People v. Soto

Opinion

CORRIGAN, J.

The Legislature has made it a crime to commit a lewd or lascivious act on a child under age 14. (Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (a).) It has mandated additional penal consequences when the act is committed “by use of force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury on the victim.” (Pen. Code, § 288, subd. (b)(1).) 1 Unlike the crime of rape, there is no requirement that the lewd acts be committed “against the will of the victim.” Indeed, 20 years ago the Legislature specifically deleted language to this effect from the definition of the aggravated…