In the wake of the brutal rape and murder of a Belarusian woman in Warsaw and the subsequent protests, a group of MPs has proposed amendments to the Polish Criminal Code concerning rape. The bill is a private members' bill authored by a group of MPs represented by Anita Kucharska-Dziedzic from The Left, but has already won the support of Speaker Szymon Hołownia, also one of the leaders of the centre-right Third Way.
Raising the sentences for rape
Changing the category of rape from a summary offence ("występek") to an indictable offence ("zbrodnia") means that a conviction will carry a minimum sentence of 3 years and not 2 years as at present. This part of the proposed change does not appear to be causing controversy.
Difficulties defining rape
However, the bill also seeks to change the definition of rape and this has prompted discussion among experts. As other countries have found, it is not easy to define rape so as to properly respect all victims without wrongly criminalising what would be widely deemed non-criminal behaviour.
The Polish Press Agency (PAP) spoke this week to Dr Witold Zontek from Kraków's Criminal Law institute about the difficulties involved. The new bill changes the definition of rape to "leading to sexual intercourse without prior consent, consciously and freely given". This change removes the onus from the victim to demonstrate resistance.
Zontek expresses concern that the new definition does not distinguish situations of strangers or relative strangers from couples in the "conscious and free expression of consent". He suggests that sexual relations are characterised by non-verbal as well as verbal communication and non-verbal communication may indicate the presence or absence of force. He asks, "Should a couple agree that "our relationship assumes sexual relations and we do not need to provide mutual consent on each individual occasion"?"
Other situations, characteristic for modern social life, involve alcohol and drugs. The new definition would criminalise sex with an intoxicated woman who is unable to give "conscious and free consent."
Dr Zontek, however, asks what about the case where two intoxicated people meet and have sex without force of any other kind or resistance. "Did they rape each other?" he asks.
Reporting rate of rape in Poland
According to available international data, such as that gathered by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Poland has a low level of rape, below 10 per 100 000 per year. However, sex crime statistics are notoriously difficult to compile and compare. Countries define rape very differently and reporting rates are extremely varied due to social stigma or the degree of professionalism exhibited by local police forces.
The authors of the new Polish bill estimate that only one in five rapes in Poland are actually reported.
Sources: PAP, unodc.org, gazetaprawna.pl, Radio Poland
pt