Italian MPs voted on Wednesday to broaden the definition of sexual violence to include non-consensual acts, in a rare collaboration between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and opposition leader Elly Schlein.
Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party voted together with Schlein’s left-wing Democratic Party (PD) in the lower house of parliament to update the penal code to make it easier to prosecute rape.
Rape is currently defined as being committed with physical coercion, threats, or abuse of authority. Advocates say the updated law would make it easier to report and prosecute sexual assault, removing the onus for victims to show physical signs of abuse.
The law does not change the penalty, which remains a prison sentence of between 6 and 12 years. However, it would also shift the focus of the trial to the perpetrator’s conduct, rather than determining whether the victim did enough to defend herself.
Democratic Party MP Laura Boldrini, who put forward the proposal, said it was needed because in Italy “the prejudice persists that holds women responsible for sexual violence against women”. Broadening the definition of rape would give “centrality to women’s will in the sexual sphere, to this day still culturally considered subordinate” to what men want, she said.
It follows several controversial rulings in rape cases in recent years, which have sparked national outrage. In one of the most recent, an Ancona appeals court overturned the acquittal of a 25-year-old man accused of raping a 17-year-old in a car.
He was initially found not guilty on the grounds that the victim, who stayed in the car with the man after another couple got out, should have anticipated she might be assaulted, because she was not a virgin.
