Sexual offences

People's sexual behaviour has been, is, and will continue to be guided by ethical and legal norms. Restriction refers to behaviour that disrupts established social mores and that in one way or another endangers other members of the community. In our culture, the interests of children and family are traditionally protected. Our current legal system is based on a desire to punish primarily those sexual acts that are objectively harmful to another person and his or her interests or that pose some threat to the stability of society. The main object of legal restriction is sexual conduct without the consent of the object, i.e. the broad area of sexual aggression. Offences against children and minors are a matter of socially acceptable consent to sexual intercourse. Such consent cannot be given by a child under the age of fifteen and, in some circumstances, even by a minor under the age of eighteen.

There are also sexual offences that objectively do not endanger anyone too much, yet the law punishes them. For example, non-aggressive genital exposure, sodomy (sexual intercourse with animals), incest between consenting adults, and so on. Sexual offences also include some acts of a more economic nature (pimping, trafficking in women, distribution of pornography, objects capable of endangering morality, especially if they concern children).

The relationship between sexual delinquency and sexual deviance is not direct. These areas are only partially related. Most sexual offences are committed by individuals who are not sexually deviant. Thus, sexual delinquency, like other crimes, is not the province of pathological and deranged individuals. However, those sex offenders whose actions were motivated by sexual deviance are of specific interest to sexology.

Sexual offence is a category that is not precisely defined by law. Sexual motivation plays a significant role in some non-sexual offences. Both property and violent offences may be committed out of infatuation, jealousy or partner conflict. Traditionally, a sexual offense is an offense that is somehow related to the sexual arousal of the offender or the object. In our new Criminal Code, we find in particular the following sexual offences.