“France, Where Age of Consent Is Up for Debate (they’ve never established one)”
Everybody here in France knows the sexual majority age is 15 and frolicking with adolescents below that age (with their consent, that goes without saying) is pedophilia.
The notion of age of consent is in the law probably since Napolean. “Up for debate” my arse.
I know nothing about French law but what I read here in America in English, but I haven’t seen anything yet to contradict anything in the article. I wonder if you all read it? It goes into how France’s laws on age of consent differ from other countries and what’s missing, and that is a law on age of consent.
You mention, PapaBear, that someone can get 5 years in prison for sexual conduct with a minor. I believe the article mentions that possibility and explains it. Is a maximum of 5 years adequate for sex with an 8-year-old, or an 11-year-old? And it’s termed an infraction, not rape. The case mentioned in the story that provoked outrage in France was a man originally charged with an infraction for sexual conduct with an 11-year-old.
“The accusations were of an adult raping a child—a crime that, in France, can lead to a 20-year prison sentence for the perpetrator when the victim is 15 or younger.
“But it initially wasn’t charged that way. When the case first went to court in September, the man faced only charges of “sexual infraction,” a crime punishable with a maximum of five years in jail and a €75,000 fine.”
And this is how the article says that the man’s attorneys described the girl: “She was 11 years and 10 months old, so nearly 12 years old,” defense lawyer Marc Goudarzian said. Sandrine Parise-Heideiger, his fellow defense lawyer, added: “We are not dealing with a sexual predator on a poor little faultless goose.”
The article also claims this: “Under French law, a charge of rape requires “violence, coercion, threat, or surprise,” even if the victims are as young as the girl in the Montmagny case (this case of the 11-year-old).”
Then the article also says that the point about France not having a true age of consent law is that whether or not it’s rape is left to the discretion of the judge, with the lack of such an age of consent law feeding the notion that some children, at least, can consent to adults (the pedophile view). The article then says that because of the outcry over this case, the judge did decide to up the charge to rape, but only because of the outcry and at his discretion. So, the point the article makes is that sex with someone under 15, an 11-year-old or of whatever age, is not automatically statutory rape under French law.
From a French language site linked to in the article, translated by Google (there’s a paywall so that’s all of the article that’s accessible):
Sexual relationship at age 11: Pontoise prosecutor’s office does not prosecute for rape
SEPTEMBER 25, 2017BY MICHAËL HAJDENBERG
In Val-d’Oise, an 11-year-old child had sex with a 28-year-old stranger. She followed him, then underwent the act without protest, which makes the prosecutor say she was consenting. The man was to be tried for “sexual abuse” , not for rape. A French specificity.
On April 24, 2017, 11-year-old Sarah, who was sixth in Val-d’Oise, agreed to follow a 28-year-old man who approached her in a square. He leads her to a building where they will have sex, the first in the stairwell, the second in an apartment. These facts are not disputed. But that’s the way you have to call them. Because the individual, will be tried in February (the case to be tried on September 26 was returned), in Pontoise, for “sexual abuse on minor 15 years” , despite the complaint for “rape” that had been filed. The prosecution considers that Sarah was consenting. Despite his very young age.