Controversy has recently arisen about Finnish laws that define sex crimes against children.
Context:
- A 2018 court ruling sparked public, legal and political debate, asking if the threshold for persecution of sex offenders was too high
- Headlines like 'Finnish Court Rules Sex With Children is "Permitted"' were published – since then, Finland has updated its laws on child rape
- Before 2018: prosecutors had to prosecute on the basis of ‘aggravated’ sexual assault against children, which meant some cases did not qualify as rape
- A Supreme Court ruling stated “that sexual intercourse had been committed with violence or that the child had been in a state of fear or other helplessness”.
- This statement was highly criticized by legal scholars as it should be taken as a given that a child found itself in a state of fear of helplessness
Fact-Check speaks out against the above headline:
- In Finland it is in fact illegal for adults to 'have sex with children' under the age of 16, thus it is not ‘permitted’
- The 2018 case did, however, prompt the updating of Finnish laws to define sexual abuse as rape without requiring prosecutors to prove violence
- It was considered “symbolically important” that the offence is referred to as ‘rape’ and not ‘aggravated sexual assault of a child’
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