Sexual offences in English law

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There are a number of sexual offences under the law of England and Wales.

Contents

Common features

General interpretation

Consent

As to consent, see sections 74 to 77 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

"Sexual"

As to the meaning of "sexual", see section 78 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

Touching

As to touching, see section 79(8) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

Incitement

As to incitement to commit a sexual act, that would amount to a listed sexual offence if it was done in England and Wales, outside the United Kingdom, see section 2 of the Sexual Offences (Conspiracy and Incitement) Act 1996.

Abolition of presumption of sexual incapacity

As to the abolition of the presumption of sexual incapacity, see section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 1993.

Notification requirements

As to notification requirements, see sections 80 to 92 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. See formerly Part I of the Sex Offenders Act 1997.

Orders

Sexual offenders may be subject to the following orders, in particular:

Sections 104 to 113 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 made provision for sexual offences prevention orders. Sections 114 to 122 of that Act made provision for foreign travel orders. Sections 123 to 129 of that Act made provision for risk of sexual harm orders. Sections 104 to 113 and 114 to 122 and 123 to 129 of that Act were repealed, for England and Wales, by paragraphs 3(1) and 5(1) of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.

Entry and search

As to the power to enter and search the relevant offender's home address, see section 96B of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

Anonymity of victims

As to the anonymity of victims, see the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992.

Specified sexual offences

Part 2 of Schedule 15 to the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (as amended by section 130(8) of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022) contains a list of offences that are "specified sexual offences" for the purposes of sections 244ZA and 325 of that Act.

Non-consensual offences

Ormerod characterizes the offences under sections 1 to 4 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 as non-consensual offences. [1] Card, Gillespie and Hirst characterize the offences under sections 1 to 8 of that Act as non-consensual offences. [2]

Rape

The offence of rape is created by section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

Assault

Offences against children, other than prostitution and pornography

Offences against children under 13

Ormerod characterizes the offences under sections 5 to 8 as offences against children under 13. [3]

Offences against children under 16

Abuse of position of trust

The following offences replace offences under the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000:

Offences against child family members

Offences against mentally disordered persons

Mental disorder impeding choice

Inducement, threat or deception

Offences by care workers

Child prostitution and pornography

Indecent photographs

Pornography

Prostitution

Soliciting

Pimping

Forcible prostitution

Brothels

Sexual trafficking

Preparatory offences

Sex with an adult relative

Exposure

Voyeurism

Bestiality

Necrophilia

Sexual activity in a public lavatory

Abolished offences

See History of English criminal law#Sexual Offences

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Age of consent</span> Minimum age for sexual activities

The age of consent is the age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. Consequently, an adult who engages in sexual activity with a person younger than the age of consent is unable to legally claim that the sexual activity was consensual, and such sexual activity may be considered child sexual abuse or statutory rape. The person below the minimum age is considered the victim, and their sex partner the offender, although some jurisdictions provide exceptions through "Romeo and Juliet laws" if one or both participants are underage, and are close in age.

Sexual assault is an act 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.

Child sex tourism (CST) is tourism for the purpose of engaging in the prostitution of children, which is commercially facilitated child sexual abuse. The definition of child in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is "every human being below the age of 18 years". Child sex tourism results in both mental and physical consequences for the exploited children, which may include sexually transmitted infections, "drug addiction, pregnancy, malnutrition, social ostracism, and death", according to the State Department of the United States. Child sex tourism, part of the multibillion-dollar global sex tourism industry, is a form of child prostitution within the wider issue of commercial sexual exploitation of children. Child sex tourism victimizes approximately 2 million children around the world. The children who perform as prostitutes in the child sex tourism trade often have been lured or abducted into sexual slavery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual Offences Act 2003</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Sexual Offences Act 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

In criminal law, incitement is the encouragement of another person to commit a crime. Depending on the jurisdiction, some or all types of incitement may be illegal. Where illegal, it is known as an inchoate offense, where harm is intended but may or may not have actually occurred.

Murder is an offence under the common law legal system of England and Wales. It is considered the most serious form of homicide, in which one person kills another with the intention to unlawfully cause either death or serious injury. The element of intentionality was originally termed malice aforethought, although it required neither malice nor premeditation. Baker, chapter 14 states that many killings done with a high degree of subjective recklessness were treated as murder from the 12th century right through until the 1974 decision in DPP v Hyam.

In criminal law, the term offence against the person or crime against the person usually refers to a crime which is committed by direct physical harm or force being applied to another person.

The ages of consent for sexual activity vary from age 15 to 18 across Australia, New Zealand and other parts of Oceania. The specific activity and the gender of its participants is also addressed by the law. The minimum age is the age at or above which an individual can engage in unfettered sexual relations with another person of minimum age. Close in age exceptions may exist and are noted where applicable. In Vanuatu the homosexual age of consent is set higher at 18, while the heterosexual age of consent is 15. Same sex sexual activity is illegal at any age for males in Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Samoa, Niue, Tonga and Tuvalu; it is outlawed for both men and women in the Solomon Islands. In all other places the age of consent is independent of sexual orientation or gender.

The ages of consent vary by jurisdiction across Europe. The ages of consent – hereby meaning the age from which one is deemed able to consent to having sex with anyone else of consenting age or above – are between 14 and 18. The vast majority of countries set their ages in the range of 14 to 16; only four countries, Cyprus (17), Ireland (17), Turkey (18), and the Vatican City (18), set an age of consent higher than 16.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English criminal law</span> Legal system of England and Wales relating to crime

English criminal law concerns offences, their prevention and the consequences, in England and Wales. Criminal conduct is considered to be a wrong against the whole of a community, rather than just the private individuals affected. The state, in addition to certain international organisations, has responsibility for crime prevention, for bringing the culprits to justice, and for dealing with convicted offenders. The police, the criminal courts and prisons are all publicly funded services, though the main focus of criminal law concerns the role of the courts, how they apply criminal statutes and common law, and why some forms of behaviour are considered criminal. The fundamentals of a crime are a guilty act and a guilty mental state. The traditional view is that moral culpability requires that a defendant should have recognised or intended that they were acting wrongly, although in modern regulation a large number of offences relating to road traffic, environmental damage, financial services and corporations, create strict liability that can be proven simply by the guilty act.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Protection from Harassment Act 1997</span> Law of the United Kingdom

The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. On introducing the Bill's second reading in the House of Lords, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, said, "The aim of this Bill is to protect the victims of harassment. It will protect all such victims whatever the source of the harassment—so-called stalking behaviour, racial harassment, or anti-social behaviour by neighbours." Home Office guidance on the Act says "The legislation was always intended to tackle stalking, but the offences were drafted to tackle any form of persistent conduct which causes another person alarm or distress."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995</span> Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed to consolidate certain enactments creating offences and relating to the criminal law of Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual Offences Act 1956</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Sexual Offences Act 1956 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that consolidated the English criminal law relating to sexual offences between 1957 and 2004. It was mostly repealed by the Sexual Offences Act 2003 which replaced it, but sections 33 to 37 still survive. The 2003 Act also added a new section 33A. These sections create offences to deal with brothels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual offences in the United Kingdom</span>

There are a number of sexual offences under the law of England and Wales, the law of Scotland, and the law of Northern Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1976</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1976 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It made provision in relation to rape and related offences. Except for subsections (1) and (2) and (4) and (6) of section 7, the whole Act is repealed. Section 7(2) now provides the definition of the expression "a rape offence" in relation to court martial proceedings. The other remaining provisions are purely supplemental.

In English criminal law, an inchoate offence is an offence relating to a criminal act which has not, or not yet, been committed. The main inchoate offences are attempting to commit; encouraging or assisting crime; and conspiring to commit. Attempts, governed by the Criminal Attempts Act 1981, are defined as situations where an individual who intends to commit an offence does an act which is "more than merely preparatory" in the offence's commission. Traditionally this definition has caused problems, with no firm rule on what constitutes a "more than merely preparatory" act, but broad judicial statements give some guidance. Incitement, on the other hand, is an offence under the common law, and covers situations where an individual encourages another person to engage in activities which will result in a criminal act taking place, and intends for this act to occur. As a criminal activity, incitement had a particularly broad remit, covering "a suggestion, proposal, request, exhortation, gesture, argument, persuasion, inducement, goading or the arousal of cupidity". Incitement was abolished by the Serious Crime Act 2007, but continues in other offences and as the basis of the new offence of "encouraging or assisting" the commission of a crime.

There are a number of sexual offences under the law of Scotland.

There are a number of sexual offences under the law of Northern Ireland.

References

  1. ↑ David Ormerod. Smith and Hogan's Criminal Law. Thirteenth Edition. Oxford University Press. 2011. Chapter 18.3 ("Non-consensual offences"). Pages 740 to 751.
  2. ↑ Richard Card, Alisdair A Gillespie and Michael Hirst. "Non-consensual offences under the Sexual Offences Act 2003". Sexual Offences. Jordans. 2008. p 46.
  3. ↑ David Ormerod. Smith and Hogan's Criminal Law. Thirteenth Edition. Oxford University Press. 2011. Chapter 18.4 ("Offences against children under 13"). Pages 751 to 757.
  4. ↑ The Criminal Justice Act 2003, Schedule 15, Part 2, paragraph 100
  5. ↑ The Criminal Justice Act 2003, Schedule 15, Part 2, paragraph 152A, as inserted by section 6(3) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015
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