INCEST: Murder of the Soul: Chapter Five is ‘the patriarchal mentality and exploitation of the man’s status in the family, where he acts as the owner of the women and the girls; the person who has the authority (father, eldest son, father-in-law) exploits that authority to impose sexual practices on the persons subjected to him’. Amre confirms that there is a relationship between the act of incest and the sexual history of the perpetrator. His research into the history of incest cases reveals that the person who commits the act of incest must have been subjected to a previous sexual assault during his childhood and descended from a dysfunctional family. Sabagh believes that there are some factors that contribute to committing incest, such as overcrowding accompanied by poverty or drugs, disintegrated families, women’s emotional needs, threat of divorcing, killing or dismissing the mother in the event that the girl rejects her father’s request’. Based on their academic and professional experience, Amre and Sabagh reject the view of consent-based acceptance, even if the female involved is more than (15) or (18) years old. This is because of the power of the patriarchal system and the exploitation of its concepts and configurations with regard to incest. Sabagh explains the words and terms that are used by men in convincing their daughters and daughters-in-law to accept their advances to commit incest are powerful; for example, “I have the right to commit sexual intercourse with you rather than the stranger”. Amre defines incest as an ‘imbalanced and unjust sexual relationship’. The physical element of the act of incest raises important questions among psychological and social counselors. Amre believes that the danger of limiting the physical element of incest to the occurrence of the sexual intercourse without considering any other sexual activity such as foreplay, flirting, sexual stimulation behavior as incest. Accordingly, Sabagh stresses the danger of such acts has impacts which are similar to the psychosocial impacts of incest on the girl, the family and society at large. Amre emphasizes that whatever sexual act targeting a female by a person of trust should be considered a fault that disturbs the social system of the family and its structure, deviating the protective roles of her father, brother or uncle and influencing her psychological structure as a human being and that of her family. They also change the nature of blood tie as a factor of mercy, protection and security of the girl, and so the disturbance of the ethical and cultural standards. He also asserts that incest is ‘the desire for incest and expressing it in whatever way’. 2. Escaping Punishment It is worth reviewing here the concept of a limitation period, as it plays an important role in incest cases. Limitation period is understood as the ‘expiry of the time period prescribed by law if within which the state does not commence a legal proceeding with regard to a crime in terms of searching for its perpetrator or implementation of the sentence issued against him, it shall lose the right to pursue investigating that crime in the first case or pursuing the perpetrator who is sentenced due to committing that crime in the second case”67. What was lost in the first part was the right of the state to commence legal action, and what was lost in the second part was the state’s right to implement the criminal penalty imposed on the perpetrator. The criminal proceeding arising from that crime is terminated in both situations. 67 Sarur v, Al-Waseet in Explaining Penal Procedure Code, (Dar al-Nahda al-Arabia; Edition 7), p. 145. 41