VietNamNet Bridge – The local media has recently reported a lot of child sexual abuse, causing worry among parents.

Parents may panic and seek ways to protect their children from falling into the trap of sexual abuse crime, but they seem to pay no attention to finding the cause of rape cases.

Do not understand and taking liberties with the laws

Among a series of rape cases reported by the media, most of them were related to children and adolescents.

The criminals are diverse, at various ages, from young to old people. In many cases, the perpetrators are acquaintances or have blood relationship with the victim.

However, when the cases were discovered and brought to public trial, many criminals admitted that they did not know or understand the law.

For this reason, defendant Nguyen Quoc Thi, 22, Hanoi, cried in the court after he was sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of raping his “child” girlfriend.

According to lawyer Nguyen Duc Hau, head of the Hung Vuong Law Office in Phu Tho province, considering the cause of a series of child rape cases, lack of understanding of the law is one of the main factors.

Many criminals thought that it is illegal only if having sex without the agreement of the partner, Hau said.

The lawyer stressed that we need to distinguish three offenses: Rape, having sex with children and child rape. All of these offenses are clearly defined in the Penal Code.

Accordingly, rape is defined as a man uses force to have sexual intercourse with a woman against the will of the woman.

For children under 13 years old, any act of sexual intercourse with children in this age group is considered as child rape, even if the victim has the initiative, agree with or response to the act.

Those who have sexual intercourse with children from 13 - 16 years old will be considered one of the two counts: having sexual intercourse with children if there is consent from the victim or child rape if the is no agreement from the victim under Article 112 of the Penal Code.

The law clearly defined the behavior, the offense level and the severity of the penalty on child rape, but in fact, the level of penalties that the courts apply to this type of crime is not enough solid tough.

The highest penalty is the death penalty but this is rarely given unless the perpetrator simultaneously commits two offenses of "child rape" and "murder." Most of the perpetrators are only sentenced for several years in jail, based on extenuating circumstances.

Early physical development and moral decline



Seeing rape as an alarming social phenomenon, Doctor of psychology Nguyen Thi Kim Quy said that the Vietnamese society is having a problem. Moral decadence is now widespread.

In the current society, individual freedom is highlighted, so the instinct rises, plus poor education of lifestyle, leads to the increase of rape cases.

According to Dr. Kim Quy, many behaviors which used to be seriously valued in terms of ethics, has been discounted today. For example, if a single woman was pregnant, she might have her head shaven and drifted to the river, but now people do not care about it. The concept of considering sex as daily food and drink is also pursued by lot of young people.

The world is increasingly flat and many trends are imported into Vietnam. Being unselective, one would be harmfully affected.

Explaining why child rape cases are on the rise in Vietnam, in many cases the victims had consent with the perpetrators, Dr. Kim Quy said that the age of puberty is now shorter. In the past, the average age of puberty was from 14-15 years of age for girls and 15-16 for boys but now it is shortened to 11-12 years old.

Early puberty due to many factors such as good food, environmental and social impacts. Puberty means the natural needs to like the opposite sex and is interested in the opposite sex, or in other words is like love.

While the demand for sex is formed, children may not have the fully psychosocial development and experience life, resulted in the gap between physical development and social psychology.

They lack skills and knowledge, so their desire is not controlled and they cannot win themselves.

In addition, at the age of puberty, children are curious to discover everything. Under the impact of information from books, newspapers, porno materials, they will be excited and their instincts are further aroused.

If the parents lack of control, lack of knowledge about reproductive health and do not teach their children how to protect themselves while the school ignores gender knowledge education, children will accidentally go the wrong way and have early sex.

Dr. Quy said that many children at the ages of 12-13 called her psychological consulting center to ask very naïve questions.

Many 12-year-old girl asks "If I have a relationship with boyfriend in the same class, am I pregnant?" or "I had sex already, how can I do know?" Notably, not only urban children, but many children in rural areas also called to ask about the same issues.

According to Dr. Kim Quy, the current curricula for children at the ages of 10-13 almost do not mention anything about reproductive health.

Meanwhile, many children have earlier puberty. The education programs are backward from reality.

M.Anh