How to protect minors from sexual assault
4151 people. This is the number of prosecutions of sexual assault minors in the first quarter of 2020 issued by the Supreme People's Procuratorate on April 15. Compared with the first quarter of 2019, this figure increased by 2.2%.
And this is only part of the case of children being sexually assaulted. The People ’s Public Security University of China once conducted a questionnaire survey on 5,800 primary and middle school students across the country. The results show that the hidden rate of sexual assault cases is 1: 7. In other words, if one case of sexual assault is revealed, there will be 7 unknowns behind it. Many of the cases where the victims called the police also faced difficulties in filing and obtaining evidence.
In a recently exposed company executive suspected of sexually assaulting an underage "adult daughter", a listed company executive in Yantai, Bao Mouming, was suspected of sexually assaulting 14-year-old adopted daughter Li Xingxing (a pseudonym) from about 2016. According to media reports, in September 2015, Li Xingxing ’s mother “bred” her daughter to Bao Mouming, who took her away as a “father.” Li Xingxing said that after 3 months, Bao Mouming carried out her first infringement against her in her hometown of Tianjin when she just turned 14 years old.
Li Xingquan, the lawyer representing Li Xingxing, stated that Li Xingxing had reported to the police as early as 2015 and lasted for 4 years. It was not filed for the second time in October 2019 after the case was withdrawn in April 2019. On April 13, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security have sent a joint supervision team to Shandong to supervise the handling of the case.
"General crimes against children are relatively insidious, and most of them are in one-on-one environments. The evidence is difficult to preserve. In addition, the children are too afraid to speak or call the police for the first time, resulting in some evidence. The loss will bring great difficulties to the filing or cracking of the case. "Sun Xuemei, head of the Girl Protection Fund of the China Children's Culture and Arts Foundation (hereinafter referred to as" girl protection ") and chairman of the Beijing Zhongyi Charity Foundation, said.
"Girl Protection" has been publishing "Sexual Abuse Case Statistics and Investigation Report on Child Sexual Abuse Prevention" based on the cases of sexual assault children publicly reported by the media that year. According to the "Girl Protection" report, from 2013 to 2018, there were 2096 cases of sexual abuse of children exposed by the media. "For many reasons, it is difficult for all cases of child sexual abuse to be publicly reported and counted. The disclosed cases are only the tip of the iceberg."
Misused trust
In the statistics of "Girl Protection", there were 317 cases of sexual abuse of children (under 18 years old) publicly reported by the media in 2018, with more than 750 victims, of which 80% were under 14 years old, and the youngest were 3 Years old; the proportion of 14-18 years old is 10.40%.
Children's mental immaturity, the earlier sexual assault occurs, the easier it is to harm the child's body, sexual concept, and future understanding of sexual-related social activities and social roles, and even difficult to recover. "From the perspective of children's rights, child sexual abuse must be eliminated. If it occurs, it must be severely punished. This is our basic attitude." The youth of the School of Political Science and Law, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences who has long been committed to child protection research Tong Xiaojun, director of the Children's Research Center, said.
"General adult sexual abuse of children, in most cases, there must be a prelude to temptation and coaxing, there are threats and intimidation in the middle. He will tell the child, I have a good relationship with you, how good I am to you This matter is a secret between us. If you leak this matter to others, you are a bad child, or you are complaining about virtue or the like. "In Tong Xiaojun's view, children's minds are still immature, right There is no concept in terms of things, "If an adult tells her that it is normal, other children's children are like this, even if she feels uncomfortable, even if she feels very painful, she slowly feels normal."
However, Tong Xiaojun said that once the child victim knows that this matter is wrong from other sources, she will collapse and have no idea how to deal with it, "and she will have various self-blame, She regrets, but she dare not talk to others, because many times she also feels that she has not particularly resisted. When there is a sense of shame behind her, she is more internalized. If no one supports her, help She ca n’t get out, and she may not be willing to talk to anyone. "
Moreover, Tong Lihua, director of the Beijing Youth Legal Aid and Research Center, told the China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that there is a great feature in cases of sexual assault against minors, many of whom are acquaintances.
During sexual assault by family members, it is often more difficult for the victimized child to recover. "The most powerful social support system for a child is the family, but in such cases, the family not only does not have a guardianship and protection role, but causes harm."
On October 25, 2013, the Supreme People ’s Court, the Supreme People ’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Justice promulgated the “Opinions on Punishing Sexual Assaults against Minors in Accordance with Law”, which clearly stated: Persons with special responsibilities shall use their superior position or the victim's position of isolation to force minor victims to follow the law, and those who have sexual relations with them shall be convicted and punished by rape. "The opinion also clarifies the scope of persons with special responsibilities. That is, those who have special responsibilities for minors such as guardianship, education, training, rescue, nursing, medical treatment, etc.
Luo Xiang, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law, believes that judicial opinions are not laws after all, and their deterrence is weak, and this judicial opinion still restricts the special duty personnel to "use their dominant position or the victim's isolation and helplessness" and "forces" them to follow. Treat with rape. That is to say, sex must constitute a crime only if the victim does not agree, and it is easy to get a legal loophole.
He pointed out that it is necessary to add a crime of abuse of trust status to the criminal law. When the two parties have a specific relationship, the minor ’s consent to the sex of the person with special responsibilities shall be deemed invalid in the law. As long as there is a sexual relationship with the minor, the person with special responsibilities shall be punished as a crime of rape.
"When the perpetrator and the victim have a trust relationship, due to the unequal status of the two parties, the minor's consent to sexual behavior is invalid. The existence of the trust relationship also makes the victim unable to resist. This abuse of trust relationship clearly violates the minor Sexual autonomy. Persons with special responsibilities have a dominant position against minors. Abuse of dominant position and sexual activity with minors is a naked violation and must be severely punished. "Luo Xiang pointed out.
Difficulties in obtaining evidence in judicial channels
When dealing with cases of sexual assault by minors, obtaining evidence is a relatively common problem. Similar to the case of executives suspected of sexually assaulting a minor "adopted girl", a considerable part of the cases encountered judicial difficulties due to difficulties in obtaining evidence.
"For example, semen, no. What about the child alone? It is not like other crimes, such as stealing things to see the stolen goods, but the child does not see it sometimes during sexual assault." Tong Xiaojun said, she was at work I heard that some lawyers could not get the evidence.
And this problem is likely to bring more harm. "There are some cases where there is no way to file a case, or she didn't report it at all. The child may feel that the person clearly did the wrong thing and obviously hurt them. Why wasn't he punished? No corresponding consequences were obtained." Sun Xuemei said.
In some cases, the injured children are only three or five years old and their language skills are insufficient. In order to help them, they must understand their victimization experience. When social workers or psychological consultants help them, they usually use painting or sand table. If the child's painting has a sexual meaning, it can actually imply her relationship with the adults around her. Tong Xiaojun believes that similar means can also be used by the judiciary.
"For minor victims, you can't pay too much attention to certain details, you can't ask her to express particularly accurately, and allow her to use her own language or her understanding to describe the matter she suffered." Minor People's Procuratorate of Donggang District, Rizhao City Liu Xiaofen, the chief of the prosecution section of the criminal case, told the reporters of China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that for minor victims, the description and testimony of testimony cannot be the same as for adults.
Liu Xiaofen introduced that after public security organs accept minor sexual assault cases, procuratorial organs generally intervene in advance to provide some guiding opinions on the evidence and the investigative thinking of the investigative organs, to implement comprehensive interrogation of minors and ensure the comprehensiveness of the formation of evidence To avoid asking again.
At a press conference held on December 20, 2019, the Supreme People's Procuratorate put forward a trial of “one-stop evidence collection” for minor sexual assault cases: after receiving minor sexual assault cases, public security organs ’criminal investigation, technical appraisal, and procuratorial organs and other departments Be present at the same time, carry out inquiry and investigation, inspection and identification, protection of minors' rights and interests, psychological comfort, etc. at the same time, pay attention to the psychological care and privacy protection of minors while avoiding secondary harm while inquiring and investigating.
Liu Xiaofen said that under the advocacy of the highest prosecution, many places have established a one-stop place for evidence collection, inspection, psychological counseling, rescue and hospital treatment. "When intervening in a case, our psychological counseling room has a special police officer who is qualified as a psychological counselor to provide psychological counseling to minor victims. We also cooperate with specialized psychological counseling professional institutions when we need to do further long-term psychological counseling Will also allow them to participate. "
Build a strong campus line of defense
In addition to punishing the criminal activities of sexual assault on minors, Liu Xiaofen's other main work is to prevent the crime of sexual assault against minors and enhance the minors' ability to protect themselves. "We set up a special preaching group, compiled and printed a handbook on the prevention of sexual assault by young people, and bought some books. Especially for rural schools, we preached some courses on prevention of sexual assault, using animations and songs that are more acceptable to children. Form, to give them legal education and guide them to enhance their ability to protect themselves. "
On October 19, 2018, the Supreme People's Procuratorate sent the "Inspection Recommendation of the Supreme People's Procuratorate of the People's Republic of China" to the Ministry of Education, recommending that the institutional mechanism for prevention of sexual assault should be further improved and strengthen the supervision and inspection of the implementation of the system for prevention of sexual assault on campus. Seriously deal with personnel who violate laws and disciplines in accordance with law. This is the first procuratorial recommendation issued in the name of the highest prosecution in history, and is called the "No. 1 procuratorial recommendation".
Subsequently, the Ministry of Education issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Work of Preventing Sexual Abuse of Students in Elementary and Secondary Schools (Kindergartens)", requesting local education administrative departments and schools to learn from the cases of sexual assault students, and further strengthening safety education on prevention of sexual abuse, The management of teaching staff, the implementation of safety management regulations, the establishment of a collaborative mechanism to prevent sexual assault, and the supervision and inspection of school safety.
"We will check whether the distribution and management of the school dormitory is clearly divided between male and female students, including the employment of female dormitory managers, and whether the installation of monitoring facilities is in place. There is also the centralized office of teachers. When teachers ask classmates to ask questions At that time, avoid being alone with students of the opposite sex. "Liu Xiaofen said that the uninspected department will join the education department to supervise some schools around the implementation of safety measures and the implementation of the" No. 1 Inspection Proposal ".
To protect minors from sexual abuse, the campus is a place that cannot be ignored. Just last month, Deng Mou, a teacher in a rural elementary school in Yunbiao Town, Heng County, Guangxi, was exposed for allegedly sexually assaulting a female student from the podium for six years. The local police has filed an investigation. "Students generally think that teachers are authoritative, and they believe that teachers have certain control or overwhelming advantages over their children. Teachers with special responsibilities who commit sexual assault should be punished severely by law." Sun Xuemei think.
After the release of "Prosecution No. 1", Sun Xuemei noticed that the education departments have increased their efforts to promote sexual assault prevention education, and the prosecution departments in various places are also promoting safety education courses on sexual assault prevention. "In 2019, there are so many prosecution departments, women ’s federations, education bureaus, and youth league committees that cooperate with our girl protection fund. After seeing the importance attached to the national level and the support of various policies, the work of girl protection has been carried out even more. It goes well. At the same time, we can see that with the exposure of these malignant incidents, the awareness of parents has also improved day after day. Year after year, but I hope that everyone will focus on popularizing common sense every day, and do n’t wait until the vicious incidents are exposed. "
China Youth Daily · China Youth Daily reporter Liu Yan Source: China Youth Daily
06 April 2020 Edition