通姦除罪化對民事慰撫金求償的影響

Abstract

依民國109年5月29日大法官釋字第791號，我國刑法固有之第239條關於通姦罪的規範立即失效。在這個時間點以後的所有涉及通姦行為的婚外情事件不再有刑事公權力的介入，受害者僅能依循民事程序向加害人要求賠償或慰撫金。本研究使用民國108年12月至109年11月期間所有地方法院一審關於婚外情的慰撫金求償判決案件作為樣本，使用差異中的差異(difference-in-differences)分析方法，就有通姦及未通姦的樣本群進行自然實驗(natural experiment)前後的對照比較。研究發現，原告請求數額在除罪政策發生後下降約36萬至43萬元新台幣，法院判決金額則無顯著改變。特別是在受害配偶為女性樣本時，原告請求數額更下降約60萬至70萬元新台幣，男性受害配偶的樣本則無顯著改變，顯示通姦除罪化所導致的請求數額下降存在性別化的現象。

According to Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 791, the article No.239 in Criminal Code ,which aims to deter and punish adultery has been invalidated since 29th May 2020. There is no any criminal procedure for extramarital sexual relationship from then on. As a result, adultery victims can only claim solatium through civil procedure. This thesis uses all extramarital solatium-claiming cases in Taiwan district court first instance from December 2019 to November 2020 as sample ,and conduct a natural experiment by decriminalization on 29th May 2020. This thesis adopts difference-in-differences method to estimate the causal effect between decriminalization of adultery and the change in amount of extramarital solatia. The research finding shows that after decriminalization, the amount of solatium claimed by plaintiffs decreased by 360 – 430 thousand NTD, and the amount of solatium decided by judges has no significant change. Especially for female plaintiffs, the amount of solatium decreased by even 600 – 700 thousand NTD, but there is still no change for male plaintiffs, which means that the effect of decriminalization of adultery concentrates in female victims.