Sextortion: Efforts to Raise Awareness about the Crime Continue

Since 2015, Marval, O'Farrell & Mairal has been working to establish the status of the crime of “sextortion” in a number of legal systems. See Newsletter editions #150 and #163 for more detailed accounts on this work.

“Sextortion” implies corrupt practices by government officials by which sex is requested instead of money as a bribery payment.

Prosecution and conviction is particularly difficult because often the victim accepts to carry out the sexual practices (or appears to accept), in exchange for something that is provided by the perpetrator and is essential to the victim.

Marval, O'Farrell & Mairal (M,O’F&M) was invited by the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) to coordinate the preparation of the report together with leading law firms from nine different jurisdictions with a focus on the legislation (or lack thereof) and its relation to this behavior.

On the basis of this report the IAJW prepared a report published in 2015 by the Thompson Reuters Foundation entitled “Combating Sextortion: A Comparative Study of Laws to Prosecute Corruption Involving Sexual Exploitation.”

The research undertaken in each jurisdiction sought to identify:

• How sextortion manifests itself in: government, educational, and employment settings.
• The existing legal framework for addressing and redressing sextortion, including the relevant statutory provisions and case law that may be used to prosecute sextortion. 
• Resources – tools and organizations that could provide professional expertise, financial assistance, or institutional support for efforts to combat sextortion.

Since the release of that study, the Institute of the Rule of Law (UIA-IROL) of the International Association of Lawyers (UIA after its French acronym) has undertaken a new effort to expand the 2015 research. Patricia López Aufranc of MO’F&M, has led the international team and coordinated the report. This new joint effort constitutes a landscape study of legal and institutional frameworks for combating sextortion, covering ten jurisdictions representative of diverse cultural and legal backgrounds: France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland.

Our comparative analysis shows that sextortion is not considered a specific crime in itself in any of the jurisdictions covered by either this or the previous report.

In some countries the definition of corruption is broad enough to potentially cover sextortion under “benefit.”  Other jurisdictions could only condemn sextortion under sex crimes if all relevant conditions are met.  Very few jurisdictions achieve a reasonable standard of protection for victims that would encourage the prosecution of this kind of crime.

In all cases, existing rules have to be forced in order to include sextortion.

This is why our preliminary conclusion leads us to recommend that sextortion be incorporated in criminal law as a specific crime. Simultaneously, appropriate protection of the victims should be taken into account.

The efforts aimed to raise awareness of this kind of behavior, which affects vulnerable people worldwide, have not ceased.

On June 3, 2017, Patricia López Aufranc, presented the Second Volume of the Report “Naming, shaming and ending Sextortion” to the President’s Council of the International Association of Lawyers (UIA after its French acronym) in Geneva, Switzerland. This Report was also presented at the UIA Colloquium on “Status of Women” at the Cercle Cité, organized by the UIA "When the Bribe Isn't Money: Gender, Sextortion, and How to Fight Back" in the City of Luxembourg on June 8, 2017.

Ms. López Aufranc will also be presenting the conclusion of these reports at a panel on "When the Bribe Isn't Money: Gender, Sextortion, and How to Fight Back"organized by  Anti-Corruption Committee of the international Section of the ABA (American Bar Association), which will take place in Miami and at a conference organized by  the UIA (International Union of Lawyers) that will take place in Toronto, both in October, 2017.

We are confident that this second report “Naming, Shamimg and Ending Sextortion”, jointly with the guide “Combatting Sextortion: A Comparative Study of Laws to Prosecute Corruption Involving Sexual Exploitation,” will be a great contribution to raise awareness about this important issue and help advocate towards the adoption of legal measures to combat sextortion.