The Riddle of Rape-By-Deception and the Myth of Sexual Autonomy Abstract
RUBENFELD.DOCX4/16/2013 6:48:00 PM Jed rubenfeld The Riddle of Rape-by-Deception and the Myth of Sexual Autonomy abstract. “Rape-by-deception” is almost universally rejected in American criminal law. But if rape is sex without the victim’s consent—as many courts, state statutes, and scholars say it is—then sex-by-deception ought to be rape, because as courts have held for a hundred years in virtually every area of the law outside of rape, a consent procured through deception is no consent at all. Moreover, rejecting rape-by-deception fails to vindicate sexual autonomy, which is widely viewed today as rape law’s central principle and, indeed, as a constitutional right. This Article argues against the idea of sexual autonomy and against the understanding of rape as unconsented-to sex. A better understanding, it is argued, can be arrived at by comparing rape to slavery and torture, which are violations of a person’s fundamental right to self-possession. This view of rape can explain the rejection of rape-by-deception, which current thinking cannot, but it will also suggest that rape law’s much-maligned force requirement may not be so malign after all. author. Robert R. Slaughter Professor of Law, Yale Law School. This Article benefited immeasurably from reactions and assistance given to me by a great many people, including Nomi Stolzenberg, Anne Dailey, Sandra Macpherson, Gideon Yaffe, Tracy Meares, Dan Kahan, Scott Shapiro, Daniel Markovits, Bruce Ackerman, Paul Gewirtz, Richard Brooks, Elizabeth Emens, Charles Fried, Katherine Franke, Adam Cohen, Suzanne Goldberg, Leah Bellshaw, Caroline Harkins, Elizabeth Hanft, Julia Malkina, Danielle Sassoon, Josh Meltzer, Sophie Brill, Lina Tetelbaum, Josh Geltzer, Marisa West, Noam Finger, and Amy Chua.
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