Responding to the news that the Netherlands’ House of Representatives has voted to amend the Sexual Offences Act by introducing a consent-based definition of rape, Dagmar Oudshoorn, Director of Amnesty International Netherlands, said: “By amending our outdated law and recognizing that sex without consent is rape, the Netherlands has taken an important step towards combatting […]
Unfortunately this wont change much. Rapes usually happen without any witnesses, so the rapist will just say that the victim consented. Thats generally the reason why rapes are hard to prove in court.
Laws typically fail to deal with any kind if grey area. Otherwise, it would be just as easy for someone to falsely claim rape and force punishment on someone who is innocent.
Granted, it is more likely that a claim is legitimate than not, but laws deal in absolute fairness, and absolutes fail when it boils down to two opposing arguments with no other evidence to back things up either way.