Criminal legal and criminological analysis of offenses against sexual freedom and immunity in Ukraine: current state and prospects

Abstract

The highest social values of any legal country are the protection of natural rights, which include life, health, dignity, freedom and inviolability of the person. Ukraine declared these rights as the basic ones in the Art. 3 and 29 of the Constitution. The number of criminal offenses is large enough and gradually increasing, but only a small number of them are really important for the life of the individual and the consequences of their actions remain until the end of the life of the victim. Such criminal offenses include articles that protect sexual freedom and immunity. Ukraine has been under martial law for 10 months, and during this period cases of sexual violent criminal offenses have taken place. The aim of the study is to analyze the statutes, declarations and conventions that should protect persons from the said criminal offenses. The study analyzed 1) the attitude of the ECHR to criminal offenses related to sexual freedom and immunity, and changes in legislation in connection with the ratification of international law; 2) conflicts and inconsistencies that exist in the law on criminal liability now and those that do not comply with international treaties that were ratified, for example, the new version of Art. 155 and 303 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine; 3) the latest changes in the legislation of Ukraine concerning Art. 156 “Child abuse for sexual purposes”of the Criminal Code of Ukraine; 4) data from the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine on criminal offenses related to sexual freedom and immunity. As a result, it has been established that 40% of the analyzed difficulties do not end with the indictment in the court. There is a doubt about the determination of the same degree of social danger of rape (Art. 152 the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and sexual violence (Art. 154 the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The Art. 154 the Criminal Code of Ukraine concerning the difficulty of proving the criminal offense was analyzed, and a new version of this article was proposed. Diagrams with the data from the register of court decisions the correlation of indictments and court decisions on the recognition of persons guilty of the mentioned criminal offenses were created. The explanations of the Supreme Court concerning this category of cases were analyzed and presented. Finally, proposals were formulated to improve the current version of the criminal legislation of Ukraine.