Consent on Trial: Young Complainants and Defendants in Rape Cases

PhD defence by Louise Høyer Bom

Assessment Committee

Associate professor Lasse Suonperä Liebst, Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen (Chairperson)
Professor May-Len Skilbrei, Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, University of Oslo
Professor Michele Burman, School of Social and Political Sciences

Supervisor

Professor Margaretha Maria Jarvinen

Department

Department of Sociology

Place

Building: 35, Room: 35-01-06, Gammeltoftsgade 15, 1353 København K

Email address to gain access to the thesis: lb@soc.ku.dk.
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Short description of the thesis

In 2021, Denmark replaced its coercion-based rape law with a consent-based definition. What happens when such a law meets the courtroom? This dissertation follows the reform from the inside, drawing on interviews with 40 legal professionals and 17 young complainants and defendants, as well as observations of 10 rape trials. It shows how legal professionals navigate new emotional demands and an uneven distribution of sympathy, and how young people negotiate their sense of self and their understanding of consent – during the trial and after the verdict. Together, these perspectives offer one of the first empirical accounts of how a consent-based rape law works in everyday courtroom practice in a civil law country.