The rape of a minor would no longer be a crime but only a misdemeanor? This is what Internet users claim on social networks. A poster, which has been shared several hundred times, says: “With the Schiappa law, the rape of a minor is no longer a crime but an offense, and the maximum sentence goes from 20 years to 10 years”. The visual of a child forced to shut up accompanies the text. “The Republic on the move towards legal pedophilia”, is it then registered.
“Children in danger! We will have to react, while it manifests for pensions there are laws which are in the process of being passed without our seeing it, ”exclaims a surfer. What is it really ? 20 minutes make the point.
FAKE OFF
This false information is not new. It had already circulated in 2018, when the law was voted to strengthen “the fight against sexual and gender-based violence”. She was already accused of legalizing pedocrime. On the contrary, the law was intended to strengthen the repression of rape and sexual assault committed on minors. Another objective: the extension of the statute of limitations for public action for certain crimes when they are committed against minors.
But the text voted at the time had absolutely not changed the penalties incurred for rape in the Penal Code and had not transformed the crime of rape into a simple offense either. The article of the Penal Code which governs rape, Rule 223-22, provides that “rape is punishable by fifteen years’ imprisonment”. Under certain conditions deemed aggravating, the sentence increases to “twenty years of criminal imprisonment”, in particular “when it is committed on a minor of fifteen years”.
The offense of “sexual assault with penetration” abandoned
There is, however, a distinction between sexual assaults other than rape, which constitute a non-penetrative sexual act committed by violence, coercion, threat or surprise. This concerns sexual touching of a minor, for example. These are offenses tried by the criminal court, punishable by ten years in prison.
The confusion of Internet users probably comes from a distinction in this Schiappa law which was to be integrated at the time of the debates. This provided for the addition of “sexual assault with penetration”, which would not have been an offense punishable by 10 years’ imprisonment. This measure had obviously been the subject of numerous criticisms, with the fear that this distinction would allow the reclassification of rapes as a simple offense. The government had therefore abandoned this measure.