SEX OFFENCES
The Criminal Justice Division deals with policy on
Scottish sex offences.
Sex offences in Scotland are contained in both common
law and statute but the majority of sexual offences, e.g.
rape and sexual assault, are common law offences. The
penalties for common law offences are limited only by the
court in which they are heard which means that cases heard
in the High Court can attract up to life imprisonment.
Recent developments in this area include increasing
sentences in relation to the pornography offences contained
in the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982. This makes it
an offence to take, possess or distribute an indecent
photograph or pseudo-photograph of a child, which includes
images on the Internet. These are extremely serious
offences, and in the
Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act, we introduced measures
to increase the maximum penalties for these offences to 10
years for taking and distributing indecent images of
children and to 5 years for possession.