Strengthening Criminal Repressions for Sexual Assaults: Regulatory Vision and Prospective Law Enforcement

Abstract

In view of the permanent reforms of criminal law norms protecting sexual inviolability that are aimed at the penalization and differentiation of criminal liability for sexual assaults against minors, the authors conduct a comprehensive analysis of amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation by laws of January 28, 2022 № 3-FZ and of March 6, 2022 № 38-FZ. They note a new round of strengthening penal prosecution for pedophilic assaults and point out technical and legal drawbacks in the new norms, expressing doubts regarding their criminological validity. By widening the special qualifying features of such crimes as rape and sexual assault, the legislators set stricter punishments for assaults against sexual inviolability than for aggravated types of homicide. The authors analyze the contents of Part 5, Art. 131 and 132 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in its new edition and point out difficulties that could arise during the qualification of sexual assaults committed against two or more minors or associated with committing another grave or very grave crime against a person, as well as in cases of special relapse. They present a critical assessment of Part 3, Art. 133 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and raise the questions of the validity of strengthening criminal liability for group coercion to sexual actions only against minors (clause «a»), and the feasibility of including «the use of mass media» in the characteristics that increase the public danger of harassment. It is noted that the criminalization of the concealment of grave crimes against minors makes the law enforcers face the problem of the admissibility of incriminating a set of crimes included in Parts 1 and 2, Art. 316 of the Criminal Code in cases when the concealed crimes against minors belong to different categories but have a common intent.