Children and adolescents are one of the most helpless categories of citizens, against whom various types of crimes are most often used. That is why penalties for crimes against minor victims are more severe.
Young children are easily susceptible to violence from adults. But if we are not talking about the fact of rape, but there is a sexual connotation of the actions, we can talk about the seduction of teenagers.
Corruption of minors (Article 134, 135 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) is voluntary sexual contact or other actions of a sexual nature committed against a person who is not fully capable.
Such actions can seriously affect the child’s future life, causing incurable psychological trauma and physical pathologies to his fragile body.
What is the difference between rape and sexual intercourse? And what indecent acts against a teenager are subject to criminal prosecution?
Child seduction: concept and features
Categories of childhood in the legal plane have their own gradation. But in a general sense, persons under 18 years of age are considered children or minors.
They do not have full legal capacity, therefore they cannot be fully responsible for their actions.
The main question is, what is child abuse? There is no concept of “seduction” in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. But it is implied in two articles regulating such actions.
This is Art. 134 “Sexual intercourse and other sexual acts with a person under 16 years of age” and Art. 135 "Depraved acts."
So, the age gradation of minors in Russian law is as follows:
- Under 12 years of age - a minor, completely not responsible for his actions, requiring maximum protection from the state;
- From 12 to 14 years - a minor who is not responsible for his actions, sexual contact with whom is strictly punishable under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation;
- From 12 to 16 years - a minor who is partially not responsible for his behavior, sexual contact with whom is punishable in all cases with a punishment slightly more lenient than for the first age category;
- From 16 to 18 years old - a minor, almost fully responsible for his actions, sexual contact with whom by consent is permissible by law, but in some cases can also be punished under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
In order for actions of a sexual nature to be qualified under Article 134 or Article 135, consent to sexual contact or other indecent acts on the part of the minor is required.
Female pedophilia
Public opinion in Russia places responsibility for pedophilia solely on men. But female pedophilia also exists.
In Russian society, women traditionally play a significant role in raising children. The problem of female sexual abuse of children has a special place.
In most cases, women are responsible for raising children, and they have more power over minors. Therefore, the conditions are very favorable for the lawlessness of female pedophiles.
Female pedophiles rape mainly boys 12-15 years old . Most often, rape of a minor is committed by someone he knows.
Thus, not only men seduce children, women are not lagging behind in this regard. In fact, many female representatives have ruined the lives of young boys or girls. Despite this, female pedophilia is rarely encountered in judicial practice.
In addition, a significant number of cases remain unproven and cases are closed because the child, due to his young age, does not understand what is happening to him.
The job of law enforcement agencies is to approach such cases carefully and professionally so that children do not suffer and there are no innocently accused people in judicial practice.
Pedophilia is a disease; it can only be cured if the patient independently realizes his addiction and voluntarily wants to undergo a course of physical therapy.
Every parent should understand that this phenomenon is quite common and it is worth making every effort to protect their children from this. You need to trust your child and make sure that he trusts you too.
However, it is necessary to constantly unobtrusively monitor them, monitor their emotional, psychological and physical state, interests, hobbies and communication on social networks.
We need to teach children to say “No” to adults when they try to invite them somewhere or treat them to something.
Video: Female and male pedophilia
Art. 134 – Sexual contact with a minor
The article provides for punishment for sexual contacts with minors and minors . In order for a crime to be classified in this way, an unambiguous composition of the criminal act is needed.
So, the following signs must be present:
- The crime was committed by an adult citizen;
- The offender must know the age of the victim and have direct intent to commit a criminal act;
- The sexual experience of the victim does not matter;
- Actions of a sexual nature were committed by mutual consent;
- Once sexual acts begin, the crime will be considered completed.
The article regulates not only opposite-sex sexual contacts, but also same-sex ones.
Punishment under Art. 134 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
Even though the actions are not classified as violent, the punishment for them is quite severe. It is possible to get a real prison term for this. So, let's look at how many years they give for seducing minors.
Sexual contact with a teenager under 16 years of age is punishable by one of the following options:
- Mandatory work up to 480 hours;
- Restriction of freedom up to 4 years;
- Forced labor for up to 4 years with or without the right to hold certain positions or perform certain activities for up to 3 years;
- Imprisonment for up to 4 years with or without the right to hold certain positions or perform certain actions for up to 10 years.
Same-sex contact with a teenager under 16 years of age is punishable by:
- Forced labor for up to 5 years with or without the right to hold certain positions or perform certain activities for up to 3 years;
- Imprisonment for up to 6 years with or without the right to hold certain positions or perform certain actions for up to 10 years.
Same-sex or opposite-sex contact with a teenager from 12 to 14 years old is punishable by:
- Imprisonment from 3 to 10 years with or without the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to 15 years and with or without restriction of freedom for up to 2 years.
Crimes committed against two or more victims:
- Imprisonment from 6 to 15 years with or without the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to 20 years.
Crimes committed by conspiracy by a group of persons:
- Imprisonment from 12 to 20 years with or without the right to engage in certain activities or be in a certain position for up to 20 years with or without restriction of freedom for up to 2 years.
If a crime is committed by a person previously convicted specifically for such acts, he may be imprisoned for a term of 15 to 20 years.
If the defendant and the victim, who have reached the age of 16, enter into a legal marriage, the defendant will be released from punishment.
The legislator provides for the impossibility of applying punishment in the form of imprisonment in relation to a person whose age does not exceed 4 years over the age of the injured party.
That is, it is impossible to unequivocally answer the question of how old child seduction is considered to be . Even though the legislator sets the limit at 16 years, criminal liability can be brought before the age of 18.
What do they do with pedophiles in prison?
Considering the problem of the spread of pedophilia, the relevant question is what is done with pedophiles in prison. A fairly small number of pedophiles survive to enter the colony unbeaten and undegraded - transferred to the lowest caste in the colony.
Most pedophile criminals are transferred to a pre-trial detention center, and sometimes to a temporary detention center. But this rarely happens.
Despite popular belief, such criminals are almost never raped. But even with the current system of tracking and denunciation, it is quite difficult to keep track of prisoners.
It’s not easy for them even without violence, because they have to do all the dirty work. Pedophiles live and eat separately from decent convicts. They say that such criminals are not released from the colony on parole.
Art. 135 – Depraved acts
Depraved acts do not involve direct sexual contact with the victim, but have a clear sexual connotation.
Just like a crime under Art. 134, indecent acts as a crime must be committed by a person who has reached the age of 18, with direct intent to commit a crime.
The object of the crime is the sexual integrity of the victim; his desire and previous sexual life do not matter.
Depraved acts may include the following:
- Demonstration of genital organs;
- Exposing the victim at his request;
- Showing pornography;
- Correspondence of an obscene nature on the Internet;
- Indecent touching;
- Sexual conversations in the presence of children, etc.
Punishment under Art. 135 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
Depraved acts against a teenager under 16 years of age are punishable by:
- Mandatory work up to 440 hours;
- Restriction of freedom up to 3 years;
- Forced labor for up to 5 years with or without the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to 3 years;
- Imprisonment for up to 3 years with or without the right to engage in a specific field of activity or hold specific positions for up to 10 years.
Indecent acts against a minor from 12 to 14 years of age:
- Imprisonment from 3 to 8 years with or without the right to engage in certain activities or hold a specific position for up to 15 years with or without restriction of freedom for up to 2 years.
Depraved acts against several victims:
- Imprisonment from 5 to 12 years with or without the right to hold positions and engage in specific activities for up to 20 years.
The commission of this type of act by a group of persons entails liability:
- Imprisonment from 7 to 15 years with or without the right to hold certain positions or conduct certain activities for up to 20 years with or without restriction of freedom for up to 2 years.
A person previously convicted of crimes against sexual integrity may be punished for a new episode with imprisonment from 10 to 15 years.
Refusal to initiate a criminal case under Article 134 of the Criminal Code
An example of refusal to initiate a criminal case under Article 131 of the Criminal Code (rape) and under Article 134 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
It was a very difficult situation here, but the lawyer managed to persuade and convince the parents of the victim, as it should be said, that according to the application that was filed, the initiation of a criminal case under Article 134 of the Criminal Code was refused. During the work, numerous negotiations were held with the victim’s parents.
In order for the preliminary investigation authorities to issue this resolution, a huge amount of legal work was done, and, of course, negotiations were held with the parents of the victim, who initially did not even want to communicate with either the lawyers or the parents of the young man.
Arbitrage practice
Problems in applying Art. 134 and art. 135 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in 2021 lie largely in the plane of the correct classification of the crime.
Sexual integrity also appears as an object of crime in rape. Therefore, law enforcement agencies must accurately determine whether the victim was forced to take such actions, or whether he voluntarily agreed to them.
As a rule, there are no clear witnesses to what happened in such cases . Therefore, only the testimony of the victim is taken into account in the basis for qualifying the fact of pressure.
Situations often occur when a defendant is imprisoned for sexual intercourse, and after serving his sentence, he marries the victim, and they have a family. This is a family tragedy. The legislator, unfortunately, has provided for the possibility of marriage only for persons over 16 years of age.
A large series of legal clarifications on these crimes contains the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court under Art. 134, art. 135 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation No. 16.
It contains a ban on the use of conditional punishment in relation to persons who have committed sexual intercourse with a teenager under 14 years of age, as well as the specifics of the application of parole for such criminals.
The courts and law enforcement agencies must necessarily establish the fact of the sanity of such a defendant and whether he has a tendency towards pedophilia.
If certain inclinations are established, medical measures should also be applied to the criminal.
A criminal offense is not always of a violent nature. Today, due to the expansion of personal freedom of adolescents, the availability of the Internet and the development of tolerance towards sexual minorities, many children begin to grow up early.
Unfortunately, not many of them know that even for voluntary sexual acts their partners can be severely punished in accordance with criminal law.
The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, unlike public life and world trends, did not expand the boundaries of teenage permissiveness.
How to recognize a pedophile
A pedophile can be a person respected in society, a husband and father. Most often, such people have an unattractive appearance. They are not tall, wear glasses and inconspicuous clothes.
Such a disease does not depend on age and social status, it depends on the internal complexes of a man or woman and their internal psychological trauma.
To recognize and protect children from a criminal, it is necessary to understand how pedophiles behave. It is not always easy to distinguish love for children in the positive sense of the word from perverted sexual attraction to a child.
Consciously or subconsciously, pedophiles choose those professions that are closely related to children:
- Teachers at school or university.
- Kindergarten workers.
- Boarding school workers, sports coaches and the like.
Criminals often spend time on playgrounds and watch the objects of their admiration. The patient experiences obsessive thoughts, mental anguish, and a state of distress.
When diagnosing, most doctors point to congenital abnormalities in the patient’s psyche.
According to the basic theory, the disease may develop as a result of violence or depraved acts experienced during childhood.
Causes can range from alcoholism to brain injury.
Main symptoms:
- prolonged depression;
- infantile behavior;
- children's behavior.
Based on long-term research, a psychological portrait of a pedophile was created:
- Age: over 16 years old.
- The object of desire is at least 5-7 years shorter.
- Preferred communication with children 13-14 years old.
- A pedophile may be a good friend of the family, have a wonderful relationship with the parents and be characterized from the outside in a positive way.
- A pedophile can be either married or divorced.
The offender can pretend to be overprotective and caring for the child. Strange bodily contacts are possible. A pedophile can spoil a child, allow him a lot, and exhibit infantilism.
The patient shows almost no interest in the opposite sex, but quite quickly finds contact with children, allowing them what parents prohibit, for example, eating sweets in large quantities, drinking alcohol, smoking.
It is important to take into account that a pedophile can be anything and not have characteristic features of character and appearance. In most cases, a pedophile does not commit severe violence against a child.
He leads a certain manner of behavior in which everything comes down to sexual contact. Despite this, the victim receives severe psychological stress.
