Evidence in Marital Sexual Violence: Challenges and Solutions

One of the most prevalent forms of sexual violence against women is that perpetrated by husbands. While some of the victims decide to divorce, others make an attempt to prevent their husbands from violence by filing a criminal case. However, in order to achieve their desired outcome, both groups are required to prove the violence, which is not straightforward given the private nature of sex. Therefore, the questions addressed in the present work are: what are the challenges faced by victims trying to prove their being subjected to sexual violence, and what are the solutions for facilitating the proof of such violence? To address these questions, a qualitative approach and the case-study method are used in in-depth semi-structured interviews with 18 judges, 10 lawyers and 35 victims. Also, non-participant observation technique is used by attending 16 hearings. The findings show that the proof of sexual violence is complicated by disappearance of physical evidence over time, the lack of eyewitness, courts’ evasion of acceptance of scientific evidence, and the fact that sexual violence is not always accompanied by physical injuries. However, it appears that until the laws are amended and supplemented, the difficulty of proving marital sexual violence can be alleviated under the [existing] legal capacity of knowledge of the judge by using other countries’ experiences on evidence in domestic violence, such as calling the victim as a witness, acceptance of expert testimony and child testimony, and considering the history of charged and uncharged crimes, and bad acts of perpetrator.