DEATH PENALTY FOR CHILD RAPE: EFFECT ON THE VICTIM
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Abstract
On July 10, 2019, the Union Cabinet in India approved amendments to an existing legislation dealing with the crime of sexual abuse against children. These amendments introduced the provision of a death penalty for aggravated sexual offences against children below the age of twelve. This is expected to deter potential offenders and discourage the rising trend of child sexual abuse in India. However, rather than focussing on the deterrent effect it may have on offenders, this paper analyses the amendment from the perspective of the child victim. The author shall ultimately attempt to answer whether the imposition of a death penalty on child sexual offenders indirectly places additional burdens on the victim in the criminal justice system. Firstly, the impact of the increase in sentence shall be examined. In this section, the author shall elaborate upon the amendment’s impact on rates of reporting and conviction. Furthermore, the consequences of having the same punishment for both murder and child rape shall be analysed. Secondly, the author will explore the impact of procedural and institutional difficulties in the implementation of such a measure. Lastly, the author shall put forth feasible alternatives to the imposition of the death penalty. After analysing data from reports and studies, the author finds that there are additional burdens placed on the child victim due to the amendment. The rates of reporting and conviction are expected to fall as the victims and witnesses have a greater tendency to turn hostile during the trial. Internal and external pressures on the child victim will rise drastically, with the life of the child put at risk. Additionally, since a higher degree of proof [‘rarest of the rare’] is required for a death sentence in India, the existing procedural inadequacies would be exacerbated. This would lead to the creation of a hostile court environment for the victim. Therefore, this paper shall show how the child victim is being harmed by the amendment that seeks to protect it.
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