Incidencija krivičnih dela protiv polne slobode - punoletni i maloletni učinioci

Abstract

The paper presents a research on the incidence of crimes against sexual freedom in the Republic of Serbia from 2013 to 2022. The research was conducted in order to review the number of submitted criminal reports for adults and minors during the mentioned period, as well as to analyze the trends in the incidence of the crime of rape across the regions of the Republic of Serbia. The data used in the research come from the Republic Institute of Statistics (Judiciary area) and include information on the number of criminal charges filed against adults and minors for: (1) crimes against sexual freedom in total, (2) each individual crime against sexual freedom, (3) criminal offense of rape per regions Belgrade Region, Vojvodina Region, Šumadija and Western Serbia Region and Southern and Eastern Serbia Region. In the period from 2013 to 2022, a total of 903 010 crimes were reported, of which 4442 (0.49%) were crimes against sexual freedom. The results show that the total number of filed criminal reports is relatively low, but a growing trend was observed after 2016 and 2017. The percentage of criminal reports against adults was between 82.47% and 93.26%, while the number of reports against minors decreased, especially in 2021(6.74%) and 2022 (7.59%). The largest number of reports refers to criminal offenses of illicit sexual acts and rape, where the percentages for adult persons and the criminal offense of illicit sexual acts are 35.96%, and for minors 35.67%. When it comes to rape, 18.58% of reports were filed against adults, and 16.56% against minors. Adults were more often reported for sexual harassment (21.38%), while minors were more often reported for sexual intercourse with a child (17.83%) and the criminal offense of showing, obtaining and possessing pornographic material and exploiting a minor for pornography (15.71 %). Regarding the crime of rape, specific trends in the number of reports were observed in different regions. It has been observed that the number of reports against adults and minors is the lowest in the Belgrade region, while in other regions the number of reports against adults is significantly higher for each observed year. At the same time, the number of reports against minors in the period of 2019 and 2020 was highest in the Vojvodina region and in Southern and Eastern Serbia. In summary, although for the past ten years there have been certain variations in the number of reports for criminal offenses against sexual freedom, the total number of reports remains low, which may indicate the existence of a "dark figure", i.e. a larger number of cases that have not been reported. This conclusion emphasizes the need to improve the support sytem for victims of sexual violence, which includes, among other things, empowering victims to report any form of sexual abuse.