Some problems of differentiation of criminal liability for crimes against sexual inviolability of minors

Thelegislative differentiation of the criminal liability concerns a number of major conditions of appointment of fair punishment and preconditionsof its efficiency. The key direction of perfection of the Russian criminal law is the differentiation of the criminal responsibility;with its help it is possible to achieve a good balance between mildness and rigidness of the criminal law. By Federal Law of theRussian Federation № 215 of July 27, 2009 the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation had some changes directed, in particular, atstrengthening of the criminal liability for committing of sexual crimes concerning minors. More detailed differentiation of the criminalliability for sexual crimes by the age criterion of the victim became important. In Articles 134 and 135 of the Russian Federation CriminalCode, providing responsibility for non-violent sexual crimes concerning minors, new qualified kinds of these crimes have been introduceddepending on the age of the victim - committing a crime concerning the person who has obviously not reached the age of 14,and the person who has obviously not reached the age of 12. Thus, the legislator, having defined a new age category, the person whohas not reached the age of 12, has shown inconsistency. The legislators position contradicts the principle of justice and demands completionin the Russian Federation Criminal Code. Legislative acts have not solved the problem of differentiation of a voluntary sexualintercourse (Article 134 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code) and violent sexual actions with use of a helpless condition (Articles131 and 132 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code) as the age of the victim can be a sign of helplessness. The problem on qualificationof such cases was solved by court in each concrete case according to the understanding principle: if the victim did not understandthe meaning and character of actions made to it owing to young age, the crime was qualified as a rape or violent actions of sexual characterwith use of a helpless condition of the victim. Among the shortcomings of the new system of differentiation of the criminal responsibilityis the lack of sanctions of particularly qualified corpus delicti, provided by Part 4 of Article 132 of the Criminal Code and byPart 4 of Article 134 of the Criminal Code. The Federal law of July 27, 2009, does not also eliminate the disparity of the title of Article134 of the Criminal Code with the content of its disposition. In this connection, further improvement of criminal legislation and lawenforcement practice in cases of crimes against the sexual inviolability of minors is needed.

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