Jacques Henric on Marcela Iacub's 'Le crime était presque sexuel'

In a review for artpress, Jacques Henric discusses Marcela Iacub's book 'Le crime était presque sexuel', published in the collection directed by psychoanalyst Jean Allouch at Epel. The book examines the evolution of legal notions of rape, prohibition of sexual relations between mentally disabled and able-bodied persons, marriage of the impotent, AIDS, prostitution, abortion, homoparentality, and human cloning. Henric notes that Iacub's work reveals a growing criminalization of sexual behaviors in French law since the 1980s, citing the 1980 reform that redefined rape as 'any act of sexual penetration, of whatever nature', and the 1997 Court of Cassation ruling that fellatio imposed by violence constitutes rape. He highlights the chapter 'Le Sexe des imbéciles', which traces how French law until the 1960s did not consider sex with mentally disabled persons as a crime, but a 1961 ruling classified such acts as rape even if the person was consenting. Henric criticizes the analogy between minors and the mentally disabled, arguing it subjects the latter to parental or guardian control. He also points out that France has the highest frequency and longest sentences for sexual crimes in Europe. The review ends by recommending 'Ma vie secrète' (Stock, translated by Mathias Pauvert), the fifth and final volume of anonymous 19th-century English sexual confessions.