The new concept of sex-crimes in Croatian criminal law
The new concept of sex-crimes in Croatian criminal law

Summary/Abstract: The new Croatian Criminal Code entered into force on January 1 2013, introducing the new concept of sexual crimes into Croatian criminal law. The reform was, above all, motivated by the efforts of the legislator to follow international standards, especially the ones imposed by the European Union and Council of Europe. However, it is interesting that creators of the new Criminal Code did not follow the usual German model in the case of sex-crimes. Instead, they chose to model sex-crimes on the English example. Such a solution is untypical for the Croatian legal tradition. The new concept significantly expands criminal liability for sexual crimes in several ways. Typical examples can be found in the criminalization of negligent forms of rape and the incrimination of rape by deception. These types of sexual offence are atypical in continental law tradition. Until now, they have not been characteristic of Croatian criminal law and it will be interesting to see how the courts will accept and apply the new model. In this paper, the authors discuss these changes from a theoretical and also a practical point of view. They give a critical analysis of the new concept of sex crimes under the new Croatian CC and comment on some interesting cases from recent court practice in Croatia. Using the examples from case-law, the authors identify some of the main problems underlying the new concept.

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