ABSTRACT
This chapter focusses on two legislative processes that aimed to criminalise marital rape in Finland. While the first process, which took place between 1965 and 1970, was unsuccessful, the second, between 1991 and 1994, led to criminalisation. Although in the Nordic countries gender equality was legally recognised significantly earlier than elsewhere in Europe, legal recognition of wives’ physical and sexual autonomy took a surprisingly long time in Finland, particularly in comparison to the other Nordic countries. Sweden and Denmark, for example, removed a marital exemption from their respective legislations in the early 1960s. Using this inconsistency as a starting point, this chapter explores this particular delay in Finnish legislation by analysing (1) how and why wives’ sexual autonomy was rejected in the early 1970s, (2) what motivated the later criminalisation of marital rape in 1994, and (3) what kind of role the interaction between law and wider societal values played during the legal processes analysed within this chapter. The qualitative analysis is based on data drawn from legal documents and news articles as well as written materials related to campaigns and initiatives against violence in intimate relationships.
