The sexual abuse of children and adolescents by adults is nowadays highly publicised and rightly arouses social opposition, as well as the need to protect minors. Paedophilic acts are like a stone thrown into the water, and the circle of consequences spreads widely in many areas (personal, social, psychological, therapeutic and legal). The harm of child sexual abuse has a broad social, familial, developmental, cultural and generational background; it spills a wide stream around us and no one should remain indifferent to it. Public indignation alone is not enough, reliable knowledge and concrete educational and preventive actions are needed.
Definitions…
Sexual abuse of a child is the involvement of a child in sexual activity which the child is not capable of fully understanding and giving informed consent to, and/or which the child is certainly not developmentally mature to and cannot consent to in a legally valid way, and/or which is in conformity with the legal norms or customs of a given society. Sexual exploitation occurs when such activity is carried out between a child and an adult or between a child and another child; furthermore if due to their age or stage of development they are in a relationship of care, dependence, power. The purpose of such activity is to satisfy the needs of another person. Such activity may include:
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1. persuading or forcing a child to engage in sexual situations,
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2. the exploitation of a child for prostitution or other legally prohibited practices of a sexual nature,
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3. use of a child for the production of pornographic material or performances.
In Polish legal regulations, the sexual freedom of a child is protected in criminal law in a particularly strong way. The need for increased protection results primarily from the weaker position of the child in relation to adults. It is assumed that a person under the age of 15, due to the stage of development, does not have the ability to make a fully conscious decision to participate in any sexual activity. In Polish legal regulations, the definition of sexual abuse of children is not explicitly written down. The answer to the question of what behaviour is recognised as sexual abuse by Polish law is to be found in the relevant articles of the Penal Code:
Rape and coercion of sexual activity (Article 197 of the Penal Code):
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1. Whoever by using violence, an unlawful threat or deceit leads another person to have sexual intercourse, shall be subject to the penalty of deprivation of liberty from 2 to 12 years of imprisonment.
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2. If the perpetrator, in the manner specified in § 1, induces another person to submit to another sexual act or to perform The offender shall be subject to the penalty of the deprivation of liberty for a term of between 6 months and 8 years.
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3. If the perpetrator commits rape: jointly with another person; against a minor under the age of 15 years; against an ascendant, descendant, adoptee, adopter, brother or sister, he/she shall be subject to the penalty of deprivation of liberty for a term not shorter than 3 years.
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4. If the perpetrator of the act specified in § 1-3 acts with particular cruelty, he shall be subject to the penalty of deprivation of liberty for a term of not less than 5 years.
Sexual exploitation of the helplessness or insanity of another person (Article 198 of the Penal Code):
Whoever, taking advantage of the vulnerability of another person or of the lack of ability of such a person to recognise the significance of the act or to control his/her conduct, shall be subject to the penalty of the deprivation of liberty for a term between 6 months and 8 years.
Sexual exploitation of a relationship of dependence or a critical position (Article 199 of the Penal Code):
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1. Whoever, by abuse of a relationship of dependency or abuse of a critical position, induces another person to have sexual intercourse or to submit to another sexual act or to perform such an act, shall be subject to the penalty of deprivation of liberty to 3 years.
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2. If the act defined in § 1 has been committed to the detriment of a minor, the perpetrator shall be subject to the penalty of the deprivation of liberty for a term of between 3 months to 5 years.
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3. The penalty specified in § 2 shall be imposed on anyone who has sexual intercourse with a minor or performs another sexual act towards such a minor or leads him/her to submit to such acts or to perform them, abusing his/her trust or giving in return financial or personal benefit or the promise thereof.
Crimes under Articles 197, 199 § 1 and 198 of the Penal Code are, as a rule, prosecuted at the request of the victim. This means that the Police or the Prosecutor’s Office shall proceed if they obtain the consent of the victim or the victim’s legal representative in the case of children.
The most extensive law concerning sexual abuse of children is Article 200 of the Penal Code, as it is committed even if the minor consented to sexual intercourse. The fact of “seduction” by a minor or his/her subjectively perceived degree of physical maturity is also irrelevant for the punishability of this act.
Sexual exploitation of a minor (Article 200 of the Penal Code):
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1. Whoever has sexual intercourse with a minor under the age of 15 or engages in another sexual act towards such a minor or leads him/her to submit to such an act or to perform such an act, shall be subject to the penalty of deprivation of liberty for a term between 2 and 12 years.
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3. Whoever presents pornographic content to a minor under 15 years of age or gives him/her access to pornographic objects or distributes pornographic content in the manner allowing such a minor to become acquainted with it shall be subject to the penalty of deprivation of liberty for a term up to 3 years.
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4. The penalty specified in § 3 shall be imposed on anyone who, for his/her own sexual gratification or the sexual gratification of another person, presents a minor under the age of 15 to perform a sexual act.
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5. Whoever conducts advertising or promotion of an activity consisting in the dissemination of pornographic content in a manner allowing a minor under the age of 15 to become acquainted with such content, shall be subject to the penalty specified in § 3.
Grooming minors on the Internet is also a crime. This means that not only soliciting via the Internet to submit to or perform sexual activities is punishable, but also the initiation of a meeting via the Internet with the intention to use it for sexual purposes.
Electronic sexual corruption of a minor (Article 200 a. of the Penal Code):
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1. Whoever, in order to commit the crime specified in Article 197 § 3 points 2 or Article 200, as well as to produce or record pornographic content, through the intermediary of the information and communication system or network establishes contact with a minor under the age of 15 years, aiming at a meeting with him/her employing deception, exploitation of an error or incapacity to comprehend the situation properly, or through unlawful threat shall be subject to the penalty of deprivation of liberty for up to 3 years.
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2. Whoever, using an IT system or a telecommunication network, proposes to a minor under the age of 15 years sexual intercourse, submission to or performance of another sexual act or participation in the production or recording of pornographic content, and attempts to commit such an act, shall be subject to a fine, the penalty of limitation of liberty or deprivation of liberty for a term up to 2 years.
The offence of public promotion and praise of paedophilic behaviour. This provision indirectly concerns children themselves. It is important for the protection of personal dignity, it emphasises the lack of consent for paedophilic behaviour in Poland.
Propagation of paedophilia (Article 200 b. of the Penal Code):
Whoever publicly promotes or praises paedophilic behaviour shall be subject to a fine, the penalty of restriction of liberty or imprisonment for up to 2 years.
Incest (Article 201 of the Penal Code):
Whoever commits sexual intercourse with an ascendant, descendant, adoptee, adopter, brother or sister, shall be subject to the penalty of deprivation of liberty for a term between 3 months and 5 years.
Involving a minor in contacts with pornographic content (Article 202 of the Penal Code):
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3. Whoever for the purpose of dissemination produces, perpetuates or imports, stores or possesses or disseminates or presents pornographic content with the participation of a minor or pornographic content associated with the display of violence or the use of or using an animal, shall be subject to the penalty of deprivation of liberty for a term of between 2 and 12 years.
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4. Whoever fixes pornographic content with the participation of a minor shall be subject to the penalty of deprivation of liberty for a term of between 1 and 10 years.
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4a. Whoever stores, possesses or obtains access to pornographic materials involving the participation of a minor shall be subject to the penalty of the deprivation of liberty of 3 months to 5 years.
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4b. Whoever produces, disseminates, presents, stores or possesses pornographic content presenting a produced or processed image of a minor participating in a sexual act shall be subject to a fine, the penalty of limitation of liberty or deprivation of liberty for up to 2 years.
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4c. The penalty specified in § 4b shall be imposed on anyone who, for the purpose of sexual gratification, takes part in a presentation of pornographic content with the participation of a minor.
… it is the adult’s responsibility to maintain a good relationship with the child!
In international regulations, an important role is attributed to Article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, concerning the right of the child to freedom from violence, and also to a number of European acts, which, despite the lack of direct binding force, constitute guidelines for introducing changes in national law.
In Poland, despite the growing number of institutions helping abused children, there is still no system of institutions covering the whole country, offering assistance in all forms of abuse, according to common standards. Therefore, there are no registers that would make it possible to assess the scale of the problem of abuse, including sexual abuse of children. The only data that allow estimating the trend of the phenomenon are data from police and court statistics. However, these relate only to the small percentage of cases in which legal intervention has been taken. The relation of these data to the real scale of the phenomenon depends on many factors, such as the effectiveness of justice institutions or social attitudes to child sexual abuse.
Where to seek help?
Fundacja Dajemy Dzieciom Siłę
01-849 Warszawa, ul. Przybyszewskiego 20/24
tel.: 22 826 88 62
e-mail: cpd@fdds.pl
www.fdds.pl
Centrum Ochrony Dziecka
31-501 Kraków, ul. Kopernika 26
tel.: +48 785 032 106, +48 12 399 96 67, +48 785 042 123, +48 785 042 123
e-mail: cod@ignatianum.edu.pl
https://cod.ignatianum.edu.pl/o-nas/kontakt.html
Fundacja Mederi
04-730 Warszawa, ul. Złota 7/20
tel.: 22 111 00 36
e-mail: kontakt@fundacjamederi.pl
http://fundacjamederi.pl/kontakt/
Komitet Ochrony Praw Dziecka
00-521 Warszawa, ul. Hoża 27A, lok. 5
tel.: 22 626 94 19
e-mail: kopd@kopd.pl
http://kopd.pl/
Rzecznik Praw Dziecka
tel.: 800 12 12 12
http://brpd.gov.pl
Ogólnopolskie Pogotowie dla Ofiar Przemocy w Rodzinie „Niebieska linia”
tel.: 800 120 002
http://www.niebieskalinia.org/ogolnopolskie-pogotowie-dla-ofiar-przemocy
116 111 – Child and Youth Helpline
operates 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. You can also register at www.116111.pl and write a message
800 080 222 – Free 24-hour helpline for children and young people, parents and teachers.
Can also be contacted via www.liniadzieciom.pl
801 615 005 – All illegal and disturbing content found on the Internet can be reported here.
You can also report via www.dyzur.pl, by e-mail: dyzurnet@dyzurnet.pl
Children are abused – most often by… family members; relatives and friends of the family; teachers and tutors; priests; strangers unknown to the child and the family
The number of prosecutions in cases of sexual contacts with minors under 15 years of age reported to the police has remained in the last decade at a relatively stable level of nearly 2 thousand cases annually.
The number of proceedings concerning pornographic content of minors under 15 years of age and distribution, production or possession of pornographic content with the participation of minors has been dynamically increasing over the recent years. In 2009, there were 806 such cases.
The vast majority of perpetrators of the sexual exploitation of children are men. Women constitute only ca. 2% of suspects in sexual contacts with minors under 15 years of age and ca. 5% of suspects in Article 202 of the Penal Code (distribution, production, possession of child pornography).
The results of a research review presented in 2012 in the journal “Lancet”, published by WHO, indicate that children with intellectual disabilities experience sexual violence 4.6 times more often than non-disabled children.
The scale of the problem of child sexual abuse is much greater than indicated by police records or registers kept in centres providing assistance. Children rarely disclose the fact of sexual abuse. Lack of professional knowledge of adults results in the fact that only evident and drastic forms of abuse are recognized and intervene.
Sexual exploitation of a minor (Article 200 of the Penal Code) |
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Year |
Number of initiated proceedings |
Number of ascertained crimes |
2020 |
2367 |
1360 |
2019 |
2791 |
1489 |
2018 |
2613 |
1438 |
2017 |
2391 |
1324 |
2016 |
2289 |
1241 |
2015 |
2187 |
1096 |
2014 |
2156 |
1104 |
2013 |
2057 |
1454 |
2012 |
2003 |
1344 |
2011 |
1848 |
1533 |
2010 |
1793 |
1532 |
2009 |
1906 |
1657 |
Source: Police headquarters
HOW TO RESPOND when a child discloses sexual abuse…
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reassure the child that they are believed – the child needs to know that they can count on an adult,
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protect the child from guilt – all blame and responsibility lies with the perpetrator;
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remain calm – be supportive with facial and vocal expressions, do not show difficult emotions, do not be overprotective and allow the child to express not only negative but also positive feelings;
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have a safe place to talk in private
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don’t make promises you can’t keep – for example, that you won’t say anything to anyone
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do not judge the offender or what they have done – the child may be emotionally involved with the offender;
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be discreet – reassure the child that only those who can help and keep them safe will know about their situation
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report to the relevant services – a legal obligation;
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tell the child, in a language they understand, what is going to happen and reassure them of your support;
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do not investigate alone – do so with a team of professionals
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provide support – being involved in a case is bound to cause difficult emotions.
Depending on the situation, your own capabilities and the context, you should avoid taking action alone. Do:
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gather detailed and specific information,
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contact specialists and, if possible, review guidelines on legislation and reporting procedures,
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assess the suicide potential of the perpetrator and take precautionary measures. refer the case to specialists.
