Estimating the Incidence of Rape and Sexual Assault (2014) / Chapter Skim
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2 Legal Definitions and Context
2 Legal Definitions and Context
Pages 23-34
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focuses specifically on criminal victimization, these definitions need to conform as much as possible to existing legal definitions. Because the crimes of rape and sexual assault fall mostly under state rather than federal criminal statutes and these statutes are not uniform across jurisdictions, this presents an immediate difficulty.
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As laws developed, the Model Penal Code, first promulgated in 1962 by the American Law Institute, provided state legislatures with the then best thinking on how to develop criminal codes. The model code defines rape as "sexual intercourse with a female not his wife" by force or threat of severe harm (Model Penal Code, 1980, as cited in Tracy et al., 2012, p.
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The legal history and underlying beliefs about sex crimes have continued to influence the way police handle reports of these crimes and how prosecutors pursue these cases (Brunson and Miller, 2006; Tracy et al., 2012)
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The last section of the chapter reviews how different combinations affect decisions about criminality and its severity. Essential Elements Penetration, Contact Without Penetration, and Noncontact Exposure The various statutes that describe penetration crimes use different terminology: rape, sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexual battery, carnal knowledge, sexual intercourse, sexual penetration, sexual act, deviate sexual assault, etc.
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Uniform Code of Military Justice Indecent exposure Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Montana Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming NOTES: The listed jurisdictions include, within their sexual contact and exposure crimes, the requirement that the prohibited activity was done for the purpose of sexual arousal, gratification, degradation or humiliation of the victim or offender. The jurisdictions that are in boldface type under the crime of indecent exposure require that the exposure be done in a public place to be punishable.
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Table 2-2 provides a summary of the force requirement across jurisdictions. As shown in the table, all jurisdictions include provisions that criminalize penetration if it is accompanied by force or the threat of force to the victim, although nine jurisdictions and the military require that the force actually inflict physical injury.
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Some jurisdictions consider obtaining consent T by fraud as invalid; other jurisdictions still consider that consent valid. Other factors that some jurisdictions specifically state shall not constitute consent: • the prior social relationship between offender and victim or • the victim's manner of dress.
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Similarly, several jurisdictions define as an "aggregating factor" the sexual assault of a victim of advanced age.2 A broad and sometimes controversial reason for a victim's inability to consent includes conditions, such as physical disability, physical incapacity, and unconsciousness. These conditions include victims who are impaired or unconscious as a result of intoxication.
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. Only 10 jurisdictions have statutes that cover victims who are voluntarily intoxicated, while 40 jurisdictions require that a victim was involuntarily intoxicated.
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, such as a finger, is generally viewed as less serious than penile penetration. Seven jurisdictions (Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Wisconsin, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands)
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. The panel also uses the components listed above to help assess the current wording of survey questions and to devise improved wording about potential victimizations.
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34 ESTIMATING THE INCIDENCE OF RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT that will most accurately and successfully reveal a victim's experience will be invaluable to understanding the incidence and prevalence of rape and sexual assault. It will also play an important role in helping allied crimi nal justice professionals improve their understanding of rape and sexual a ssault, their responses to reports of such crimes, and their ability to stop serial predators.
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