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Sexual assault is an act of sexual abuse in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence that includes child sexual abuse, groping, rape, drug facilitated sexual assault, and the torture of the person in a sexual manner.
The Sexual Offences Act 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Marilyn Louise Warren is a former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria and lieutenant-governor of Victoria, Australia.
A rape shield law is a law that limits the ability to introduce evidence about the past sexual activity of a complainant in a sexual assault trial, or that limits cross-examination of complainants about their past sexual behaviour in sexual assault cases. The term also refers to a law that prohibits the publication of the identity of a complainant in a sexual assault case.
Rape is a type of sexual assault initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, under threat or manipulation, by impersonation, or with a person who is incapable of giving valid consent.
Statistics on rape and other acts of sexual assault are commonly available in industrialized countries, and have become better documented throughout the world. Inconsistent definitions of rape, different rates of reporting, recording, prosecution and conviction for rape can create controversial statistical disparities, and lead to accusations that many rape statistics are unreliable or misleading.
Arie Freiberg is an Israeli-born Australian legal academic. He was formerly Dean of Monash Law School from 2004 and retired at the end of 2012. His expertise is in criminal law and criminology and he was the Chair of the Victorian Sentencing Advisory Council from 2004 to 2022. His research has focussed on sentencing and the administration of criminal justice, but he has over one hundred publications in many areas of law.
Michael Rozenes is the former Chief Judge of the County Court of Victoria, an intermediate court in Victoria, Australia. He presided over the County Court for thirteen years, retiring in June 2015.
Raymond Antony Finkelstein is an Australian lawyer and judge. From 1997 until 2011, he served as a judge of the Federal Court of Australia. His judgments were highly influential in commercial law, giving rise to new approaches in insolvency, competition law and class actions.
Robert Richter is an Australian barrister, based in Melbourne. He has handled a number of high-profile cases including defendants unpopular in public opinion. He is an adjunct professor at Victoria University. He is a critic of human rights violations and advocates for the rule of law.
John David Phillips KC is an Australian lawyer and judge who served on the Supreme Court of Victoria from 1990 to 2004.
Jennifer Ann Coate is an Australian jurist. Coate was a Judge of the Family Court of Australia and one of the six Royal Commissioners appointed by the Australian government Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Laws against child sexual abuse vary by country based on the local definition of who a child is and what constitutes child sexual abuse. Most countries in the world employ some form of age of consent, with sexual contact with an underage person being criminally penalized. As the age of consent to sexual behaviour varies from country to country, so too do definitions of child sexual abuse. An adult's sexual intercourse with a minor below the legal age of consent may sometimes be referred to as statutory rape, based on the principle that any apparent consent by a minor could not be considered legal consent.
In common law jurisdictions, statutory rape is nonforcible sexual activity in which one of the individuals is below the age of consent. Although it usually refers to adults engaging in sexual contact with minors under the age of consent, it is a generic term, and very few jurisdictions use the actual term statutory rape in the language of statutes. In statutory rape, overt force or threat is usually not present. Statutory rape laws presume coercion because a minor or mentally disabled adult is legally incapable of giving consent to the act.
Rape is a statutory offence in England and Wales. The offence is created by section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003:
(1) A person (A) commits an offence if—
(2) Whether a belief is reasonable is to be determined having regard to all the circumstances, including any steps A has taken to ascertain whether B consents.
(3) Sections 75 and 76 apply to an offence under this section.(4) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable, on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for life.
Child sexual abuse laws in India have been enacted as part of the child protection policies of India. The Parliament of India passed the 'Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Bill (POCSO), 2011' regarding child sexual abuse on 22 May 2012, making it an Act. A guideline was passed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, India. The rules formulated by the government in accordance with the law had also been notified on the November 2012 and the law had become ready for implementation. There have been many calls for more stringent laws.
Rape is the fourth most common crime against women in India. According to the 2021 annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 31,677 rape cases were registered across the country, or an average of 86 cases daily, a rise from 2020 with 28,046 cases, while in 2019, 32,033 cases were registered. Of the total 31,677 rape cases, 28,147 of the rapes were committed by persons known to the victim. The share of victims who were minors or below 18 – the legal age of consent – stood at 10%.
Kate Michelle Jenkins is a human rights lawyer and commissioner and sports administrator. She was Commissioner at the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission before becoming the Sex Discrimination Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission from 2016 to 2023. Jenkins was appointed the chair of the Australian Sports Commission in May 2024.
After a sexual assault or rape, victims are often subjected to scrutiny and, in some cases, mistreatment. Victims undergo medical examinations and are interviewed by police. If there is a criminal trial, victims suffer a loss of privacy, and their credibility may be challenged. Victims may also become the target of slut-shaming, abuse, social stigmatization, sexual slurs and cyberbullying. These factors, contributing to a rape culture, are among some of the reasons that may contribute up to 80% of all rapes going unreported in the U.S, according to a 2016 study done by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Mridula Bhatkar is a former judge of the Bombay High Court, in Maharashtra, India, serving on the court between 2009 and 2019. She adjudicated in several notable cases during her tenure as a judge, including the Jalgaon rape case, the 2006 Mumbai train bombings, and the conviction of Gujarat police officers and doctors in the 2002 gangrape of Bilkis Bano.
References
- 1 2 3 4 "Welcomes: Judge Sexton" (PDF). vicbar.com.au. pp. 20–22. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 July 2005..
- 1 2 Profile, justice.vic.gov.au; accessed 18 June 2015.
- ↑ "Trio jailed for Black attack". BBC News. 17 October 2001.
- ↑ Moran 'associates' guilty, theage.com.au; accessed 25 April 2008.
- ↑ Pop music millionaire jailed over teen sex, theage.com.au, 19 August 2008.
- ↑ Hunt, Elissa (11 July 2011). "Jurors in Andrew Lovett rape trial told to put aside feelings about footy". Herald Sun. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
- ↑ Advisory Committee for the Child Witness Service.
- ↑ "Changes to the Mental Element of Rape Twilight", justice.vic.gov.au; accessed 18 June 2015.
- ↑ "Propensity in Sexual Assault Cases", justice.vic.gov.au; accessed 18 June 2015.
- ↑ The Crimes (Sexual Offences) Act 2006, justice.vic.gov.au; accessed 18 June 2015.