In Switzerland, the law provides for a maximum sentence of ten years in prison for sex offenders. But even in cases of extreme violence, this sanction is not applied, notes the “SonntagsZeitung”. “In the majority of cases, the sentences are between two and four years,” confirms Patrizia Krug, public prosecutor of the canton of Basel-Landschaft.
The statistics prove him right. In 2023, 75 men were convicted of rape in Switzerland. Among them, 41 received a prison sentence, the others received suspended or partial suspended sentences, with an average duration of four and a half years. These sentences will probably not be served in full, because under Swiss criminal law, an offender can be released on parole after serving two thirds of his sentence, if he demonstrates good behavior.
According to Daniel Jositsch, professor of criminal law at the University of Zurich and state advisor (PS/ZH), this rule is applied as standard by the authorities. This means that most rapists convicted in 2023 will be released after three years. For comparison, being arrested with 3 kilograms of cocaine is equivalent to a five-year prison sentence, and with 11 kilograms, to eight years in prison. In other words, cocaine traffickers are punished more heavily than rapists.
For feminists, this injustice has until now been due to the fact that the courts were run by men, who considered the female victim of rape to be partly responsible. Comments such as “she shouldn’t have come home alone at 3 a.m. or worn a miniskirt” are not uncommon.
If justice was indeed for a long time an essentially male bastion, this is no longer the case today. The criminal prosecution authorities have become very feminine, as an investigation by Tamedia newspapers revealed. There are even so many women that some public ministries struggle to fill positions with men.
However, this has not significantly changed the treatment of female victims of sexual crimes. The reason? For Daniel Jositsch, “women are generally more understanding towards offenders”. Many experts in criminal law would indeed doubt the effectiveness of prison sentences and would prefer to focus on prevention.
