Felony of Sexual Abuse: Acts with Sexual Meaning and Relevance (Delito de Abuso Sexual: Actos de Significación Sexual y de Relevancia)

Abstract:     
The article describes the doctrinaire positions that exist to determine the sexual meaning of a conduct in the felonies of sexual abuse, drawing special attention to those that set aside subjective elements and understand sexual meaning as a normative concept. In the authors’ opinion, this formulation is deficient, considering the difficulties that conducts that constitute sexual abuse present: the equivocality of their expression. Therefore, and in order to determine the punishability of a conduct, it is necessary to revert to subjective elements. Acts with sexual meaning are normative elements, which are related to the lawlessness of the conduct and call the judges’ attention towards the existence of acts with different meanings, and whose illegitimacy must be determined by the presence of a subjective element. Its content is not necessarily limited to the lascivious intent. Moreover, it could also consist in the goal to involve a person in a sexual context

Note: Downloadable document is in Spanish.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 13

Keywords: Sexual abuse, normative element, subjective element, relevance

Accepted Paper Series