Misunderstandings, false accusations and inappropriate conduct commonly result in sexual assault charges for people in Philadelphia, and throughout Pennsylvania. Like many how find themselves in this situation, you may not understand the charges you are facing. At Rubin, Glickman, Steinberg & Gifford, P.C., people often ask us what it means to be charged with sexual assault. As such, we will discuss what constitutes sexual assault in the state of Pennsylvania, and the consequences you could face if convicted of this offense. Pennsylvania state law defines sexual assault as having sexual intercourse with another person without his or her consent. This includes deviate sexual intercourse, or penetration of another using a foreign object. For
example, you and your date return to her house after dinner and have sexual intercourse. You thought it was consensual, however, she later claims that she said no and accuses you of sexual assault. In general, sexual assault differs from rape in that it does not involve the use or threat of force. Under most circumstances, sexual assault is considered a second-degree felony offense. If you are convicted, you could face a range of penalties. The judge will consider a number of factors, including the circumstances of the case, your prior criminal record and your mental health. Pennsylvania state law stipulates that you could be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison if convicted of this offense. Additionally, you could also be fined up to $25,000. For more information about sex crimes, please visit our sexual assault page.
Picture this. You are heading off to college to begin the next chapter of your life. It is a moment you have always been waiting for. You are past the high school drama, and are ready to start taking classes that will allow you to obtain a degree in something you have always been passionate about. It’s your first week on campus and you are invited to a party being hosted by a group of upper classman. You show up to the party and immediately are handed a red cup with what you know is something you shouldn’t be drinking. You take a sip anyway and soon start talking to that guy in the corner who at first seems friendly, but soon begins to take advantage of you. Just like that everything changes. This is a situation millions of people face every
Section 2711 of the Pennsylvania Crimes Code, entitled probable cause arrests in domestic violence cases, subsection (a) states that a police officer shall have the same right of arrest without a warrant as in a felony whenever he has probable cause to believe the defendant has violated section 2504 (relating to involuntary manslaughter), 2701 (relating to simple assault), 2702(a)(3), (4) and (5) (relating to aggravated assault), 2705 (relating to recklessly endangering another person), 2706 (relating to terroristic threats) or 2709.1 (relating to stalking) against a family or household member although the offense did not take place in the presence of the police officer. A police officer may not arrest a person pursuant to this section without first observing recent physical injury to the victim or other corroborative evidence. Under title 23 §6102 a “family or household member” can be spouses or persons who have been spouses, persons living as spouses or who have lived as spouses, parents and children, other persons related by consanguinity or affinity, current or former sexual or intimate partners or persons who share biological parenthood. The sections that a law enforcement agent could arrest for were not all the ones stated above; back in 1989 they could only arrest without a warrant for sections 2504, 2701, and 2705.
Sexual assault is defined as “any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient.” (“Sexual Assault”, 2nd heading). An average of 237,868 Americans (ages 12+) are sexually assaulted per year. This translates to an american being sexually assaulted every two minutes. This does not even include all of the children who are victims of sexual assault. The government has tried to combat these appallingly high statistics with various pieces of legislature, including Title IX.
Sociological Analysis of Sexual Assault This essay will examine the social and cultural conditions, within the macro-diachronic and micro-synchronic theoretical models, that intensify or perpetuate sexual assault. I have chosen only one concept from each model because these are the only concepts that I feel that I can use to most accurately and comprehensively depict causes and reasons for why sexual assault is deeply entrenched in our social structure. I will thus explore, from these ideological viewpoints, some of the motivations and circumstances that lead offenders to sexual assault. I will also fuse some of the historical attitudes from which today's concepts have evolved into our contemporary understanding of these social phenomena. However, it’s important that we look beyond both offenders' motivations and history, and to the greater sociological view, if we are to correctly reconstruct acts of violence such as sexual assault.
sexual assault, because they have failed to keep the victim safe and instead favored in
According to Kathleen Hirsch, the author of “Fraternities of Fear: Gang Rape, Male Bonding, and the Silencing of Women” 1 in every 4 women attending college will be the victim of sexual assault at some point during her academic career. Or in another study reported in the “The sexual Victimization of College Women” there are 35.3 incidents of sexual assault in a group of 1,000 women in a time span of 6.91 months (Statistics). Obviously sexual assault is a huge problem that should be taken very seriously. Some colleges have wonderful programs put in place that provides great services to help those students who have been have been sexually assaulted and programs that help education and prevent sexual assault.
Legally, one might wonder how sexual assault is defined. According to Massachusetts State law, there are two major categories of sexual assault against adults. One of these is rape, and the other is indecent assault and battery. Rape is defined as “sexual intercourse or unnatural sexual intercourse with a person and compels such person to submit by force and against his/her will, or compels such person to submit by threat of bodily injury.” Rape and attempted rape are punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Sexual abuse includes any sexual act in which one person has not agreed to it. A woman can be sexually abused by means of, but not limited to force, coercion, blackmail, threat, or embarrassment. Sexual abuse may occur when a woman is forced to perform, watch, or in any other way engage in sexual acts. This includes but is not limited to vaginal, anal and oral sex, fondling, touching, disrespect of privacy, such as showering, being forced to watch pornography or view pornographic pictures, being forced into sexual poses, or being verbally abused in a sexual manner (Morris and Biehl 36, Haley 14).
Sexual assault is defined as any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and In the United States 80% of sexual assault victims are under the age of 30. Of that 80%, 44% are under the age of 18 (RAINN, 2016). That leaves 36% of victims between the ages of 18 and 30. These percentages become even more alarming when that 80% is of about 293,000 victims of secual assualt each year (RAINN, 2016). It is estimated that 1 in every 6 women in the US has been or will be victims of sexual assault in their lifetime. The risks of sexual assault increase on college campuses. Women ages 18-24 who are enrolled in college are 3 times more likely than women in general to suffer from sexual violence (RAINN, 2016). One would think that with all these women being sexually assaulted, one would hear more about it, or perhaps the police stations would constantly be busy. This is not the case. Sexual assault is one of the most unreported crimes, with 68% still being left unreported (RAINN, 2016). This could be because of every 100 rapists, only 2 will spend a day in jail. Of the 32 out of 100 that would be reported, only 7 are referred to an arrest (RAINN, 2016). Why would men or women want to report sexual assault when the system that is supposed to protect them fails so often, and why does this system continue to fail?
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.
Sexual assault is one of the most offensive and depraved crimes that exist in our society today. The physical and psychological toll that this act has on its victims is as incalculable as it is incomprehensible. A sexual assault in Canada is defined as all incidents of unwanted sexual activity, including sexual attacks and sexual touching. Victims of these acts reported feeling angry, confused, frustrated and fearful.
Sexual Assault on College Campus Cause and Effect Essay In general, rape means force or threatening to use force against a potential victim. It includes vaginal but doesn’t exclude other forms such as, anal and oral penetration. Rape tends to get grouped with women, but, there are also men who get victimized as well. It’s not limited to heterosexuals either, there’s also homosexual offenders (“Sexual Assault”).
What is sexual assault? Sexual assault is, “any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape” (Sexual Assault).
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.
Sexual assault is considered a felony regardless of any culture and society. However, one of the most common crimes we can easily hear from news is sexual assault. According to the 2009 criminal white paper published by the Legal Research and Training Institute, there were 15,094 cases of sexual assault committed domestically in 2008. About 41 cases per day, i.e., one sexual assault crime occurs every 35 minutes. In particular, the number of sexual assault crimes is the most frequent among violent crimes.