PARIS – The French National Assembly adopted legislation on Monday night that characterizes sex between adults and children under 15 as rape, a move taken after years of debate and rounds of sexual abuse scandals gradually pressured lawmakers to move closer the French penal code of that of many other Western countries.
“Children are off limits”, French Minister of Justice Eric Dupont-Moretti, said the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, before Monday’s vote. According to the bill, sexual intercourse under the age of 15 would be punishable by 20 years in prison, unless the age difference between consensual partners was small.
The bill, which also includes a provision that would make incest a specific crime, will go to the Senate this month and is expected to get final approval in April. The ban on incest also applies to sexual relations between children under the age of 18 and their stepfathers.
The fact that lawmakers agreed to set an age of consent just three years after they voted against a similar law largely reflects the impact of a series of recent sexual abuse scandals.
An assessment of child abuse occurred in the past year, amid the fall from grace of a writer who for decades was openly involved in pedophilia with the support of powerful friends and amid accusations of incest against a leading French intellectual who emerged in January. .
New allegations of sexual abuse against powerful figures in politics, the arts and the media that fueled the new #MeToo movements have also increased pressure for the French government to act.
“There has been a real shift in public opinion and an awareness that there is a problem with these cases of sexual violence,” said Pierre Verdrager, a sociologist who studied pedophilia, adding that France has become highly aware of these issues.
Feminists also contributed to this change in attitude, said Verdrager, and raised public awareness by speaking out against sexual abuse in the arts and covering Paris with posters denouncing domestic and sexual violence.
French law already prohibited sex between an adult and a child under 15, but it was not automatically considered rape. Other circumstances, such as the use of coercion, threats or violence, were necessary to characterize such sexual relations as rape.
“Questioning minors to see if they were consenting even if they were 10 or 11 years old is really a French exception,” said Mr. Verdrager.
“I think that’s what the legislature wants to get rid of,” he added.
France in 2018 toughened sex crime laws and extended the statute of limitations for rape against minors under 20 to 30, but lawmakers stopped before setting an age of sexual consent, citing legal complications.
Some lawmakers, following the warnings of the French Constitutional Council, feared that setting an age of consent would automatically criminalize sexual relations between a minor below the age of consent and a person just a few years older. The council reviews the legislation to ensure that it complies with the French constitution.
In response, the new bill includes a “Romeo and Juliet” clause that would allow sex between a child under 15 and an adult up to five years older. This clause does not apply to cases of rape or assault.
“I don’t want to put an 18-year-old on trial because he had a consent relationship with a 14-and-a-half-year-old girl,” said Dupond-Moretti.
Alexandra Louis, a French lawmaker who supports the bill, said the provisions that were added to the bill, such as the Romeo and Juliet clause, gave her hope that the measure would be approved by the Constitutional Council.
About 300 amendments were discussed, but the project was finally approved unanimously and in one day. Ms. Louis said the bill “reached consensus” and marked “a historic breakthrough”.
The legislation also extends the statutory term for rape of a minor beyond 30 years in cases where the adult has raped other people, and introduces 10-year prison sentences and a fine of 150,000 euros, or about $ 180,000, for any person convicted of inciting children under the age of 15, via the Internet, to commit sexual acts.
“Our task is enormous,” said Dupont-Moretti. “It is about changing the law to finally, completely and totally protect our children.”