Shifting the Spotlight in the Law of Rape

The Responsibilities of Penetration

Jonathan Herring, Sorcha McCormack

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English

Anthem Press
07 October 2025

Gender studies, gender groups; Jurisprudence & general issues; Gender & the law; Criminal justice law; Offences against the person

Series: Anthem Studies in Law Reform

All is not well with the law on rape.

It is rarely reported and even when it is, it is rarely prosecuted. Victims are deterred for a range of reasons, but these include a fear that it will never be possible to prove the rape has occurred and that the trial will be traumatic. Even when the case proceeds to trial, victims perceive that it is they, rather than the perpetrator, who is the one on trial. The past sexual behaviour of the victim; the clothes she was wearing; the people she socialised with and the places she visited are all used as tools to claim that in fact the victim consented to the rape. Reforms are needed.

In this book, we explore how changing the definition of rape will help tackle some of these problems. We argue there needs to be a shift in the focus of the rape trial: away from asking whether the victim consented, to focus on whether the defendant. Rather than focusing on the way the victim dresses, behaviour in response to the rape, the focus will be on what the defendant believed justified him engaging in a sexual behaviour.

At the heart of our proposal is the claim that having sex comes with responsibilities. In particular, a responsibility to ensure you have reasonable grounds to believe the other consents. Without that consent, a very serious wrong is being done. The central legal focus should therefore be on whether the defendant had sufficiently good reasons to proceed with having sex.

By: Jonathan Herring, Sorcha McCormack
Imprint: Anthem Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 153mm, Spine: 6mm
Weight: 139g
ISBN: 9781839995293
ISBN 10: 1839995297
Series: Anthem Studies in Law Reform
Pages: 94
Publication Date: 07 October 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Jonathan Herring, is a professor of law, at the University of Oxford, and DW Wolf-Clarendon Ffellow, at Exeter College, Oxford. Sorcha McCormack, is a Senior senior Lecturer, in law at Leeds Beckett University.

Reviews for Shifting the Spotlight in the Law of Rape: The Responsibilities of Penetration

This book tackles head-on some of the key challenges in rape law, in a succinct and convincing way. It will challenge your assumptions, starting a debate on what we really can and must do to improve justice for victim-survivors. — Clare McGlynn, Professor, Durham University, UK. Herring and McCormack offer an important and timely contribution to debates on rape law reform. By shifting the focus from the victim’s consent to the defendant’s responsibility, the book offers a compelling reorientation of sexual offences law. It lays the groundwork for taking rape law beyond the move from force to consent, towards responsibility as its core conceptual and normative foundation. — Dr Marthe Goudsmit Samaritter, Postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law. An interesting examination of the law of rape, and why it is failing victims. This work explores the interventions and changes necessary to achieve justice, with a focus on the definition of rape itself and a novel approach to the obligations and beliefs of those involved in sexual activity. — Dr Amanda Clough-Ricci, Northumbria University.