterystyki
The crime of rape and its perpetrators in the Second Republic of Poland. An attempt at preliminary characteristic

Author(s): Mateusz Rodak
Subject(s): History of Law
Published by: Oficyna Wydawnicza KA AFM
Keywords: rape in the Second Republic of Poland; rape terminology; indecent sexual act; the attitude of the raped; rape perpetrator; Criminal Code 1932; criminal law before unification

Summary/Abstract: The crime of rape, and especially its reasons and results, was among the numerous social issues that remained covered with a particular taboo in the Second Republic of Poland. At the time, there was no environment that would undertake to initiate a discussion whose subjects would include among others the exceedingly unclear legal situation of victims of rape. Even with the fairly harsh penal sanctions that the perpetrators of the crime were threatened with, the raped women had to prove before the court that they did not provoke the man with their behaviour, and that while being raped they resisted physically. It was so as lack of resistance was considered a particular concession for a sexual intercourse.

  • Issue Year: XVIII/2015
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 131-148
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Polish