Infracţiunea de viol săvârşită asupra unui minor. Aspecte de drept penal şi procesual penal

Through Law No. 217/2023 and Law No. 424/2023, the legislator introduced a new crime of rape that has a minor as the victim and which will be introduced in art. 2181 of Law No. 286/2009 regarding the Criminal Code. By Law no. 217/2023, changes were also made to Law No. 135/2010 on the Code of Criminal Procedure. The legislator’s desire was to create a legislative framework through which minor victims of sexual abuse, regardless of whether they were committed by an adult or a minor, would be additionally protected. However, the legislator made it difficult to understand the new legal texts in the chapter dedicated to offences against sexual freedom and integrity and created legislative vacuums as a result of the abrogation of Art. 220 of the Criminal Code regarding sexual intercourse with a minor. The present study merely analyses the crime of rape committed against a minor, compared to rape seen in the classical sense, and highlights the shortcomings of the amendments, in the hope that the legislator will remedy it in the near future and create, indeed, a coherent legislative framework, one that will provide victims of sexual abuse with protection in the true sense of the word. In addition to the legal aspects, some psychological ideas will be introduced that can help legal practitioners when it comes to interviewing minor victims.