Czy zasadnie i skutecznie ustawodawca podwyższył poziom ochrony małoletnich? Krytyczna analiza nowelizacji Kodeksu karnego z 23 marca 2017 r.

The objective of this article is to interpret the provisions of the act of March 23, 2017 amending the Penal Code, referring – directly or indirectly – to minors. Following the decision of the legislator, four aspects of changes are taken into account: new circumstance including among sentencing directives; new types of crimes, threatened by a higher penalty; tightening the statutory limits for the penalty of certain types of crimes and taking new crimes into the obligation of denunciation. The authors of the amending act declared that increasing the level of criminal-law child protection was their main motive. The presented interpreta- tion takes into account these assumptions. The analysis was carried out both on the basis of the adopted assumptions and the manner of their implementation. The article reveals various flaws and defects in the adopted legal solutions, which do not allow a positive assessment of the above mentioned amendment.