Analysis On The Sentencing And Application Of The Crime Of Molesting Children

To protect our children is to protect the future of our country.Compared with adults,children are more vulnerable to molestation because they are less capable of self-prevention and self-protection and lack an accurate understanding of the nature of molestation.The White Paper on the Procuratorial Work of Minors(2020)and the White Paper on the Procuratorial Work of Minors(2021)released data on child molestation,pointing out that the situation in the protection of minors is not optimistic.Besides the published data,there are many other unacknowledged acts of child molestation.Child molestation often occurs within the family,but also often occurs in the campus,community and other public places where children go in and out.With the continuous development of Internet technology,the network space molestation of children is increasing.In recent years,criminal law has been revised through legislation,relevant normative documents have been introduced and guiding cases have been announced.This is intended to show that the state is increasing punishment for this kind of cases,but also to prove that this kind of cases have become a widespread phenomenon in the society.By expanding the scope of application of the aggravated circumstances of crime of indecency with children,we can protect children’s physical and mental health more comprehensively.In order to protect the rights and interests of children,it is necessary to study and analyze the judicial application of the crime of child molestation in sentencing.First of all,in the "gathering law case" website to find and sort out the crime of child molestation decision documents,from the sentencing circumstances,sentence statistics,the defendant and the victim relationship three aspects of the current analysis and summary of the characteristics of the crime of child molestation on the application of different sentences,aggravated circumstances low application rate,affected by the identity relationship and the number of crimes.According to the current situation of judicial application of sentencing of this crime,the following three problems are found and analyzed: First,the application of sentencing circumstances standard is inconsistent.It mainly shows that the identification standards of "gathering people","public places" and "in public" are not clear.Different understandings of the definition of "egregious";The standard for injuries "causing injury to a child or other serious consequences" is unclear.Second,in judicial practice,the judgment and sentencing result of this crime is light,the main reason is that "obscene means or other bad circumstances" provision is difficult to play its role,and the sentencing result is greatly affected by the statutory leniency circumstances,discretionary circumstances.Third,the circumstances of severe punishment are not perfect,mainly manifested as the high crime rate of personnel with special responsibilities;Recidivism is widespread.In view of the above about the crime of child molestation in the judicial application of the existing problems,put forward three ways to solve:the first is to clarify the crime of sentencing circumstances standards,the specific solution is to clarify the "gathering","public places","in public" identification standards;Correctly understand the meaning of "egregious";Define the criteria for injuries that "cause injury or other serious consequences to the child".The second solution is to balance the judgment result.It is necessary to accurately understand the connotation of "indecent means is bad or there are other bad circumstances",and correctly apply lenient punishment circumstances and discretionary sentencing circumstances.The third is to improve the crime of severe punishment,specifically to upgrade the special responsibility personnel to the age of 14 children under the statutory punishment;Will repeat as aggravating circumstances.Through the above solutions,we can better reflect the principle of maximizing children’s interests,protect children’s physical and mental health in an all-round way,and create a good social environment for children’s healthy growth.