Rape: a limitation period “adapted to the trauma”

It is a law that could have a major impact on rape victims. The centrist senators Chantal Jouanno and Muguette Dini tabled, Thursday, February 20, a bill modifying the start of the prescription for rape and sexual assault. The text suggests that this starting point should no longer be the moment when the rape or sexual assault was committed, but the day when the victim becomes aware of it. Indeed, “sexual violence, because of its nature, the trauma it causes, can be the subject of awareness or a late revelation”, explain the senators.

10 years for rape and 3 years for sexual assault

“It is not enough to free the voice of the victims. It must be given to them when they become aware of the sexual violence they have suffered, when they are ready to denounce them to the administrative and judicial authorities”, underline the two senators in a communicated. The current statute of limitations for public action for rape and sexual assault – which is 10 years for rape and 3 years for sexual assault – “is totally unsuited to the trauma of the victims,” ​​they add.

Thus, the French gynecologist André Hazout was sentenced this Thursday to 8 years in prison for rape and sexual assault on six of his patients. Thirty others claiming to be also victims had not been able to lodge a complaint because of the limitation period. Recently, an international study revealed that 1 in 14 women in the world have been sexually assaulted by someone other than their partner.