Classification of Crimes against Sexual Inviolability and Sexual Freedom of the Individual under a Note to Article 131 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

The paper considers certain aspects of the classification of sexual crimes, due to the note to Article 131 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on equating persons under 12 years of age with those in a helpless state. Using practical examples, the features of various objective characteristics of sexual assaults are identified, combined on the basis of the analyzed note under the action of one norm — Article 132 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. By virtue of the note under study, indecent acts of persons in relation to the specified age, including those committed without contact, constituted the jurisdiction of the norm on violent acts of a sexual nature. The external circumstances of the acts that currently constitute violent sexual assaults indicate their significant difference. According to the author of the paper, a law enforcement officer should be able to impose punishment for a crime based on the immediate characteristics of the committed act, and, taking into account the broad collective construction of Article 132 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, be able to impose a less severe punishment than exists today. Reducing the terms in the considered compositions will make it possible, firstly, to proportionately determine the punishment for committing contactless intellectual (contactless) depraved acts against persons under the age of 12, and, secondly, restore the hierarchy of severity of punishments for acts, based on the importance of the good protected by law. Measures are proposed to change the legal technique of constructing the norms of Chapter 18 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, aimed at independently fixing violent acts of a sexual nature against persons under the age of 12. The author substantiates the expediency of including in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation an independent norm on violent crimes of a sexual nature committed against a minor.

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