The Analysis Of Criminal Procedure’s Protection Of Victims Of Sex Crime

Sex crimes are sexual dominant behaviors which are invasive, anti-human and humiliating. The victims of sex crimes suffer the most private insulation relevant to their fundamental dignity. Compared with other victims, the victims of this sort are more vulnerable and more exposed to discrimination and criticism. Besides, they are more likely to suffer secondary damage in criminal proceedings. Therefore, we are supposed to take special protective actions on victims of sex crimes. Actually, they are offered with special protection different from other victims in many countries and regions. While in our country, there is nearly no laws and no attention is paid to the judicial practice in this aspect. In a nation where the concept of virginity is attached great importance and feeling of shame is paid too much attention, victims of sex crimes are reduced to a rather difficult situation because of the crime. Therefore, special protection is regarded necessary in criminal proceedings so that the victims have courage and strength to live on.The paper is carried out based on the study and importance of the above subject. In the meantime, in regard to the representativeness of rape in sexual assault, the paper analyzes the protection of sex crime victims in different countries mainly in the perspective of rape.There are five parts of the paper.The first part is the introduction, which includes the proposition of the problem, the retrospect of the problem, materials and means. Above all, the paper makes an integration of the current studies on the protection of the victims. It puts forward that the theoretical studies of the victim protection are lagged far behind and that the current studies are avoid of forward-looking of the academy and urgency of reality in the aspect of specialty. This puts forward the thoughts of the author on the protection of victims of sex crimes. Then the paper retrospects the literature on the situation of the victims in our country. It believes that it is a long way to go compared with those material subject studies. In the end, the paper makes a corresponding definition on the materials and means of the research. The research materials mainly include the relevant documentation at home and abroad (mainly abroad), combined with suitable empirical investigation and case analyses. The research means are the combination of means from Procedural Law, Criminal Law, Psychiatry, Psychology, and Sociology. The second part is about the theoretical basis of the protection of the victims of sex crimes. This part mainly involves two aspects:the first is the definitions and types of the victims of the sort; the second is the theoretical basis of the protection of the victims of sex crimes. For the definition, the paper believes that victims of sex crimes are people who are the directive sufferers of illegal sexual satisfaction and sexual behaviors regulated by the criminal law. They are specifically composed of victims of rape, women molestation, child molestation and organized prostitution in our country. As far as the types of sex crimes victims are concerned, the paper takes the victims of rape as its objects because of the representativeness of rape in sex crimes and divides them into two types:"real rape" and "non-real rape". On the types of the victims of sex crimes, victims of different types are provided with different treatments in criminal proceedings. Victims of real rape are given the best treatment, while the victims not of the real rape, mainly including responsible victims, victims of date rape, victims of acquaintance rape, are likely to receive adverse prejudice and criticism.On the theoretical basis of the protection of sex crime victims, the paper finds that many protection theories on sex crimes victims and those on common victims are almost overlapped. Besides, the latter provides enough theoretical support for the former. Therefore, in order to justify the special protection of sex crimes victims, the paper discusses it from the perspective of its necessities. The necessities include three aspects:firstly, the damages posed by sex crimes (especially rape) on the victims are lasting and endless, which exemplifies itself by "Rape Trauma Syndrome" leading to post-traumatic stress disorder; secondly, the reactions of the society on the victims are special, which means that the victims of sex crimes are more likely to suffer prejudice and unjustified criticism. Undoubtedly, the sex crimes victims should be given more tolerance, understanding and support; thirdly, the response of criminal proceedings on the sex crimes victims is special. The victims are more likely to suffer secondary damage in criminal proceedings because of inappropriate set-up of criminal procedures and unsuitable judicial conducts. The above three necessities decide the special protection of the sex crimes victims.The third part is the country studies of the protection carried on the sex crimes victims. The paper is based on the observation of the protection of sex crimes victims in criminal proceedings in American and European countries, Asian countries and regions, in which American and European countries mainly refer to America, the Great Britain, Australia and Germany, and Asian countries and regions mainly refer to Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan and Hong Kong of China. We can find out some commonalities through the observation: firstly, they all regulate special protection on the sex crimes victims; secondly, the protection is very thorough, which means that it penetrates into every section of criminal proceedings; Thirdly, the content of the protection includes the right-to-know, the right to participation, and the right to keep from secondary damage, the right to compensation, and so on; fourthly, when giving special protection to the victims, they try hard to avoid damages of the rights of the victims, thus forming the balance of the rights protection of victims. These commonalities may give reference and revelation of the protection of sex crimes in our country.The fourth part is the contents of the protection of sex crime victims. The main contents of the protection include two parts:protection of the sex crime victims in criminal proceedings and protection in judicial conduct. the former includes:the victims are given the right-to-know and the right to participation in the procedures; it is forbidden to carry out inappropriate inquiry on sex crimes victims; the victims are allowed to apply special means of testimony; The victims are endowed with rights of compensation. The latter includes:the sex crimes are dealt with by the specialized agencies composed of specialty personnel; special inquiry room should be built. Among these contents, some are the protective measures taken on victims of other crimes, for example:right-to-know, right to participation, right to compensation, yet victims of sex crimes are treated specially in specific contents and means. Some protection of the sex crime victims may have influence on the rights of the defendant. For example, the forbiddance of inappropriate inquiry of the sex crimes victims (especially rape victims) may influence the right-to-defense of the defendant; the allowance of the special means of testimony may influence the right to confrontation and inquiry of the defendant and the regulation of the hearsay evidence. Therefore, this part also discusses these problems.The fifth part involves the protection of the sex crimes victims in our country. Firstly, the paper observes and evaluates the current situation of the protection in our country. Besides, it further analyzes the cases which have significance of reference in investigation. On the basis of that, it puts forward specific suggestions of the perfection of the protection. From the observation on the legislation, judicial interpretation and judicial practice of the protection, we can see that the protection of sex crimes victims is almost neglected. In this aspect, we are supposed to follow three principles:special protection should be carried out according to the crime characteristics of the victims; we should pay much attention to the balance between special protection of the victims and the protection of the defendant; the regulations should be thorough and complete. The victims of sex crimes should be provided with special protection in set-up of the criminal proceedings and judicial conducts, among which victims’right of privacy, right of reputation and right of indemnity should be given more attention.The last part, the author proposed the concept of "special rights in criminal proceedings" which means, in criminal proceedings, the rights of victims of specific crimes and the rights of offenders. These special rights are different from the common rights. They are the personalized extension of common rights, such as the juvenile offenders, juvenile victims and victims of sex crimes who, as a special group, should have some speical rights which are different from ordinary people’s rights in the criminal proceedings.