Frivillighet och sexualbrott: En systematisk analys

Abstract

<p>The Finnish Ministry of Justice published in July 2020 a draft for a reform of the sexual crimes as regulated in Criminal Code, Chapter 20. The central content of the reform was to introduce lack of voluntary participation as the main element of rape. Here the reform proposal echoes the reform made in Sweden 2018. This article first summarizes the reform process in Finland, in which the MoJ stubbornly defended the element of coercion, still in force, but changed course before the Parliamentary elections in 2019. Then the article examines the proposal and how the element of lack of voluntary participation is implemented, first in relation to parallel elements of force and vulnerability, and then in relation to sexual abuse of minors and dependent persons. The article argues that the shift from force and coercion to lack of voluntariness is a paradigmatic change that needs to inform all aspects of the regulation of sexual crimes. </p>