强奸罪与嫖宿幼女罪的关系新论

在强奸罪与嫖宿幼女罪的关系上,两罪互斥论在刑法教义学上至少面临三方面的问题:一是论证逻辑中存在无法自洽的缺漏;二是所谓"有效同意"的实质标准既缺乏正当根据,也不具有可行性;三是对"卖淫幼女"具有被害人过错的潜在设定根本无法成立.即使不采纳"重法优于轻法"的处断原则,法条竞合论也可以合理处理奸淫幼女型强奸罪与嫖宿幼女罪的关系.关键在于,二者之间并非两个整罪之间的法条竞合,而只是第236条第2款与嫖宿幼女罪之间的法条竞合.     

浅析嫖宿幼女罪存与废

嫖宿幼女罪正式出现于1997年的刑法中,与原来刑法中的强奸罪相区别,成为了单行的刑法。从法条诞生之日起,此罪就一直处于舆论的风口浪尖上。有学者从解释论,再到立法论的法学态度,主张尊重现行法律。社会公众则一致指责嫖宿幼女罪为放纵对幼女犯罪的恶法。由于近年频发的嫖宿幼女行为,社会舆论存废之争再度被提起,法工委也已就嫖宿幼女罪的存废展开社会调研。本文旨在通过对嫖宿幼女罪的前世今生,犯罪构成,以及存在的问题分析来论述嫖宿幼女罪的存与废。     

嫖宿幼女罪存废之再思考

从犯罪构成来看,刑法第236条强奸罪第2款明确规定对"奸淫幼女"情形"以强奸论",此规定决定了嫖宿幼女罪是包含在强奸罪中的,嫖宿幼女的行为性质即强奸幼女,两罪属于法条竞合。从法定刑来看,嫖宿幼女罪实际比"奸淫幼女"情形下的强奸罪低,且在"奸淫幼女情节恶劣"、"奸淫幼女多人"等情况下并未设置相应的更严厉刑罚,因此根据法条竞合"重法优于轻法"的处理原则,嫖宿幼女罪的存在缺乏法理依据。从是否承认幼女性自主权和性决定权来看,强奸罪一律否定,而嫖宿幼女罪却予之肯定,态度前后冲突、自相矛盾,严重损害了刑法的严谨性和权威性。从立法初衷来看,嫖宿幼女罪对幼女的性生理和性心理未进行严格保护,而仅是有限保护,该罪设立而致的立法冲突同时也导致了司法实务的混乱和未成年幼女的"污名化",实行效果堪忧。     

嫖宿幼女行为适用法条新论

规定嫖宿幼女罪的法条与规定奸淫幼女型强奸罪的法条是特别法条与普通法条的关系。嫖宿幼女罪是奸淫幼女犯罪的特别犯中的减轻犯。对嫖宿幼女的犯罪,只能适用嫖宿幼女罪的法条定罪处罚。对嫖宿幼女多人、2人以上轮流嫖宿幼女或者有其他嫖宿幼女严重情节的案件,不能按奸淫幼女型强奸罪定罪处罚。只要将嫖宿幼女罪的侵害对象限定在以卖淫为业的幼女(即"雏妓")的范围内,并严格按刑法的相关规定和定罪量刑的原理原则处理案件,轻纵犯罪的问题就不会发生。     

从释义《惩治性侵未成年人意见》第20条论及嫖宿幼女罪的存废与适用问题

近期,最高人民法院、最高人民检察院、公安部、司法部四机关联合颁布了《关于依法惩治性侵未成年人犯罪的意见》,其中第20条涉及到了嫖宿幼女罪和强奸罪中"奸淫幼女"的关系问题。笔者通过论析嫖宿幼女罪的构成要件及其与强奸罪的关系认为,第20条规定的行为本身就不符合嫖宿幼女罪构成,但因司法实务中易被误判为嫖宿幼女罪,才以司法指导性意见的形式强调该行为只能认定为强奸罪,但该规定并没有要悬空嫖宿幼女罪罪名的意思。由此,笔者进一步阐述了对嫖宿幼女罪存废的观点,并以"量刑反制定罪"思维分析了嫖宿幼女罪和强奸罪在司法适用中的罪名认定问题,以此论证嫖宿幼女罪独立存在的价值。     

嫖宿幼女罪废除论

嫖宿幼女罪是我国1997年刑法妨害社会管理秩序罪中的一个罪名,关于此罪的设定有很多疑问,历年来争议不断。不少学者认为此罪的设立甚不合理,应该废除。作者拟从此罪和强奸罪中的奸淫幼女的构成要件、刑法的基本原则以及未成年保护的角度出发,说明嫖宿幼女罪与强奸罪中的奸淫幼女的同一性,认为立法上应废除嫖宿幼女罪,将嫖宿幼女作为奸淫幼女的一种情形,以强奸罪论处。     

嫖宿幼女行为的法条竞合问题

贵州习水嫖宿幼女案为刑法学界提供了一个澄清强奸罪与嫖宿幼女罪立法关系的契机,因为当前刑法理论中对嫖宿幼女罪的解释研究并不多,在这些文章中,论者则主要将矛头指向该罪立法的合理性。     

嫖宿幼女罪的一个反思性批判

嫖宿幼女行为是一种严重侵犯幼女身心健康的犯罪行为。1997年《刑法》则在其第360条第2款中增设了嫖宿幼女罪。然而,这一良好的初衷却因立法技术的原因导致其功能出现异化现象,主要表现为:放纵了犯罪分子;转嫁了道义责难;违背了公约精神。鉴于嫖宿幼女罪存在的严重问题,理论界形成了两派完善观点,即"解释完善论"和"废除构成论"。嫖宿幼女罪的立法价值是将幼女的身心健康和正常发育置于首要位置,嫖宿幼女行为应当按照奸淫幼女型强奸罪论处。     

论嫖宿幼女行为的刑法规制

我国对嫖宿幼女行为的刑法规制经历了一个从无到有、从模糊到明确的过程。现行刑法将嫖宿幼女行为单独设罪,导致了犯罪归类错误、刑罚横向失衡、价值导向混乱以及司法操作困难等问题。嫖宿幼女罪存在的缺陷无法通过解释论加以合理解决,应在立法上取消本罪,对嫖宿幼女行为根据其行为内容分别以强奸罪或者猥亵儿童罪定罪处罚。     

论法条竞合与想象竞合的区分及其适用原则——兼论军职罪中封闭的特权条款

军职罪中存在封闭的特权条款,想象竞合与法条竞合必须加以区分.形式上,两罪构成要件要素之间存在特别或者交叉关系的为法条竞合;两罪构成要件要素之间既不存在特别关系也不存在交叉关系的则为想象竞合.在法条之间存在特别关系的情况下,应严格适用特别法优于普通法的原则.在法条之间存在交叉关系的情况下,原则上应适用重法优于轻法的原则,但存在封闭特权条款的除外.     

Bhartṛhari and Maṇḍana on Avidyā

The concept of avidyā is one of the central categories in the Advaita of Śaṇkara and Maṇḍana. Shifting the focus from māyā, interpreted either as illusion or as the divine power, this concept brings ignorance to the forefront in describing duality and bondage. Although all Advaitins accept avidyā as a category, its scope and nature is interpreted in multiple ways. Key elements in Maṇḍana’s philosophy include the plurality of avidyā, individual selves as its substrate and the Brahman as its field (viṣaya), and the distinction in avidyā between non-apprehension and misapprehension. A closer investigation shows that Maṇḍana is directly influenced by Bhartṛhari’s linguistic non-dualism in developing the concept of avidyā. This study also compares other key constituents such as vivartta and pariṇāma that are relevant to the analysis of avidyā. As the concept of counter-image (pratibimba) emerges as a distinct stream of Advaita subsequent to Maṇḍana, this study also compares the application of pratibimba in the writings of Bhartṛhari and Maṇḍana.     

Unraveling the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Kāvyaprakāśa</Emphasis>: Jayadeva Pīyūṣavarṣa’s idiosyncratic sequence of topics in the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Candrāloka</Emphasis>

In his twelfth century alaṃkāraśāstra, the Candrāloka, Jayadeva Pīyūṣavarṣa reverses the sequence of topics found in Mammaṭa’s Kāvyapr-akāśa, an earlier and immensely popular work. With such a structural revisionism, Jayadeva asserts the autonomy of his own work and puts forth an ambitious critique of earlier approaches to literary analysis. Jayadeva investigates the technical and aesthetic components of poetry in the first part of the Candrāloka, prior to his formal semantic investigations in the latter half of the text, thus suggesting that aesthetic evaluations of poetry beneficially inform scientific investigations of language. Jayadeva’s organization of his chapters on the semantic operations, moreover, intimates that the study of suggestive and metaphoric functions of language clarifies our understanding of denotation, which is conventionally understood to be the primary and direct path of verbal designation.     

The Supreme Array Scripture: A New Interpretation of the Title “Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra”

This article argues for a new interpretation of the Sanskrit compound gaṇḍa-vyūha as it is used in the common title of the Mahāyāna text the Gaṇḍavyūha-Sūtra.The author begins by providing a brief history of the sūtra’s appellations in Chinese and Tibetan sources. Next, the meanings of gaṇḍa (the problematic member of the compound) are explored. The author proposes that contemporary scholars have overlooked a meaning of gaṇḍa occurring in some compounds, wherein gaṇḍa can mean simply “great,” “big” or “massive.” This general sense is particularly common in the compound gaṇda-śaila (a “massive rock” or “boulder”) and is found in such texts as the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, the Harivaṃśa and the Harṣacarita. Following the discussion of Gaṇḍa, the author examines the term vyūha (“array”) as it is used in the Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra. The article concludes with the suggestion that a more appropriate translation of the Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra would be “The Supreme array Scripture.”     

Evaluation of six presumptive tests for blood, their specificity, sensitivity, and effect on high molecular-weight DNA

Luminol, leuchomalachite green, phenolphthalein, Hemastix, Hemident, and Bluestar are all used as presumptive tests for blood. In this study, the tests were subjected to dilute blood (from 1:10,000 to 1:10,000,000), many common household substance, and chemicals. Samples were tested for DNA to determine whether the presumptive tests damaged or destroyed DNA. The DNA loci tested were D2S1338 and D19S433. Leuchomalachite green had a sensitivity of 1:10,000, while the remaining tests were able to detect blood to a dilution of 1:100,000. Substances tested include saliva, semen, potato, tomato, tomato sauce, tomato sauce with meat, red onion, red kidney bean, horseradish, 0.1 M ascorbic acid, 5% bleach, 10% cupric sulfate, 10% ferric sulfate, and 10% nickel chloride. Of all the substances tested, not one of the household items reacted with every test; however, the chemicals did. DNA was recovered and amplified from luminol, phenolphthalein, Hemastix, and Bluestar, but not from leuchomalachite green or Hemident.     

Monks Who Have Sex: Pārājika Penance in Indian Buddhist Monasticisms

In the study of Buddhism it is commonly accepted that a monk or nun who commits a pārājika offence is permanently and irrevocably expelled from the Buddhist monastic order. This view is based primarily on readings of the Pāli Vinaya. With the exception of the Pāli Vinaya, however, all other extant Buddhist monastic law codes (Dharmaguptaka, Mahāsāṅghika, Mahīśāsaka, Sarvāstivāda and Mūlasarvāstivāda) contain detailed provisions for monks and nuns who commit pārājikas but nevertheless wish to remain within the saṅgha. These monastics are not expelled. Rather, they are granted a special status known as the śikṣādattaka. In this paper I explore the rules. concerning pārājika penance and the śikṣādattaka with specific regard to monastic celibacy. Given that five out of six extant law codes recognise this remarkable accommodation to the rule of celibacy, I argue that we must look to Vinayas other than the Pāli Vinaya if we are to arrive at a nuanced and representative view of Indian Buddhist monasticism.

Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet. Augustine of Hippo (354–430 C.E.)

     

Family breakdown and the ‘Welfare Child’ in 19th and 20th century Britain

This article traces new cycles of interest in past children as distinct from past childhood. Recent work highlighting that a conceptualisation of childhood existed even in periods with few written records closes the chapter begun by Philippe Ariès in 1960. Instead, there has been a new surge of interest in children on the edges of family life, as well as children in similarly liminal positions between the worlds of adults and children: runaways, delinquents and orphans. Several themes in the literature are identified, based on the conflicting ideas of ‘body/mind’, ‘victim/threat’, ‘needs/rights’. It is noted that researchers are using more imaginative ways of reaching the lived experience of children than the family or institutional framework, and that an increasing link is drawn between historical and modern concerns such as child abuse and the care of ‘at risk’ children.     

Vedic Language and Vaiṣṇava Theology:Madhva’s Use of Nirukta in his Ṛgbhāṣya

This article explores the way in which Madhva (1238–1317), the founder of the Dvaita Vedānta system of Hindu thought, reformulates the traditional exegetic practice of nirukta or “word derivation” to validate his pluralistic, hierarchical, and Vaiṣṇava reading of the Ṛgvedic hymns. Madhva’s Ṛgbhāṣya (RB) is conspicuous for its heavy reliance on and unique deployment of this exegetical tactic to validate several key features of his distinctive theology. These features include his belief in Viṣṇu’s unique possession of all perfect attributes (guṇaparipūrṇatva) and His related conveyability by all Vedic words (sarvaśabdavācyatva). Such an understanding of Vedic language invokes the basic nirukta presupposition that words are eternally affiliated with the meanings they convey. But it is also based onMadhva’s access to a lexicon entitled Vyāsa’s Nirukti with which his critics and perhaps even his commentators seem to be unfamiliar.While the precise status of this text is the subject of ongoing debate, Madhva’s possession of special insight into the sacred canon is established in part by his unique claim to be an avatāra of the wind god Vāyu and a direct disciple of Viṣṇu Himself in the form of Vyāsa₁. Thus, Madhva’s use of nirukta invokes his personal charisma to challenge not only conventional understandings of the hymns but traditional exegetic norms. Madhva’s provision of an alternative tradition of nirukta provoked sectarian debate throughout the Vijayanagara period over the extent to which one could innovate in established practices of reading the Veda. Articulating the Veda’s precise authority was a key feature of Brahmin debates during this period and reflects both the empire’s concern with promoting a shared religious ideology and the competition among rival Brahman sects for imperial patronage that this concern elicited. By looking at how two of Madhva’s most important commentators (the 14^th-century Jayatīrtha and the 17^th-century Rāghavendra) sought to defend his niruktis, this article will explore how notions of normative nirukta were articulated in response to Madhva’s deviations. At the same time, however, examining Madhva’s commentators’ defense of his niruktis also demonstrates the extent to which Madhva actually adhered to selected exegetic norms. This reveals that discomfort with Madhva’s particular methods for deriving words stemmed, in part, from a more general ambivalence towards this exegetical tactic whose inherent open-endedness threatened to undermine the fixity of the canon’s very substance: its language. Vyāsa’s Nirukti is one of several ”unknown sources” cited in Madhva’s commentaries whose exact status continues to be debated. Some scholars (e.g. Rao, Sharma, Siauve) maintain that these texts are part of a now lost Pāṅcarātra tradition that Madhva is attempting to preserve. This may be true for many of these citations. However, in addition to claiming to be both an avatāra of Vāyu and Viṣṇu-as-Vyāsa’s student, Madhva states in several places (e.g., VTN 42, RB 162) that the canon has suffered loss during transmission and that only Viṣṇu can reveal it in its entirety. Thus, it is possible that Madhva intends texts like Vyāsa’s Nirukti to be viewed as part of an ongoing and corrective revelation, a notion that is compatible with many Vaiṣṇava traditions (Halbfass, 1991: 4).     

Student mentoring to enhance graduates’ employability potential

This paper considers whether the adoption of a subject-specific, classroom-based, voluntary extra-curricular student mentoring scheme could provide an effective mechanism and andragogic approach to enhance higher education students’ employability potential pre-graduation.Over the three-year pilot, 26 more advanced (second to fourth year) undergraduate students actively mentored nearly 400 first year undergraduate students during workshops delivered annually within forensic and policing focused courses. In total, 17 mentors anonymously completed online, post-scheme surveys. Survey data was quantitatively analysed to evaluate the scheme, establish which skills and attributes mentors had developed and investigate whether mentors could appropriately identify example skills within professional terminology used during employer recruitment. In addition, this paper reflects on the implementation of remote student mentoring during the COVID-19 pandemic and its adoption within a blended learning framework.The results from this research strongly support mentoring as an effective mechanism to develop undergraduate employability skills, significantly developing mentors’ self-confidence and self-efficacy in their interpersonal and communication skills. Although mentors were aware of university graduate attributes and thought they could evidence these with appropriate examples, in practice this was not necessarily the case. As a result, a framework is proposed to enable mentors to identify their skills and how they may align with competencies sought by relevant forensic and policing employers. However, other andragogic practices may need to be implemented to maximise the potential for successful graduate employment.     

Policing Outlawed Desire: ‘Homocriminality’ in Beat Spaces in Australia

Drawing on interview data of gay men who have had their behavior in public spaces scrutinised by agents of the law for signs deviance, this article explores the historical characteristics of police animosity towards such conduct in Australia. This entails examining encounters between police and gay men who pursue desire in ‘beat’ (or ‘cottage’ to the use the UK term) spaces. Exploring why these outlaw gay male subjects are so abject and troubling to the law, the discussion documents how law’s desire to regulate gay men plays out in the masquerade of ‘plain-clothes’ agent provocateur operations where police entrap gay men by mimicking gay bodily appearances, gestures and mannerisms. This article also examines how police regulation of gay desire functions as a form of violence that delimits expressions of same sex desire in public spaces. A key theme that underpins the analyses in this paper is that the policing of desire in ‘beat’ spaces helps produce qualities of illicitness and dangerousness and that this, in turn, fuels the circuit of desire at play between gay men and agents of the law.