Minimum one-year prison sentence: penalties for child abuse to be toughened © zapomicron (shutterstock)
The federal government's abuse commissioner, Rorig, calls for further debate on how to curb sexual abuse of children and young people. However, he said, higher penalties would not necessarily achieve their goals.
Johannes-Wilhelm Rorig considers the planned tightening of penalties by Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) to be correct, above all it is an "important signal for those affected", he told the newspapers of the Funke Mediengruppe (Monday). But alone "with tighter penalties we do not prevent abuse," emphasized Rorig. To end the debate now would be a "huge mistake".
"Perpetrators know what penalties they face"
The quick call for tougher laws was after the abuse case in Munster "the typical political reflex", said Rorig. "However, we will not win the fight against sexual violence against children solely through higher threats of punishment." They did not stop a "sex offender who rapes, tortures and films children while doing so". The perpetrators would know what heavy penalties they would face if they were caught. "Then they get – like the perpetrators in Staufen – prison sentences of twelve years or, as in Lugde, 13 years. They will never get out of preventive detention," said the abuse commissioner.
"Political will still too weak"
It is much more important to increase the risk of detection for perpetrators of abuse. This can be achieved, as in NRW, through improved educational and preventive work and better police investigation possibilities. Close cooperation between all authorities serving the best interests of the child, especially between the youth welfare offices and the family courts, is also central.
Rorig criticized parties and prime ministers in the fight against sexual abuse of children and adolescents. "The political will to fight sexual violence against children has been far too weak so far!"he said in an interview.
Every prime minister should be the supreme child protector
He called on every prime minister to "declare themselves the supreme child protector of their country". All federal states should also appoint a state abuse commissioner with the rank of a state councilor and draw up and implement an "interdepartmental master plan" to combat sexual violence against children.
In a letter to all parties, the abuse commissioner demanded that the topic of abuse be strongly anchored in their future election programs. On its letter only CDU, SPD and the FDP would have announced themselves briefly, CSU, left and Greens would not have reacted.