A colisão entre a palavra da vítima e a presunção de inocência nos crimes sexuais

Abstract

Sexual crimes have several peculiarities, especially in the probative scope. For a reflection on the importance of the word in this type of crime, the present work specifically focused on the criminal types of rape and rape of vulnerable person. The clipping of justifies why these two offenses appear more frequently in cases submitted to the Superior Courts. Due to the criminal modus operandi, in this type of crime there are enormous evidentiary difficulties, ranging from the beginning of the approach with the victim's own report - even for people of his trust - in the testimony given in the pre-procedural phase, to its assessment – here already in the judicial scope -, which deserve to be punctuated. Based on the theoretical framework of the psychology of testimony, in fact, the article proposes a reflection on the epistemological complexity that can be seen in the victim's testimony, especially in the face of the presumption of innocence that must always militate in favor of the one who is subjected to criminal proceedings. The question-problem that this article intends to work on, therefore, can be posed as follows: in crimes against sexual dignity, would only the victim's word be enough to supplant the presumption of innocence? The conclusion, supported by the theoretical development based on the bibliographic review method, allows us to conclude that no