Evolution of criminal liability for domestic sexual violence in China

Introduction. The paper examines the historical and social foundations of the criminalization of incest in the People’s Republic of China, analyzes the evolution of sexual relations as an element of public consciousness, socially significant interest, sexual lifestyle, placed under criminal protection. Purpose. To analyze trends in the development of criminal legal counteraction to domestic sexual violence in the Chinese legislation from the moment of the emergence of the first available sources of criminal law for research to the present. Methods. In the course of solving the tasks set, the authors used not only the general scientific dialectical method of cognition of socio-legal and moral phenomena, but also the specific scientific methods such as historical, comparative legal, logical, sociological. Results. By studying the genesis of the criminal law regulation in the field of sexual relations, the historical, philosophical, and socio-political prerequisites for the criminalization of certain socially dangerous acts in the field of sexual relations have been identified and studied. Conclusions. Despite the close attention of the legal communityand the public to a comprehensive detailed theoretical study of this category of crimes, a significant number of issues of the statutory regulation of such acts in the legislation of many countries today remain unresolved and require detailed scientific analysis, reflection and reference to positive foreign, primarily historical experience of the legal regulation.