The Contrafatto Affair: Law, Judicial Risk, and Consent

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dc.contributor.authorJohnson, Sharon P.en
dc.date.accessioned2024-11-04T13:21:28Zen
dc.date.available2024-11-04T13:21:28Zen
dc.date.issued2024-04-11en
dc.description.abstractIn Paris, France on October 15, 1827, 28-year old Sicilian priest Joseph Contrafatto was sentenced for raping 5-year old Hortense Le Bon. This article frames the rhetorical strategies of the prosecution and defense using Robert Cover’s notion of judicial innovation, developed in his Justice Accused. Both sides based their arguments on articles 331 and 332 of the Criminal code. The Contrafatto Affair was an extraordinary case for rape legislation; it was among the first if not the first trial in France when a perpetrator of attentat à la pudeur avec violence (violent, indecent assault), was sentenced and found guilty when the prosecution used the argument of la violence morale (a type of coercion or abuse of an individual’s trust or naivety) when the victim suffered no physical signs of violence. Later, la violence morale and the requirement of consent became constitutive parts of the rape statutes by 1853 (for children) and 1857 (for adults), which this article develops through contextualizing law, rhetoric, and interpretation. The background of the trial provides an overview of certain procedures and protocols of 19th-century France. An examination of the jurisprudence related to attentat à la pudeur sans violence (non-violent, indecent assault, art. 331), attentat à la pudeur avec violence and la violence morale will highlight how forward-looking and risky the prosecution’s arguments were in his interpretation of article 332.en
dc.description.versionAccepted versionen
dc.format.extent23 page(s)en
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1177/17438721231226435en
dc.identifier.eissn1743-9752en
dc.identifier.issn1743-8721en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10919/121522en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherSageen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectRapeen
dc.subjectAttentat a la pudeur avec violenceen
dc.subjectViolen
dc.subjectla violence moraleen
dc.subjectConsenten
dc.subjectContrafattoen
dc.subjectarticle 331en
dc.subjectarticle 332en
dc.subjectRobert Coveren
dc.subjectJustice Accuseden
dc.subjectnineteenth-century Franceen
dc.titleThe Contrafatto Affair: Law, Judicial Risk, and Consenten
dc.title.serialLaw, Culture and the Humanitiesen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten
dc.type.otherArticleen
dcterms.dateAccepted2023-09-11en
pubs.organisational-groupVirginia Techen
pubs.organisational-groupVirginia Tech/All T&R Facultyen
pubs.organisational-groupVirginia Tech/Liberal Arts and Human Sciencesen
pubs.organisational-groupVirginia Tech/Liberal Arts and Human Sciences/Modern and Classical Languages and Literaturesen
pubs.organisational-groupVirginia Tech/Liberal Arts and Human Sciences/CLAHS T&R Facultyen

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