Women as Victims of Reproductive Coercion Committed by Male Partners and Possibilities for Their Criminal Protection in the Republic of Serbia

Abstract

Reproductive coercion on women by male partners implies a range of behaviors by which male partners influence the reproductive autonomy of women, ie the onset of pregnancy or the continuation of a pregnancy that has occurred or its termination. The variety of undesirable behaviors of male partners excludes the possibility that reproductive coercion will remain completely outside the reach of criminal law norms in the Republic of Serbia. If we take into account that reproductive coercion is realized through psychological, physical, sexual and material violence that a male partner exhibits towards his female partner, then reproductive coercion can be linked to criminal acts such as domestic violence, rape, as well as light or serious bodily injuries. Nevertheless, the sophistication of certain methods by which men derogate women's reproductive autonomy affects the fact that they cannot be identified as relevant from a criminal law point of view, which gives this negative phenomenon the possibility to exist in the context of social conformity. We see the solution to this problem in the redefinition of the criminal offense of rape, that is, in the criminalization of rape without consent, since the aforementioned criminalization would remove the key shortcomings that we observed during the analysis of the criminal offenses in question.