Rape of a child : “our law protects the perpetrators”

BrunoWeltmann/epictura

Published the 27.09.2017 at 19h18

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Keywords :

violenfanceviolence

A 28 year old male appeared before the court after he imposed a sexual relationship with a child of 11 years. Curiously, the qualification of rape has not been selected. The man is being pursued by the prosecutor of Pontoise for “sexual assault” on a girl. The judges have considered that the victim, who has not expressed opposition, therefore, was consensual.

In France, no legal text stipulates that below a certain age, a child cannot be considered to be sexually consenting. An absurdity, according to Dr. Muriel Salmona, psychiatrist and president of the association Traumatic Memory and Victimology.

A child of 11 years old can be sexually willing ?

Dr. Muriel Salmona : of course not, it is an aberration to say that. A child of 11 does not have the maturity psychoaffective and sexual, nor the tools, emotional and intellectual, to develop an ability to have a free and informed consent, to decide in any case. It is for this purpose that at this age, he can only undertake only a certain number of approaches, such as surgery. On the other hand, it would be mature enough to accept a sexual relationship, but also to protect themselves from sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies ?

Let’s be serious. A child may be flattered that an adult gave him a compliment, but what he is looking for is nothing other than the recognition, not in a sexual relationship. The sexual act imposed on a child has a huge impact on her physical and psychic integrity, his dignity. Be taken as a sexual object generates a psychotraumatisme, on which there is absolute consensus.
We have all the tools to deal with this type of business. But now, there is this specificity of French, according to which the consent of the child is left to the discretion of the specialist jurisdictions. This is very shocking.

Why the French act has not introduced a presumption of non-consent for children ?

Dr. Muriel Salmona : The act of 1980 is based on the notion that every person is presumed to consent to a sexual act. It is up to the victim to prove non-consent, with four factors : violence, constraint, threat or surprise. Most of the countries have introduced a presumption of non-consent for children by establishing age limits varied (12 years in Switzerland, 16 in Sweden). But not France – and the law was upheld by the Constitutional Council in 2015. The case law has retained the age of five years, below which it cannot be considered to be sexually consenting.

This law protects the perpetrators, while the international Conventions enshrine the right of the child to be protected. Why this would be for children to protect themselves from predators ? It’s been a long time that I alert to the need to establish a presumption of non-consent. The texts of law to secure sexual maturity at 15 years. You may retain this limit.

How to understand the characterization of the act by the parquet floors ?

Dr. Muriel Salmona : It is incomprehensible, all the more that the moral constraint was easily demonstrable, since they can deduct it from the authority and of the age difference. In this case, it was a child of 11 years and an adult of 28 years old… But there has been no statement. The elements usually considered – the sideration, dissociation, etc. – have not been taken into account. We only heard that the victim ” was more than his age “, and that the predator seemed to be younger.

The justice already has a tendency to de-qualify the rape by sexual assault, in order to avoid a procedure, long and poorly paid, before the assize court. It is important to know that only 10% of victims file a complaint after rape. On this set of complaints, 70 % are classified without suites, 15 % are déqualifiées. In the end, we end up with 1 % of condemnation of the attackers.

Is this not a general tendency to consider children as adults responsible for their actions ?

Dr. Muriel Salmona : maybe, because children are sponges. But they can be too as long as it wants to, impose our vision of the adult, they are still children. A child does not want a sexual act. People do not have the courage to imagine a 11 year old girl with a penis of adult in the mouth. They don’t want to imagine what the vagina of a little girl, penetrated by an adult of 28 years. There is a deficit of representation. Yet, said like that, it’s pretty clear ?

All the attention is fixed on the consent of this girl. We do not put the projector on the adult of 28 years, father of two children. He knew perfectly what he was doing. It is neither more nor less crimes around children.