Research On The Protection Of Minor Victims’ Rights And Interests In The Crime Of Sexual Assault In China

In recent years,the number of sexual crimes on minors in China has been increasing year by year,which has aroused widespread public concern.Influenced by the traditional concept of litigation,the legislature and judicial organs focus on preventing and punishing crimes of sexual assault on minors,while the minor victims of sexual assault seem to be a silent group that no one cares about.In the past two years,China’s judicial organs have responded to the rapidly rising crimes of sexual assault on minors in a timely manner,and formulated various systems of "one-stop" inquiry,legal aid,psychological assistance,etc.in judicial interpretation to protect and relieve minor victims in sexual assault crimes.The legislature also amended the Law on the Protection of Minors in time,absorbing various systems that haveachieved good implementation results,so as to raise it to the legal level.China has made a series of beneficial explorations on the protection of juvenile victims in sexual assault crimes,but there are still some deficiencies in legislative and judicial protection.In view of this,this paper focuses on the protection of the rights and interests of the minor victims in China’s sexual assault crimes,and responds to the relief needs of the minor victims in China’s sexual assault crimes by proposing to improve the legislative regulation and judicial protection,so as to provide timely and effective compensation for their infringed legitimate rights and interests,and provide institutional care and protection for this silent group.This article is divided into four parts: The first part defines the basic concept of sexual assault on minors by introducing the provisions of international treaties and judicial documents in China.Secondly,by summarizing the 62 judicial documents of sexual assault on minors in a province from 2019 to 2021 searched by Chinese judicial documents online,the basic situation of juvenile victims in sexual assault crimes in China is analyzed.Finally,it points out three theoretical bases for protecting the legitimate rights and interests of juvenile victims in sexual assault crimes.The second part analyzes the current problems in the protection of juvenile victims in sexual assault crimes in China from two aspects of legislative regulation and judicial protection,that is,in the legislative level,there are gender restrictions on the object of rape crime in China,which does not support the claim for compensation for mental damages of juvenile victims;in the judicial level,there are secondary injuries in the process of investigation and evidence collection;there are restrictive conditions for juvenile victims to apply for lawyers’ help and legal aid;and psychological intervention for juvenile victims is lacking.The third part mainly introduces the provisions of foreign countries and regions on the protection of minor victims in sexual assault crimes,including the provisions on the behavior and object of rape,the provisions on compensation for mental damages,and the legislations on questioning minor victims and testifying in court.The fourth part,on the basis of drawing lessons from the beneficial experience of foreign countries in the protection of underage victims in sexual assault crimes and the active exploration of judicial organs in China’s practice,puts forward some suggestions to improve the protection of underage victims in sexual assault crimes in China: First,abolish the gender restriction of rape crimes;The second is to support the minor victim’s claim for compensation for mental damage;Third,strengthen the construction of specialized case-handling teams and implement "one-stop" case-handling places;Fourth,full coverage of legal aid for minor victims;Fifth,implement psychological intervention and follow-up treatment for minor victims.