The presumption of violence in sexual crimes

a critical approach

Abstract

The author examines the constitutionality of the legal presumption of violence in sexual crimes under article 224 of the Penal Code, confronting it with the constitutional principles of presumption of innocence, the criminal law of the act, nullum crimen sine iniuria and culpability. It aims to demonstrate that the presumption of violence, by exempting the prosecutor from proving a fact constituting the offence, violates subjective responsibility and the 1988 Constitution, having not been received. The methodology is dogmatic-critical, with jurisprudential and comparative law analysis. It concludes that the hypotheses of article 224 constitute sexual abuse, requiring concrete narration and proof, and that valid consent by the adolescent excludes typicality.