Reflections on collective rape cases in Brazil and Spain

Abstract

In this essay, we examine three cases of collective rape that occurred in 2015-2016, two of them in Brazil and the third in Spain. The three cases prompted an intense debate in these countries on victim blaming and the interpretation of women and girls’ consent for sexual acts. The Brazilian cases spurred a change in legislation, leading to the creation in 2018 of the category “collective rape” as an aggrieved form of rape with a more severe penalty. In Spain, the analyzed case led the national Supreme Court to set an important jurisprudential precedent on rape and the government to propose a law change on sexual crimes still under discussion on Parliament in 2022. The analysis of the repercussion of those cases on the press and social media reveals the persistence of rape culture, which reaffirms patriarchy. On the other hand, it also shows the feminist reaction to overcoming this paradigm.