The Chamber of Deputies modified the legislation governing sexual assault. For the first time, the notion of free consent is established, classifying any sexual act performed without consent as rape. Prior to this amendment, a crime could only be regarded if obligation and force were present. The current penalty ranges from six to twelve years in jail, with up to a two-thirds reduction for less serious crimes. This framework is further corroborated by the revised wording: the reform does not alter the duration of the sentence but instead modifies the structure of the offense. A 1996 reform had already reclassified sexual offenses from the category of "public morality and decency" to that of "personal freedom", yet the fundamental principle of the law continued to revolve around coercion (violence, threats, abuse). The Italian reform is part of a larger European trend of consent-based reforms. In recent years, numerous countries have revised their definitions of rape: the number of nations adopting consent-based definitions has increased significantly, rising from fewer than ten in 2018 to approximately twenty European countries in 2025.