According to the Victim oriented multi-disciplinary responses to statutory rape training guide, “Law enforcement often assigns statutory rape cases a much lower priority than incest and forcible rape cases with young children. There is a belief among criminal justice officials that investigation and arrest are a waste of time because prosecutors will not prosecute except in most egregious cases” (Elstein & Smith, 1998). Statutory rape laws should be just as much of a priority as child abuse and forcible rape. Throwing away statutory rape cases is not effective regardless of how hard it is to prosecute. A minor does not know what is best for him or her it should not matter whether or not the victim is willing to testify. If proof that a minor …show more content…
Many prosecutors do not like taking statutory rape cases to trial because they see it as a waste of time, because the minor does not see herself as a victim. A person is not a victim unless they feel that they have had a crime committed upon them. Prosecutors should work harder in trying to convict these cases. Without conviction the offender whether it is man or woman can go out and continue to endanger and have sex with minors. Most people just focus on the statutory rape cases that involve minor girls and adult men. The underreporting of statutory rape cases has always been an issue. The cases that go unnoticed the most deal with younger boys and older women. Since most people already think that statutory rape and forcible rape cases are less likely to happen, people do not pay as much attention to these cases as needed. Young boys being pursued by much older women need to get their cases reported just as much as young girls do. Statutory rape cases dealing with younger men and older women need to be …show more content…
It would always come to the decision of taking it to court or dismissing the case period. Enforcing statutory rape laws should be more of a priority regardless of if the minors wanted to be in the relationship or not. It is understandable to charge a twenty- year-old man or woman who is having sexual intercourse with a fifteen or sixteen- year old, with statutory rape. Statutory rape is not forceful rape but the minors are still victims even if they do not think they are being victimized. The young girls or boys may not feel as if she or he is a victim because they wanted to be in the relationship and wanted the sex that came with being involved with the adult. As said by Lynch “while a district attorney may not take note of a 17-year-old pursuing a 20-year-oId, the purpose of enforcing a statutory-rape law is to ensure that the same 20-year-old resists any attempts for affection by a 14-year-old” (Lynch 1998) That is agreeable no one wants to see a 20 year old in a relationship with someone who is barely a teenager. Statutory rape laws should be revised to make them more understandable so as they can be better enforced to protect both
Cases of incestial rape by father's upon their daughters, where actually rarely reported (Brown, 131). Most mother's and daughters kept incidents like these secret from the public or rarely even confronted their husbands and fathers for fear of experiencing further harm. Not to mention that it was a hard crime to prove (Brown, 112). Incest has been against the law for a long time- so the father of a household could be jailed a short while for the crime, but shockingly, girls only needed to be older than ten years of age to give consent to sex (Brown, 60). Thus making it easy for defense attorneys to establish reasonable of doubt rape and making the father guilty of incest instead (Brown, 89).
Juvenile sex offenders are individuals that range in ages between six and seventeen years. There is a differentiation between what is considered a juvenile sex offender and a juvenile rapist. A juvenile rapist is generally older in the adolescent years and their victimology will be someone who is older than they are and they generally use a weapon. These crimes will also be usually male on female crimes and occur in public areas. Whereas the juvenile sex offender victimology will generally be younger than them, usually by around five years, but still at ti...
Sexual assault is the act of sexual intercourse without consent of the other person according to New South Wales Consolidation Act of 1900 (Austlii 2011) and is also described by the Australian Standard Offence Classification as ‘non-consensual’ acts or intents of sexual nature (ASOC 2008, p. 31) has become one of the most predominate crimes creating social harm in Australia. Social harm is defined as the negative influence through consequences impacting from the individual to the living conditions of the surrounding public (Cain & Howe 2008, p. 26). Sexual assault poses a social threat to all aspects of community, spreading insecurity in the 9000 victims across Australia and 1900 victims in NSW alone as indicated in the Australian Bureau of Statistics Crime Victimisation Report (ABS 2011, p. 40). This is supported by the victimization rate of all sexually assaulted victims between ages 10 to 14 being 4 times greater than all the other age groups (ABS 2010). Another major issue within the boundaries of sexual assault is that it holds one of the lowest prosecution rates with only 1 in 10 incidents able to prosecute the offender as guilty (Fitzgerald 2006, Pg. 1). The abundance of statistics and reports conducted all imply that sexual assault is still a predominate issue of crime within Australia.
Rape is currently on the rise on American college campuses and it is the most common committed crime among college students today. In their time in college 1 out of every 5 women and 1 out of every 71 men will experience some form of sexual harassment as reported by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. These numbers are growing each year and have raised a lot of concern in the administrative level of higher education institutions. In an effort to try and prevent these occurrences universities have begun to implement mandatory curriculum to educate students on the subject and have even begun to hold campus wide events and create clubs to spread awareness and show support because of the repetitive nature of this crime. While it is good
Vandiver, D. M., & Teske, R. (2006). Juvenile female and male sex offenders a comparison of offender, victim, and judicial processing characteristics. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 50(2), 148-165.
In today’s society, juveniles that commit a sexual assault have become the subject of society. It’s become a problem in the United States due to the rise of sexual offenses committed by juveniles. The general public attitude towards sex offenders appears to be highly negative (Valliant, Furac, & Antonowicz, 1994). The public reactions in the past years have shaped policy on legal approaches to managing sexual offenses. The policies have included severe sentencing laws, sex offender registry, and civil commitment as a sexually violent predator (Quinn, Forsyth, & Mullen-Quinn, 2004). This is despite recidivism data suggesting that a relatively small group of juvenile offenders commit repeat sexual assaults after a response to their sexual offending (Righthand &Welch, 2004).
There are many topics nowadays that are still hard to talk about openly. Though we’ve opened the door on many controversies, some of the simplest parts of life can be the hardest to discuss. For most of us, sex in particular can be a taboo topic, which may be the reason why so many children and teens are misinformed on the inner workings of sexual relationships and how they develop as we grow and mature. For some adolescents, this can lead to an unhealthy fixation on the concept of sex, and in some cases, lead them to take action on a situation they do not fully understand. Sexual offenses are perceived as some of the most heinous crimes, but how could our views be affected if those acts were performed by a teenager? We may sometimes consider that they are the same as adult sex offenders; however our judgment can often be clouded by our lack of understanding. Adolescent sex offenders are different from adult sex offenders, are treated in a different way, and often have very different circumstances of their crime.
In the fall of 1995, Kristin Cooper was a sophomore at Baker University in Kansas. She was a member of Alpha Chi Omega, an expert skier from the mountains of Colorado, a swimmer, and was active in band, choir and drama.
Sexual assault and rape on college campuses is a serious public issue. Before applying to these accredited institutions most students do not look up the school 's past records of sexual assault and rape on their campus.College campuses have failed to keep students safe the system they use has failed to protect and obtain justice for those that have been victims of sexual assault. Society plays a huge part in how young adults view sexual assault. From young age girls are told “if he’s bothering you it 's because he likes you”, and boys aren 't held accountable for their actions because “boys will be boys”. At what time does it stop being a game. At what age is it not acceptable for boys to mistreat girls, when is the line drawn and, what is the punishment for when this line is crossed.
Lynch, Michael W. “Enforcing ‘Statutory Rape ‘?.” Public Interest 132 (1998): 3. Points of View
She mentions how the victims choose to keep quiet about the incident, since they fear their attacker will harm them for reporting the incident. Adefolalu mentions, "Victims who feared reprisal attacks from perpetrators were five times more likely to delay presentation than those who were not. " My hypothesis is fear of their assault prevents an individual from reporting a sexual assault committed towards them. My null hypothesis is fear does not affect if an individual reports a sexual assault. My independent variable is fear of assault and my dependent variable is unreported sexual assault.
“Last year around 6.5% of alleged rapes led to conviction. Why is the conviction level for rape so low? The question this essay addresses is the difficulty, in convicting rapists and understanding why the conviction level for rape is so low. Proving a rape happened is easier said than done, there are many factors that are critical to contributing to a conviction. Why is the conviction level for rape as low as 6.5%?
Sahl, Daniel, and Jennifer Reid Keene. "The Effects Of Age, Authority, And Gender On Perceptions Of 00000 Statutory Rape Offenders." Journal Of Interpersonal Violence 27.18 (2012): 3701-3722. 00000 Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
1 in 5 women will experience sexual assault as an adult (cite). To me, that statistic is mindboggling. I’m not sure people are really aware of the fact that in our society women are raped every single day or maybe they are aware but it doesn’t truly affect their lives until it happens to them or someone they know. Rape is a serious crime. I’m not sure there is a worse crime than rape. Rape is when one person violates the personal space of another. More times than not the attacker is male and the victim is female. With rape not only are you at risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases but also your piece of mind is taken away. Women can experience symptoms of PTSD after being raped. Rape is crime where the act in itself is awful, but also dealing with it after is very painful as well. If our society were more knowledgeable about rape maybe it wouldn’t happen as much. Knowing the difference between the different characteristics of a serial rapist versus a single victim rapist could potentially help women or men identify their attacker, if they know what to look for. This may be more of a struggle for if the attacker is a stranger or a one-time offender, but if women are able to give details about their attack, this could help the criminal justice system find these criminals after the fact. In this paper, I will explain and critique three different studies that were conducted comparing and contrasting serial rapists and single-victim rapists.
The issue of morals makes answering this question more difficult, as people are taught that the same rules for adults cannot be applied to children. The differences in their attitudes and mindset are too big to overlook. Minors are susceptible because of their lack of maturity and preparation; therefore, they can be easily influenced by others with stronger personalities. This is the main reason that why minors are perceived as being incapable of taking responsibility for their own actions and being held accountable for the consequences that follow. However, teenage struggle with reasoning and decision-making can hardly be used an excuse to commit a serious crime. This is not a matter of not seeing the right from wrong. There are laws that must be complied with and choosing not doing so is wrong, so there is no excuse for breaking the law. Even minors are clearly capable of understanding the law and their obligations to adhere to it. Juveniles are constantly being undermined by the court, and it is time to change it all. Offenders that have committed the most serious crimes should be charged accordingly and transferred to the adult courts. We have taken the first steps, it is now time to complete the process of abolishing this inefficient