Sexual Assault Charges
According to the US Department of Justice, there were 152,680 completed and attempted sexual assaults per year between 1992 and 2000 for females aged 12 or older. Approximately one in six American women will be a victim of a sexual assault in her lifetime. Although sexual assaults most frequently are by a man on a woman the law does not discriminate between gender and sexual orientation when assault charges are brought.
The crime of sexual assault is a compilation of several different acts that involve conduct of a sexual or indecent nature toward someone else that is accompanied by physical force or even the threat of physical force or that causes fear, shame, or mental suffering. The essential element in all sexual assaults is lack of consent. Basically, sexual assault can include any adult sexual activity and can be divided into two sub-categories; physical sexual assault and non-physical sexual assault.
Sexual assaults of a physical nature include severe acts such as: intercourse / rape (the forceful sexual penetration of another), spousal rape (a spouse or domestic partner who has had sexual relations with the perpetrator but in the specific instance did not wish to do so), sodomy, oral copulation (both of which are types of rape), hand to genitalia contact, date rape (a person agrees to meet or go somewhere with the perpetrator but does not want sexual contact) and the torture of a victim in a sexual manner. Physical acts that are less severe in nature include inappropriate touching (unwanted pinching, slaps on the buttocks), forced kissing and forced nudity, photography, and video of people in sexual poses against their will (the victim in this case is aware of what is taking place).
Sexual Assaults of a non physical nature are considered sexual assault but do not include the element of force but still lack the victims consent. Acts of this nature include groping in crowds, peeping, sexting (the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photos electronically, primarily between cell phones), statutory rape (sexual contact that occurs with a person who is a minor and thus cannot legally give consent) and contact between any body parts and the private parts of another. This last is termed as lewd and lascivious conduct which is a legal term for any other behavior that is intended to arouse sexual pleasure for the assailant. Lewd and lascivious conduct is a broad category of sexual assault used by law enforcement when exactly what happened is not clear. When the acts are not clearly defined, the lack of consent and the intent to arouse sexual gratification will be used as a test to determine if the behavior is a sexual assault. According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, sexual assault also includes verbal threats, for example “wait until I get you home I’m going to….” or “ you look so hot I am going to ….” etc.
Sexual assault charges and penalties vary due to the broad area that the crime covers. Factors that influence penalties includes; the state that you are charged in, whether it was aggravated (a weapon was involved) the age of the victim and the seriousness of the offense. Sexual assaults of a non physical nature will like mete out far less penalties than offenses that are of a forcible nature. Penalties range from misdemeanor charges (less than one year in the county jail, a fine or both) for something such as sexting or peeping. The greater physical such as date rape offenses carry more penalties and are generally classified as felonies. The penalties range from one year in state prison to life in prison for aggregated cases or repeat offenders. Typically the federal government prosecutes these crimes only if they involve the crossing of state lines, occur on federal property, or involve a minor under twelve. The penalties for federal crimes range from not less than one year to life in prison. All states currently have sex offender registration laws and the federal government requires that a person must register if they are convicted of felony sexual assault charges. This will follow the perpetrator throughout their life as registry is published on the internet and offenders must re-register if they move.
Defending sexual assault charges in the criminal justice system is difficult but can be done. In cases that do not involve a minor, consent can be challenged. Other defenses include entrapment, or false allegations. One study showed that over a 9-year period, up to 16% of sexual assault allegations in one center were shown after police investigation to be false allegations which is a crime.
