In today's spirit of the times, the realization of sexual freedom, and especially its protection, raises questions of exceptional importance while building the foundations for the freedom of sexual life of future generations. In this thesis, I investigate criminal offenses against sexual freedom, especially devoting myself to the distinction between the crime of and the crime of fornification in Croatian criminal legislation. The Penal Code from 1997 stipulates that the criminal offense of rape is committed when the perpetrator forces another person to have sexual intercourse or a sexual act equivalent to it by using force or threatening to directly attack their life or the body of a person close to them. An attack in the form of the use of force against the victim or a close person or the threat of direct attack on the victim or a close person must precede sexual intercourse or a sexual act equated with it. The resistance of the victim must be serious, which means that it expresses an unequivocal decision to oppose sexual intercourse or a sexual act equated with it with a certain person. Marriage has no influence on the existence of a criminal act. Sexual intercourse without consent was introduced by the new Criminal Code from 2011. The novelty introduced by the Criminal Code from 2011 is visible in the criminal offense of sexual intercourse without consent in that it implies any sexual intercourse without the consent of the victim, and the criminal offense of rape becomes a qualified form of this criminal offense. It is stated that consent exists when a person voluntarily decides to engage in sexual intercourse or a sexual act equivalent to it and when he is capable of making and expressing such a decision. It is also considered that there is no such consent if the sexual relationship or a sexual act equated with it was carried out with the use of threats, fraud, abuse of position towards a person who is in a relationship of dependence towards the perpetrator, taking advantage of the person's condition due to which he was not able to express his refusal, or over a person who was unlawfully deprived of his freedom. It is important to emphasize that the introduction of new criminal offenses such as sexual intercourse without consent created a problem in determining the actual criminal offense that was committed against the victim. The crime of fornication is different from the crime of rape because it is a subsidiary crime. When the crime of fornication is committed, there is no attempt to commit the crime of rape or the crime of sexual intercourse without consent or a serious crime against sexual freedom. The orientation of the will (orientation of will) is decisive for the demarcation between lewd acts and attempted criminal acts, i.e. whether the perpetrator conceived of an act that is not sexual intercourse or equated with it only as a stage in the commission of these criminal acts (in that case, it is an attempt of these acts) or thought to be satisfied with it (then it is only a fornicating act). Fornication includes acts of satisfying the sexual urge on the body or by touching the body of another person in the circumstances under which criminal acts from articles 188 - 192 CC/97 are committed. In the Criminal Code from 2011, the more serious circumstances of the offense thus represent a qualified form of this criminal offense. Attempting fornication is possible, but not punishable. Due to the great public interest in monitoring cases related to sexual violence, the Republic of Croatia should have a more harmonized and less capricious judicial practice, but it is also working on harmonizing its laws with human rights standards. In conclusion, society must progress towards ensuring that women and men in the Republic of Croatia are sufficiently protected to enter into sexual relations without fear and sufficiently confident that their non-consent to sexual intercourse or other actions will have greater force than it has had so far.