The subjective features of minors’ corruption: discussion issues

Abstract

The article under consideration focuses on discussing issues regarding the subject’s features and the subjective side (subjective features) of the composition of the criminal offense under Art. 156 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (“Corruption of minors”). The range of these issues is determined, and the author’s position is offered about approaches to their academic solution.
 The following issues related to the subjective signs of minors’ corruption are recognized as the most debatable today: 1) is the subject of the minors’ corruption general? 2) at what age does criminal responsibility for the corruption of minors come? 3) who is the subject of the corruption of minors? 4) what is the content of guilt as a sign of the subjective side of the corruption of minors? Finally, 5) what is the attitude of the subject of debauchery to the age of the victim?
 The search for answers to the raised issues made it possible to conclude the need to clearly define in the Criminal Code of Ukraine the age at which criminal responsibility for the minors’ corruption can come (only an adult is capable of realizing the social meaning of such behavior as debauchery with a person who has not reached the age of sixteen).
 The specificity of the mental attitude of a person who commits minors’ corruption is established, which is characterized by the existence of the following signs: 1) awareness of the socially dangerous nature of the committed act (intellectual signs of direct intent); 2) foreseeing the occurrence of significant harm to the normal sexual development of minors and the desire for this harm to occur (volitional signs of direct intent).
 In order to eliminate the basis for discussions about the content of the mental attitude of the offender to the age of the victim, it is suggested to use already available experience in the criminal law (see, for example, clause 2, part 2 of Art. 115 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and to designate the awareness of the age of the victim. Because of this, a proposal is made to set out Part 1 of Art. 156 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine in this version: “Commitment of corruption of minors against a person who is known to the perpetrator to have not reached the age of sixteen.”