Accountability for sexual assault lies at the complex intersection of human behavior, interpersonal relations, societal biases, and criminal law and process. Today, many nations are struggling to refine law to achieves an optimum balance between efficacy of criminal accountability and fundamental fairness. This highly valuable and instructive comparative treatment of sexual assault reform efforts throughout Europe highlights these efforts; a resource of significant value for lawmakers, judges, and members of civil society engaged in this process. Indeed, this is the true value of comparative law writ large: affording those responsible for making and implementing law the opportunity to learn from the methods and processes of other legal systems. To that end, this work provides what I believe will be an especially valuable contribution, as it captures the initiatives triggered by the recognition that the existing systems of criminal law and process are failing too many victims of these despicable crimes.

Geoffrey S. Corn, Texas Tech University

...this book offers perspective on a unifying objective that will ideally inform lawmakers in any nation who are willing to acknowledge the flaws in their own existing systems. Ultimately, that is the great value of this comparative analysis of sexual assault legal reform, and the reason I find it such an important contribution to the field.

Geoffrey S. Corn, Texas Tech University

Attrition phenomenon in sexual offences, mostly known as a criminological phenomenon, is a subject of great interest in all the European countries. Indeed, statistical data reveals the small number of sexual offenses that manage to enter the judicial system and lead to a criminal conviction. The book, written by scholars with experience in different area of law – criminal law as well as criminal procedural law – examines, with a critical approach, the causes of this phenomenon in sexual offenses in different jurisdictions, such as: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the UK and Türkiye. The work is aimed at completing the previous book, Global Problems in Sexual Offenses (Lexington, 2022) which called for a holistic approach and comprehensive protection for victims of sexual offenses in criminal procedure law. Unlike the previous, this new book, from the perspective of criminal justice system, recognises that the causes of high attrition in sexual offenses have to be found in the different legal definitions of sexual offenses provided for by criminal codes provisions of each legal system. Another cause can be found in the procedure of investigating and prosecuting within the different criminal procedure systems analysed. In the latter regard, it appears that legal procedural models – accusatorial rather than inquisitorial – may influence attrition. Also difficulties in proving sexual offenses are deemed among the main causes of attrition. This book, written with a concrete and dynamic approach, offer possible and comprehensive solutions, not only of a legal nature, to reduce attrition. It is of interest to scholars studying criminal law, criminal procedure law, philosophy of law and social sciences.

Annalisa Mangiaracina, Palermo University

This book, written with a concrete and dynamic approach, offers possible and comprehensive solutions, not only of a legal nature, to reduce attrition. It is of interest to scholars studying criminal law, criminal procedure law, philosophy of law and social sciences.

Annalisa Mangiaracina, Palermo University

Based on an international approach, the book offers a thorough analysis of the main factors contributing to the attrition phenomenon in sexual offences. In order to highlight the causes that undermine the prosecution of sexual offences, both criminal law and criminal procedure perspectives are followed. Thanks to this methodology, a comprehensive examination of the problems that the topic of the victim’s consent implies is carried out with regard to different national systems (Germany, Spain, Sweden and Turkey). In this field, the research gives valuable insights for the identification of the consensus model that is more suitable, on the one hand, to ensure the victim’s self-determination and, on the other, to solve the difficulties of proving sexual offences. As illustrated in the book, further issues arise when the attention is focused on some critical aspects of the decision making process: the lack of uniformity in regulating sexual offences within the same jurisdiction (Bosnia and Herzegovina); the influence of prejudices and stereotypes on the jury (UK); the impact of the adversarial system model (Italy). Moreover, as the Italian jurisdiction shows, among the factors of attrition the so-called “secondary victimization” plays a significant role: appropriate measures are needed to counteract it. Supported by statistical data and aimed at developing proposals of reform the book represents a fundamental study in order to shape a legal framework that makes the protection of the victim and, as a consequence, the contrast to sexual offences more effective.

Daniele Vicoli, University of Bologna

European Perspectives on Attrition in Sexual Offenses offers a thorough analysis of the main factors contributing directly or indirectly to explain the attrition phenomenon in sexual offences, based on a transnational and comparative approach. Attention is paid in particular to: the victim’s consent model (Germany, Spain, Sweden and Turkey); the quality, in terms of uniformity and coherence, of sexual offences regulation (Bosnia and Herzegovina); the influence of prejudices and stereotypes affecting the jury (UK); the impact of the procedural model (Italy). By contributing to highlight the aspects impairing the ascertainment of sexual offences, this book represents a fundamental step in the path to shaping a legal framework more effective in protecting victims and, in turn, in tackling sexual crimes.

Daniele Vicoli, University of Bologna