Coercion by Violence and its Changing Meaning. The Experience of Italy

For a long time, the regulation of rape has been based on the concept of coercion, and specifically on coercion by force. Italy is no exception and is, moreover, one of the few Western jurisdictions where the definition of rape still requires the use of violence. This chapter thus will explore how the concept of coercion has been transformed over the years in Italian case law to the point of being identi fied with the absence of consent. This process has been influenced not on ly by compelling changes in social attitudes but also by external inputs from comparative analysis of other legal systems and from supranational jurisprudence. The chapter will try to demonstrate these connections, but also setbacks that occurred along the way, such as when in 1999 an Italian judge made international headlines by announcing a rule that a man could not possibly rape a woman wearing tight blue jeans. This case of showing a revival of the concept of coercion by force will also demonstrate that a paradigm based on violence is no longer acceptable. That model, indeed, is closely linked to false myths and stereotypes of the past and is based on a concept of sexuality rooted in bygone myths.