THE RAPE. CRIME, WOMEN AND SOCIETY IN THE OLD REGIME

This work on rape is an attempt to respond to a very common reality in the society of the Modern Age, although no less complex, that affected marriage, the marriage market, the possibilities of taking status, etc. Rape is a crime defined by two coordinates: deception and honest woman and/or honest maiden. Both parameters were mandatory in its legal conception. From them, in the courts, their treatment branched out to issues that were in principle non-intrinsic, such as violence, breach of the word of marriage, pregnancy and the subsequent obligation to provide maintenance, etc. The procedural sources contribute through the speeches of the justice agents to create an image in which the woman was a victim of deception, who can be compensated. Thus, the imbalance in the relationships between men and women is revealed in the approaches that judges, lawyers, prosecutors and even witnesses present for the resolution of the conflict, and places us in the multiple scenarios of statutory rape, in Castilla, Aragon, Portugal and Italy.