Article 134 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation needs improving

The updating of criminal law in the field of protection of normal mental and physical development of minors will enable us to cope with several tasks. A high priority task is to pay attention that the current state of society under the conditions of crisis of birth rate demands the increased protection of the rights and legitimate interests of minors since the insufficient attention to such development can result in unpredictable negative consequences for society and the state. Crimes against normal physical and mental development of minors constitute a higher public danger. One of such crimes is the sexual intercourse and other sexual actions with a person under 16; the crime is punishable under Article 134 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (CC of RF). While writing the present article, the author set the following tasks: a complex analysis of the provisions of Article 134 of the CC of RF; the practice of implementation of those provisions in the activity of law enforcement officials; the development of proposals to increase the efficiency of use of the above rule of criminal law. The author used the following methods: dialectic, formal and logical, system and structural, method of the analysis and synthesis. The subject matter of the present Article is the rule of criminal law which provides for responsibility for the sexual intercourse and other sexual actions with a person under 16 (Article 134 of the CC of RF), Article 13 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation (the FC of RF) and the rules of regional laws that establish the minimum age for marriage. The research showed the conflict between Article 134 of the CC of RF with the provisions of the FC of RF allowing marriages at early age (Article 13 of the FC RF) and empowering the subjects of the Russian Federation independently to determine the age of marriage. Various regions of Russia have a minimum age for marriage. The existing situation indicates the violation of the principle of justice and equality of all before the law as well as the principle of legality (in the aspect of unity of the federal criminal law). Moreover, in many regions where options for marriage at early age are established, there is a rule about the need of consent on the part of lawful representatives of the minor and (or) permission of officials or authorized bodies. That is the solution of a question of criminal liability is put into direct dependence on the will of regional legislators and on the will of the third parties. It seems to be a legal trick to connect the official registration of marriage and criminal liability since the existing CC of RF contains the rules, which provide for discharge from criminal liability.

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