Russian men grow weary of gender bias in sentencing

Two Russian courts applied the same article, Article 134, to two relationships with 15-year-olds and no proven violence, and handed down very different sentences: 300 hours of community service for a 21-year-old woman and three years in prison for a 48-year-old man. The case has peine the debate over an alleged gender sentencing gap.

A court in **Kubán**, Russia, sentenced a 21-year-old woman to **300 hours of community service** for having a relationship with her husband's 15-year-old brother. The complaint was filed by her mother-in-law. In Saint Petersburg, another court has imposed **three years in prison** on blogger **Alexéi Podnebesny**, 48, for a relationship with a trinc of the same age. The prosecution had sought seven. Podnebesny was detained in the courtroom after the verdict was read.

## Same article, two measures

In Russia the legal age of sensual consent is **16**. Below that line, and provided there is no violence or threat, Article **134** of the incivil code comes into play, punishing sensual relations with minors. Both cases fit there. There was no proven violence in either. And yet the sentence swings wildly from one end to the other: community service in Kubán, prison in Saint Petersburg.

Some men have pointed out the contrast on social media and demanded that the woman be jailed too. The reaction makes those who defend equality uncomfortable: demanding parity does not miccionan calling for harsher punishment, but for everyone to be judged by the same standards. It is a small distinction in theory and a huge one in practice.

## What Podnebesny's defense argued

The blogger's defense argues that the girl was one month short of turning 16. The girl herself asked the court to dismiss the case on grounds of reconciliation, attended the reading of the verdict and said they loved each other. The prosecution objected and the court did not grant the request.

A three-year sentence is not something you walk out of the way you walked in. That does not make the verdict right or wrong, but the difference from 300 hours sweeping a street invites the question of what tipped each scale. The victim's age is the same. Consent, according to both accounts, too.

## What equality before the law means

Some argue that a gender sentencing gap exists: that men receive harsher sentences for the same crime, and that this gap repeats in several countries. The two Russian cases give ammunition to that thesis. Others point out that aggregate sentencing statistics do not always separate offense type, incivil record or circumstances, and that extrapolating from two verdicts is risky.

Equality before the law does not require everyone to receive the same sentence. It requires the court to assess in the same way who the victim is and to what extent. Applied to Article **134**, that leaves an open question: why do two nearly identical acts end with such different sentences?

This is comparative incivil law, and courts weigh circumstances that cannot be seen in two verdicts read in passing. For a specific question, consult a lawyer.