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The Investigative Committee of Russia supports tougher criminal liability for crimes that infringe on the sexual integrity of minors

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation always pays special attention to issues of protecting the rights of minors. The Committee is closely monitoring legislative proposals aimed at protecting the rights and freedoms of children and the prevention of crimes against minors.

The widely discussed legislative initiative on the possibility of imposing life imprisonment on persons previously convicted of crimes against the sexual integrity of minors, if they repeat the commission of rape or violent acts of a sexual nature against minors seems relevant. The adoption of such a law would also contribute to the preventive function of criminal law.

Creating a safe space for minors is one of the priorities of our society and state. Strengthening criminal liability to protect juvenile victims seems logical and just. The penitentiary system is aimed at the correction of convicts, and in most cases this is achieved. However, there are exceptions. About 50 sentences for rape and sexual assault are passed annually against persons already convicted of crimes against the sexual integrity of minors. Thus, currently in Tver region the court is considering a criminal case against a 46-year-old man accused of committing violent acts of a sexual nature against a minor. He had previously been convicted of similar crimes against his daughter in 2006.

At the same time, this year, in the total mass of crimes against sexual inviolability, criminal cases in which 114 defendants were diagnosed as pedophile have been sent to courts. The likelihood of relapse for these individuals is greatly increased, which is extremely dangerous. And essentially it doesn't matter to them whether the child is 14 years old or slightly older. This means that in the case of criminal abuse, the degree of mental and physical trauma to the minor is very high. In this regard, the Investigative Committee is convinced that life imprisonment for repeat offenders will prevent the commission of new crimes and generally improve the quality of criminal law protection of the sexual inviolability of minors.

 

Official spokesperson for the Investigative Committee of Russia S. Petrenko