The French parliament passed a law according to which sex with a child under the age of 15 will automatically be considered rape and punishable by a criminal term of up to 20 years.
Previously, sex with minors under 15 years old was illegal, but criminal punishment could only follow after evidence of coercion of a child into sexual intercourse. If the violence was not proven, then the article was re-qualified into a lighter one.
“No adult aggressor will be able to demand the consent of a minor under the age of 15,” Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti said.
The new law also included the article “Romeo and Juliet”, which decriminalized sexual relations between teenagers. To fall under the law, one of the participants in sexual intercourse must be more than five years older than the other. This exemption will not be used in cases of rape.
So the French government decided to revise the legislation after a series of scandals related to sexual violence against minors, including incest.