Statutory rape is when an adult has sexual intercourse with a minor. Every two minutes someone in the U.S is sexually assaulted. There are also many cases of statutory rape, but how many of these statutory rape cases are legitimate? Some people say statutory rape laws are discriminating to males, and in some cases it is, just because they are the adult. Should laws concerning statutory rape be changed depending on the backstory of the case? Or should they continue the same way, and keep punishing the males when it may not be their fault, or if they’ve been tricked by the girl?
Should we change how these statutory rape cases are tried? In April, eleven marine’s were arrested unfairly for having separate sexual relations with the same thirteen year old. The eighth grader had lied about her age, and told the men that she had been nineteen years old. The marine’s only got involved with this child, because they believed that he was an adult. They had no intention of harming a child, much less break the law.
Rape is not rape if the act, or feeling is mutual by both participants. T...
Saunders states that Rape Shield laws are in place to protect victims of sexual assaults and rapes during a criminal trial. They prevent defendants to bring fourth evidence of the victim’s sexual history, orientation or past relationships (Saunders, 2014). Rape can be a very emotional and embarrassing ordeal; it’s very private and personal and can be hard to deal with for years to come. As with many victims of crime especially sexual offenses there are advantages and disadvantages to each new law that is implemented. This paper is designed to analyze the advantages and disadvantage of the Rape Shield Laws.
Rape Shield Laws Facing with much criticism from women’s group with the legal definitions of rape and how rape cases are being processed in the legal system, the government is forced to pass a Rape Law reform in the 1970s. Rape law reform urging courts to treat rape case the same as other crimes, rape law reforms modified traditional rape laws and ratified evidentiary reforms in every state in the United States. The most common and widespread changes occurred in three areas. First, rape was redefined so that there was no longer a single crime of rape.
Karen Horney was born September 16, 1885, to Clotilde and Berndt Wackels Danielson. Her father was a ship's captain, a religious man, and an authoritarian. Her mother, who was known as Sonni, was a very different person -- Berndt's second wife, 19 years his junior, and considerably more urbane. Horney's childhood was one of some distress. She felt like her father loved and respected her brother much more than he did of her. Yet he would take her on sea trips with him, and would buy gifts for her. She distanced her self from her father, and grew to recent him. She turned to her mother who gave her the love and respect that she desired.
Men are usually more aggressive, and women are seen as passive. Vogelman: This socialization process is changing, but slowly. Rape is non-consensual sexual intercourse that a male performs against a woman whom he is neither married to or cohabiting with. The definition of rape changes by geographic location.
Statutory rape laws are far from perfect. Statutory rape laws are discriminating towards boys and biased towards girls. No law should be gender specific especially one that consists of people who are endangering minors. These laws have discriminated boys for over 150 years. The law should be fair to both genders and give boys the voice the need in the cases. Over the years statutory rape cases have gone underreported, mainly because people do not witness the cases themselves. Most of the lost cases involve minor males and older females. Even though some cases have been reported they do not get as much publicity as the cases dealing with young girls and adult men. Boys should get the same amount of protection under the statutory rape laws as girls do; the young men are victims just as girls are.
Rape until 2012 was defined as “The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will.” It was severely lacking was only updated by the Federal Bureau of Instigation in 2012. It left out an entire section of rape that can be committed which is man being the rape victim. This lead to misclassification of rape of males for years. So even the statistics used till 2014 were underwhelming and inaccurate when it was related to male rape or sexual assault. Rape in the United States is now defined by the Department of Justice as “Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.” Male Rape or men being the sexual assault victims are rarely ever the subject of a dialogue when Sexual Assault is the topic being discussed because rape is generally seen as a heterosexual highly sexed male attack on vulnerable, attractively dressed female victim. Most rapists have alternative outlets for sexual gratification, many take little notice of their victim 's physical attributes, and some may experience sexual dysfunction during the assault.
Initially, the mens rea of rape prior to the case of DPP v Morgan a defendant cannot be found liable for rape if he had the reasonable belief that consent was formed between them and the victim. Which leads to an unfairness to those victims that have been violated, and also that any person accused of rape could say they had belief in consent. Although, it was shown not to matter how unreasonable that belief may have been, in concerning the knowledge or lack of knowledge of consent. Needless to say, the current law has attempted to improve and develop upon this concept, though it may not be completely satisfactory. The 21st century initiated a new state of trying to improve the current laws and precedents on the definition of rape, the prior precedent simply not suitable for the 21st century. Various cases after Morgan , prior to the act that redrew and reformed the Mens rea of rape, came to court and illustrated how the principle of Morgan operates. In Kimber the defendant (D) was charged with sexually assaulting a mentally disordered woman. It had to be determined whether his interference was in fact an assault, even with the D’s claim of consent to his actions, though she claimed otherwise. The court came to find that the mens rea for assault is intentionally touching a Victim (V), unlawfully, i.e. without consent. However, due to the fact that the D believed the consent was there, however unreasonably, he therefore lacked the mens rea of the assault and therefore not guilty.
The statutory rape law states that having sexual intercourse or being involved sexually in any form with a child below the age of sixteen is unlawful and could have charges pressed against as well as face imprisonment in a state prison or correctional facility. The law also states that one gender isn’t recognized more than the other; under the law children should be protected equally. Statutory rape is sex that occurs between an adult and a minor; an adult eighteen years or older and a minor is considered sixteen years or younger. The underlying principle behind the statutory rape law is the fact that children below the age of sixteen are incapable of giving their consent on sexual activities. Although the law states that all children are treated equally under the law, in several cases the court has chosen one gender over the other and the majority of the time the boys are the one who is faced with charges rather than girls (Oberman, 1994)
Victims of rape are almost always asked if they were flirting, drinking, or dressing in a manner that may have been interpreted as giving consent, despite whether they did actually give consent or not.
To help understand what happens to victims and how they feel; here are the results of a survey done in 1985 and 1993. It was found that 73% of rape victims say that they were not raped. There is a lot of self-blame involved in rape. Many victims blame themselves for what happened to them. One out of 4 women have been rape victims and 84% knew their attacker. While 42% did not tell anyone of the account of rape that happened to them, only 5% of the victims actually take the incidence to the police or some kind of administration. Informing the police is very important.
It was once acceptable for men to have full control over women, declaring when they will marry and when they will have children. However, over the past centuries, women have established a place in society, proving themselves much more than someone's property. This is why the word “rape” today is not taken lightly. According to findlaw.com, “Rape generally refers to non-consensual sexual intercourse that is committed by physical force, threat of injury, or other duress.” When one does not give consent to sex, it is considered a felony, possibly putting the rapist in jail. Contrary to sexual assault, “Sex is reified as penile-vaginal intercourse while an extremely diverse group of pleasurable and sexually stimulating activities are dismissively relegated to the category of foreplay...” (Reinholtz, Muehlenhard, Phelps, & Satterfield, 1995.) Although consented sexual intercourse is much more out in the open and accepted in society, the problem of rape is still very relevant behind the scenes.
The term “statutory rape” is used when the government considers people under a certain age to be unable to give consent to sex and therefore consider sexual contact with them to be a rape. The age at which individuals are considered to give consent is called the age of consent. The age of consent can ranging from thirteen to twenty-one, depending on the limits set by each state in accordance with local standards of morality. Even sex that violates the age-of-consent laws but is neither violent nor physically forced is described as statutory rape. In most jurisdictions, the expressions “under-age sex” or “sex with a minor” are more commonly used.
In the first paragraph, I will explain what constitutes rape and the variations of relationships in which rape is committed. The Sexual Offences Act 2003 (the Act) came into force on the 1st May 2004. The purpose of the Act was to strengthen and modernise the law on sexual offences, whilst improving preventative measures and the protection of individuals from sexual offenders. The 2003 Act also changes the law about consent and belief in consent. Convicting a person of rape is defined under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 s1, it is as follows; “A person (A) commits an offence if: he intentionally penetrates the vagina, anus or mouth of another person with his penis, if person (B) doe...
Rape and sexual violence is a very serious problem that affects millions of people each year. Rape is someone taking advantage of another person sexually. Sexual assault can be verbal, physical, visual, or anything that forces a person to join in unwanted sexual contact or attention. ("Sexual Assault.") Rape is one of the most underreported crimes. In 2002, only thirty-nine percent of rapes and sexual assaults were reported to law officials. ("Sexual Violence: Fact Sheet.") Victims sometimes do not report that they have raped because of shame or feeling that it was their fault. It is never the victim's fault. "Victim blaming" is holding the victim of a crime to be in a whole or in partly responsible for what had happened to them. Most victims believe this. ("Myths and Facts about Sexual Violence.")
Is anyone truly a stranger to nightmares? Has anyone not woken up in a feverish sweat with a racing pulse or pounding heart? Whose eyes have never wildly searched their room for the phantoms of a dream? Now, what if the familiar consolation of learning it was all in your head never came? How do you wake up from a nightmare that is, in fact, a reality? I think I’m getting ahead of myself. What I mean to say is, I was raped, and rape is a nightmare.