Marital Rape: Why Was It So Difficult For The UK To Criminal is a Sexual Assault Within A Marriage?

Despite the rise of the #MeToo movement around the world, law enforcement agencies in the UK remain confused about various concepts like consent, sexual assault, harassment, marital rape and violence against women. It’s important for people in power to understand the power dynamics surrounding harassment, sexual assault and rape.

Understanding Consent In Marriage In The UK

Marital rape is a difficult concept to grasp for policymakers in the UK. It’s a slippery slope to define consent between people who are presumably in a consensual sexual relationship. The following are some alarming statistics surrounding Attitudes to Sexual Consent, according to a survey by YouGov:

  • 33% of the respondents think that it’s not rape if a woman is forced into having sexual intercourse without any physical violence.
  • Almost a third of men think consent is present if a woman was flirting on a date. The sex ensuing wouldn’t count as rape even if there was no explicit consent given.
  • A third of men think that consent can’t be retracted during sex.
  • 24% of the respondents think that long-term relationships don’t require consent for sex.

These statistics are alarming because they depict the mindset of a huge population of adults in the UK—who are part of the jury for rape cases—are unclear about what constitutes rape. These statistics show that the conceptual understanding of rape is flawed, which proves to be the biggest hurdle in the prosecution of rapists.

Criminalisation Of Marital Rape In The UK

The earliest criminalization of marital rape in the UK dates back to 1736 in a treatise by the former Chief Justice of the Court. However, the treatise contested that the husband has a lifetime of consent from his wife that was given at the time of their marriage in the form of matrimonial consent. The latest judgment ruling against marital rape came in 1991, which said that the wife can’t retract consent at any point in their marriage. The following treatise for rape that came after this also argued that the husband couldn’t be found guilty of rape in marriage.

Finally, there were several pleas against the judgment ruled in 1991. The case reached the House of Lords in 2003 that revoked the previous judgment. They said that the law enforcement agencies can’t possibly maintain that a wife submits herself to her husband for the entirety of their marriage for sexual intercourse. Consent needs to be taken and can be withdrawn as per the wife’s will. Rape in marriage was made a criminal offence under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

Despite the criminalization, people need to understand the gravity of the impact of marital rape and the possibility of rape in a supposedly consensual environment.

Help For Marital Rape Victims And Survivors In The UK

You can find help here at Wembley Solicitors. We are a law firm that offers legal support for rape and sexual abuse survivors fighting for justice. We are criminal law solicitors and lawyers helping the victims to feel as safe as possible, offering them a variety of services and legal advice that’s intended to help them attain the necessary outcome. Get in touch with us to learn more!

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