California’s New Law Makes “Stealthing” A Civil, Not Criminal, Offense. That’s A Good Thing - Yahoo Lifestyle
Earlier this month, the California legislature unanimously passed a law that would make it illegal for someone to remove a condom during sex without their partner’s consent, a profound violation commonly known as “stealthing.” Assuming California Governor Gavin Newsom signs the bill, which he has until October 10 to do, it will be the first statute of its kind in the United States.
No one is more surprised than me to see this bill’s success. Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, the bill’s sponsor, said she was inspired in part by an academic article I wrote about non-consensual condom removal when I was in law school in 2016. The article outlined how survivors experienced stealthing, and the limits of American law, as it stands, to address this overlooked form of sexual violence: Existing sexual assault laws might cover non-consensual condom removal, I wrote, but a new law that explicitly forbade the practice would be better.
When I submitted that paper to an academic journal on a whim, it never occurred to me that anyone other than my professor, and maybe my mom, would read the piece. But, when the article was published in 2017, it was widely covered online. (Some publications, much to my dismay, covered the article as a study of a “new sex trend,” as though non-consensual condom removal were a fun sex position.) Eventually, the article caught the attention of some legislators, including Assemblywoman Garcia.
I’m particularly glad to see that the California bill makes non-consensual condom removal a civil, rather than criminal, offense. A brief legal primer: In a criminal prosecution, a government official brings charges against a defendant. If a jury convicts, the defendant generally goes to prison. By contrast, a civil suit is brought directly by the victim, usually through their attorney. If the survivor proves their case, the defendant won’t be incarcerated, but the court might order them to pay the survivor a significant sum. Those differences demonstrate the fundamentally different purposes of these two kinds of court proceedings. A prosecution is brought to vindicate the state’s interest in law and order; a civil suit is brought to provide remedies to the person harmed.
source: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/california-law-makes-stealthing-civil-173016166.html
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