Rape by deception in Polish law and in English and American law

Abstract

The article discusses deception as the modus operandi of the perpetrator of rape. First, the Polish criminal law approach to rape by deception is discussed. The author presents the commonly accepted ways of understanding the term “deception” as it is used in Art. 197 § 1 of the Polish penal code. Then some interpretation discrepancies are discussed, e.g. the problem of contracting a false marriage in order to obtain the victim’s consent to sexual intercourse. Next, British and American criminal law approaches to the problem of rape by deception are presented. The author stresses the most prominent differences in understanding rape by deception in those legal systems, coming to the conclusion that they are partly due to the fact that the victim’s lack of consent (or valid consent) is seen as the main component of the crime of rape, while in the Polish penal code the lack of consent is not directly expressed and is only presumed in the process of interpreting the statutory features of the crime of rape.