Sexual Consent and Epistemic Partiality in Rape Fact-Finding

Autores/as

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22197/rbdpp.v9i3.776

Palabras clave:

rape laws; sexual consent; evidentiary procedures; justification; epistemic partiality.

Resumen

Feminist legal theory has contested rape laws and notions of sexual consent to better reflect the experiences of survivors and address power distortions in legal frameworks that perpetuate women’s subordination. In this paper, I explore an alternative form of criticism to consent-based rape laws and biases within legal systems. I argue that the justifications that are used to select and weigh evidence in rape cases are epistemically suspect because of the unreliability of their epistemic sources. My argument, building on radical realist social analysis in political theory, aims to unveil an epistemic defect in rape evidentiary procedures, which I call epistemic partiality. I suggest that this epistemic defect brings salient reasons to challenge rape laws based on ideals of consent. I hope to show that a radical realist approach may bring reasons to challenge rape laws and flaws in evidentiary systems without the need to centrally agree with or rely on feminist commitments and political goals. This type of criticism may effectively bypass certain limitations of feminist theory and potentially add to discussions focused on power distortions within legal systems.

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Biografía del autor/a

  • Talita Ferrantelli, London School of Economics, London

    Talita is a Ph.D. candidate in the Philosophy Department of the London School of Economics and a Junior Lecturer at the PPLE College at the University of Amsterdam. Previously, she completed a Master of Science in Political Theory and a Master of Arts in Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Law from Escola de Direito da Fundação Getúlio Vargas de São Paulo.   

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Publicado

2023-10-26

Número

Sección

Teoría de la prueba penal

Cómo citar

Ferrantelli, T. (2023). Sexual Consent and Epistemic Partiality in Rape Fact-Finding . Revista Brasileña De Derecho Procesal Penal, 9(3). https://doi.org/10.22197/rbdpp.v9i3.776