Understanding Children Sexual Consent and Testimony: A Case Study of Kaohsiung District Court

• Main Authors: CHEN, YU-JU, 陳昱如
• Other Authors: JOU, SU-SYAN
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/89128829781167708935

碩士 === 國立臺北大學 === 犯罪學研究所 === 104 === Two cases of child sexual assault that triggered White rose movement on 2010, child victims were too young and it was hard to prove their sexual consent, the judges ruled that “no objective and subject evidence indicated the sexual conduct was against the child’s will” and convicted offenders based on Criminal Code 227, instead of 222. Due to the criticism from the public, the Supreme Court called for the 7th criminal divisions meeting in 2010 to solve the disputes. This study gather the practical experiences of justice and psychology field, aim to:1.Based on children psychosexual development, conclude the basis of children can exercise their sexual consent; 2.Probe into the influences factor of child testimony and expert identification to sexual assault conviction; 3.Integrate the advices from justice, medical and psychology experts, provide justice system to determine child sexual consent and testimony. This paper interviewed 2 judges, 2 clinical psychologists and a psychiatrist and intended to understand how to determine children sexual consent and improve their witness credibility and reliability. Results: The paper found that most of interviewees agree that the State should restrict children sexual behavior, however, based on the current legislation, the courts need to prove victim’s content as a main criteria to convict the offense. In child sexual assault cases, one of the most difficult parts in the trials is to determine the child’s consent. Courts usually prioritize the forensic evidence first and ambiguous about the creditability and reliability of children’s testimony. Furthermore, expert reports are used as a reference without any legal binding. This paper suggests a revision of legal sexual consent age. Children under 12 should be seen as no sexual consent liability, and age between 12-14 should be subject to psychiatric compulsory evaluation on their ability to consent their sexual conduct. Further, courts could improve their techniques of interviewing child victims and establish an expert evaluation system.