Freedom again for a child who has tried to rape a minor in Jurbarkas: the expert mentioned why such a decision is normal

We recall that the appeals court reversed the judgment of the first instance court and increased the moral damages awarded to the girl to 10,000. and imposed an additional obligation on the convict to participate in the behavior correction program for 1 year. The convicted young man was also suspended for three years.

Social media has re-started a heated debate about why the young man who committed the crime, who was a minor at the time, was not jailed anyway. The experts interviewed by Delfi agreed that the crime committed was very serious and terrible, but pointed out some other things.

The victim is forgotten again

Dr. Expert of the Center for the Development of Equal Opportunities Margarita Jankauskaitė told the news portal that the sexual abuse of women is not taken seriously enough in Lithuania again.

“I would even say that at the state level there is no awareness of how terrible this crime is. “A great trauma is caused to a person, and when I say that it is not perceived at the state level, I emphasize that we do not have any system of attention to victims in Lithuania,” he said.

According to her, even in this court decision, there is more concern about how the characteristics of a child who was a minor at the time of the crime will be presented.

“10 thousand. A euro fine is a total laugh in this context. So once again, nobody talks about how to be with a girl and what help will be given. There is no such help at the state level, so I think the The biggest problem here is. It seems that we are more concerned that the rights of the person who committed the crime are not violated, but we do not think at all about the victim’s situation, “explained M. Jankauskaitė.

He also mentioned that there is a so-called directive of victims, which forces to take care of the victims, but de facto these people are entirely left to their own devices.

“In a word, as you know it, do it. Okay, get those 10k. now he can spend that money on rehab, on psychologists, on something else. However, in my opinion, this is a bit cynical, so it would be a stone for me to address the state. “

Public outrage – understandable

The psychologist-social lecturer Edvardas Šidlauskas commented that in this situation there are two sides of the coin that must be taken into account.

“The first thing that is specific of that type is the need to design an impulse control or management program, perhaps also skill development. This is a common practice in many states, where anger management training is provided after violent crimes or, for example, aggressive driving, while the other alternative is prison. There is another option, which includes both prison and forced training, ”he explained.

According to him, in all cases the objective is to re-socialize a person, because it is very important to reintegrate him into society, and not just to punish him, because the punishment itself does not develop any skills.

“So it should be made very clear that no punishment creates a skill, not for children, not for immature adults, not for anyone else. Skills are created by their education, and this is what professionals do if their parents didn’t. “

The other thing, he continued, is that there is a society whose desire for revenge is, in principle, also fully understood, because after such aggression there is always a certain fear and impotence.

“This story is a kind of resentment for all of us, because it is here that we try to desecrate and still go unpunished. Then that feeling of helplessness that we cannot defend a person and it causes aggression. So it looks like we want to “take down” the perpetrator. However, we want to stop the possibility of such cases rather than the person himself. The penal code has arisen from such natural indignation, so it is common and natural to react in this way, ”said E. Šidlauskas.

However, he asked to take into account to what extent such severe punishment would benefit the youth’s socialization. In his opinion, in no way was he punished to the maximum.

“The goal is to fix and integrate. The psychology of law, however, is based on the fact that we cannot prohibit crime, but we can turn it into maximum harm. If that benefit far outweighs the harm a person will suffer, then it discourages them from doing so.

On the other hand, what happens if a person thinks rationally, with a sober head, but does not control impulses? Therefore, in this case, it is more of an animal than a human. For this reason, I think it is very important to implement all the integration, socialization, psychotherapy and other skills programs ”, said the psychologist.

E. Šidlauskas recalled that it is common practice in Lithuania to imprison him first, but it is more significant to direct such people to some kind of socialization center, perhaps to perform certain tasks so that he no longer wants to commit a crime.

Such crimes are not an isolated case

Linas Žalnieriūnas, professor and lawyer at Mykolas Romeris University, emphasized that justice is administered only by a court, therefore it is especially important to follow legal arguments in the process of administering justice.

Sometimes the interest in ending a criminal case with severe punishment, based on public emotions, does not always comply with the provisions of the law. The fact that a part of society does not know the legal norms and the practice of their application in such cases determines the unjustified interest in punishing some people more severely than others in similar situations. However, this does not conform to the principle of justice ”, commented the criminal law expert.

He noted that a minor adult convicted for the first time is not usually sentenced to prison for interrupting the crime at the stage of aggression, and this is normal practice.

“Article 92 of the Penal Code provides for the possibility of postponing the execution of the sentence for a minor who has committed an intentional crime. Therefore, imposing a more severe penalty in this case than on other persons who have committed similar acts would detract from the development of the administration of justice and the consistent application of the law. It would probably be difficult to find legal arguments as to why a person who has committed an identical act should be punished more severely than other people who have committed such acts ”.

According to L. Žalnieriūnas, the resonance in society shows that we live in a sensitive society that increasingly condemns crime, because if in the past victims of sexual crimes were afraid to seek help because on occasions they were convicted or thought that they had provoked the perpetrator, today the attitude is almost gone.

“It seems that society is increasingly condemning all crimes, and that is great. This can be seen in the new crimes of public interest: the widespread escalation of the rights of the child, the current violations of animals, etc. Therefore, it is important that the media provide high-quality, objective information about criminal activities.

It should be noted that these cases are rare, but a large proportion of them do not reach the public, as victims often avoid publicity. Therefore, a lower proportion of public cases creates a biased belief that a unique and exclusive crime has been committed. This belief determines the expectation of exceptional and severe punishment, “he said.

Therefore, he explained, a lower proportion of cases made public creates a biased belief that a unique and exclusive crime has been committed, and that belief determines the expectation of both exceptional and severe punishment.

“However, courts are often faced with such crimes, with excellent knowledge of the law and penalties imposed in jurisprudence, adequately assess the actions of the perpetrators, impose the appropriate punishment. Therefore, there is no reason to argue that the courts impose too lenient sentences (and in this case). The same applies to the amounts awarded. However, it is very regrettable that the victim had to experience it, “concluded L. Žalnieriūnas.