Shanghai's first case of "sexual harassment" leading to criminal punishment?

On the morning of October 15, Shanghai's first "groping" criminal case was heard in a closed session at the Shanghai Jing'an District People's Court. The suspect, Wang, was sentenced to six months in prison for the crime of forcible indecency.

On July 1, the 34-year-old suspect, Wang, continuously touched the chests of two female passengers, one of whom was a minor, on Shanghai Metro Line 8. Wang was sentenced to six months in prison for forcible indecency. Reports indicate that this case is the first of its kind in Shanghai to result in a criminal conviction for forcible indecency on public transit.

　　A lawyer from Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm stated,The headline is clearly misleading. "Criminalization" refers to the legislative act of including a behavior within the scope of criminal law. This case merely indicates that the man's "groping" behavior reached the level of "forcible indecency" as defined by the Criminal Law, thus leading to criminal liability. It does not mean that "groping" has become a concept in criminal law and is now regulated by it. This is entirely different from well-known examples such as "criminalization of exam cheating."

The autopsy results have not been released, but the official notice has been issued. The Li Xincao case is deeply mired in a "Rashomon" situation.

On the morning of October 14, Kunming police issued a notice titled: "Li Moucao's case is an accidental drowning incident and does not constitute a criminal offense."

It is worth noting that when describing the cause of Li Xincao's death, the notice stated: "According to the forensic identification conclusion of the Kunming Medical University Judicial Identification Center, the cause of Li Moucao's death is ."

　　[1] In the conclusion of the autopsy, the official notice originally left a blank.[2] The following is the full text of the notice.

[3] According to Li Xincao's side, the autopsy results have not yet come out and will take 15-20 days. Did the police determine the nature of the case without even seeing the autopsy report?

[4] In criminal cases, the police usually adopt a presumption of guilt, but in this case, before the autopsy report was released, the police had already tended to presume the three suspects innocent. The notice has now been deleted, but it cannot be denied that the police's notice has made the case even more confusing.

[5] Exploiting legal loopholes to organize male prostitution, and the result...

[6] In earlier years, there was a boss in Nanjing who ran a performance bar, named Li Ning. Boss Li thought the performance bar was making money too slowly, so he placed a newspaper ad recruiting "public relations" to open another path to wealth. However, Boss Li's path to wealth had two differences.First, he was not recruiting female escorts, but male escorts; second, the male escorts he recruited were serving not women, but men.

This service quickly filled a gap in the market, and Boss Li made substantial profits from it. However, not long after, when Boss Li’s male escorts were conducting business, they were accidentally caught by police who had intended to arrest prostitutes. Then came case filing, investigation, and transfer to the procuratorate for review and prosecution.The charge was naturally "organizing prostitution."

Then a problem arose.

Boss Li hired a lawyer, and his defense attorney put forward a solid and sharp legal argument:

Neither the Criminal Law nor its relevant judicial interpretations explicitly stipulate whether same-sex sexual transactions constitute prostitution. According to the definition in the *Cihai* dictionary, prostitution refers to the act of "women selling their bodies." Therefore, organizing men to engage in same-sex prostitution does not constitute organizing "prostitution." Based on the principle of "legality of crimes and punishments," the "law" in "legality of crimes and punishments" refers only to the Criminal Law and its amendments. Even if Boss Li’s behavior was socially harmful, without a provision in the Criminal Law, it cannot be treated as a crime.

Boss Li indeed exploited this loophole in the criminal law. He also indeed made money.

However... the professional committee did not let him off.

After hearing the case report, the professional committee under the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress gave a concise oral response:"Organizing young men to engage in prostitution with same-sex individuals shall be convicted and sentenced by analogy with the crime of organizing prostitution."

Thus, Boss Li was ultimately sentenced to eight years in prison and fined 60,000 RMB.

(Some content in this article is cited from People's Daily, People's Daily Online, and Legal Reading. Infringement will be removed upon request.)