Swedish Law Now Recognizes Sex Without Consent as Rape

A demonstration against rape in Malmo, Sweden, last year.CreditJohan Nilsson/EPA, via Shutterstock

“Sex must be voluntary — if it is not, then it is illegal.”

This is the straightforward language of a new Swedish law set to change the way rape and other sexual crimes are prosecuted in the country.

It is the first law in the country that acknowledges sex without explicit consent as rape, a move lawmakers say is “based on the obvious.” With the passage of the law, Sweden became the 10th country in Western Europe to recognize nonconsensual sex as rape.

On Wednesday, the Swedish Parliament passed the law requiring explicit consent — verbal or physical — from participants before they engage in a sexual act. Under previous laws, prosecutors had to show that there had been violence, a threat of violence or the exploitation of a victim in a vulnerable state to establish rape.

Beginning on July 1, when the new law comes into effect, a prosecutor will need simply show that explicit consent was never given.

New York Times