Related Research Articles
The Sexual Offences Act 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
The Offences against the Person Act 1861 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It consolidated provisions related to offences against the person from a number of earlier statutes into a single Act. For the most part these provisions were, according to the draftsman of the Act, incorporated with little or no variation in their phraseology. It is one of a group of Acts sometimes referred to as the Criminal Law Consolidation Acts 1861. It was passed with the object of simplifying the law. It is essentially a revised version of an earlier consolidation act, the Offences Against the Person Act 1828, incorporating subsequent statutes.
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 law of Northern Ireland is the legal system of statute and common law operating in Northern Ireland since the partition of Ireland established Northern Ireland as a distinct jurisdiction in 1921. Prior to 1921, Northern Ireland was part of the same legal system as the rest of Ireland.
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.
The age of consent in Africa for sexual activity varies by jurisdiction across the continent, codified in laws which may also stipulate the specific activities that are permitted or the gender of participants for different ages. Other variables may exist, such as close-in-age exemptions.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
There are a number of sexual offences under the law of England and Wales, the law of Scotland, and the law of Northern Ireland.
Prostitution in Northern Ireland is governed by the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Act 2015, which makes it illegal to pay for sex in Northern Ireland. Prior to the act coming into effect, prostitution in Northern Ireland was regulated by the same or similar laws to those in England and Wales, as it is elsewhere in the United Kingdom. At that time, prostitution in Northern Ireland was legal subject to a number of restraints which controlled certain activities associated with prostitution, such as soliciting, procuring, living on the proceeds of prostitution (pimping), exploitation of prostitutes, under-age prostitution, and keeping a brothel. However, devolution provided the opportunity for separate legislation in Northern Ireland.
The Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 is an Act of the Scottish Parliament. It creates a code of sexual offences that is said to be intended to reform that area of the law. The corresponding legislation in England and Wales is the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and in Northern Ireland the Sexual Offences Order 2008.
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.
The Sexual Offences Act, 1957 is an act of the Parliament of South Africa which, in its current form, prohibits prostitution, brothel-keeping and procuring, and other activities related to prostitution. Before the law relating to sex offences was consolidated and revised by the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2007, it also prohibited various other sex offences, including sex with children under the age of consent and sex with the mentally incompetent. As the Immorality Act it was infamous for prohibiting sex between a white person and a person of another race, until that prohibition was removed by a 1985 amendment.
There are a number of sexual offences under the law of England and Wales.
There are a number of sexual offences under the law of Scotland.
References
- Peter Rook and Robert Ward. "Sexual Offences in Northern Ireland". Rook and Ward on Sexual Offences. Sixth Edition. Sweet & Maxwell. 2021. Chapter 34.
- David Macfarland. "Sexual Offences in Northern Ireland". Peter Rook and Robert Ward. Rook and Ward on Sexual Offences. First Supplement to the Fourth Edition. Sweet & Maxwell. Thomson Reuters. 2014. Chapter 32. Page 659 et seq.
- Richard Card, Alisdair A Gillespie and Michael Hirst. Sexual Offences. Jordans. 2008. Paragraphs 2.1, 2.103, 2.104, 2.95, 2.96, 11.12, 17.14 and 17.40.
- John E Stannard. Northern Ireland Supplement to Smith and Hogan, Criminal Law (5th ed). SLS Legal Publications. Belfast. 1984.
- Valentine's All the Law of Northern Ireland
- Digest of Northern Ireland Law
- Brice Dickinson. Law in Northern Ireland. Second Edition. Hart Publishing. 2013. Para 7.19 at p 178.
- Allen and McAleenan. "Sexual Offences". Sentencing Law and Practice in Northern Ireland. Third Edition. SLS Legal Publications, Queen's University, Belfast. 1998. Page 359 et seq. See also passim.
- Regan and Brown, "Secretary of State for Justice v A Local Authority and others" (2021) 72 Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 596 abstract
- G Ellison, "Criminalizing the payment for sex in Northern Ireland" (2017) 57 British Journal of Criminology 194
- Eithne Dowds. "I presume she wanted it to happen". Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly.
- The Gillen Review: Report into the Law and Procedures in Serious Sexual Offences in Northern Ireland. 2019.
- Bows and Herring (eds). Rough Sex and the Criminal Law. Emerald Publishing. 2023. p 107.
- Sexual Violence on Trial: Local and Comparative Perspectives. Routledge. 2021. Pages 8, 16, 17, 37, 42, 93, 106, 118, 179 and 183. Google
- "Sexual offences and under 18-year-olds in Northern Ireland". British Medical Association.
- Deborah McAleese. "Age of consent lowered to 16". Belfast Telegraph. 20 November 2007.
- Jonathan McCambridge. "Massive shake-up in NI sex offence laws". Belfast Telegraph. 2 February 2009.
- "New kerb crawling laws come into force". Belfast Telegraph. 2 February 2009.
- Rebecca Black. "Abuse of trust legislation to be strengthened to protect vulnerable children". Belfast Telegraph. 23 March 2021.
- ↑ As to this Order, see "Statutory Instruments" (1979) 128 The New Law Journal 185 and 358; Halsbury's Statutes of England, 3rd Ed, 1985, Cumulative Supplement, Part 1
- ↑ As to this Order, see "The Protection of Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1978 - A Useful and Sensible Little Measure?" (1978) 30 Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 170; "Protection of Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1978", The Irish Jurist 1978, p 430; Clough, Principles of Cybercrime, 2nd Ed, 2015, p 297; The Statutes Revised, Northern Ireland; McAlinden, Children at Risk, 2018, pp 81, 181, 220, 226, 227 & 234.
- ↑ The Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2008, Schedule 2, Part 2, paragraph 9
- ↑ The Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2008, Schedule 2, Part 2, paragraph 14A, as inserted by section 5(4) of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Criminal Justice and Support for Victims) Act (Northern Ireland) 2015
- ↑ McCabe v Donnelly [1982] NI 153. As to this case, see "Indecent Behaviour" (1985) 49 The Journal of Criminal Law 47 ; "Judicial Decisions in Northern Ireland" (1984) 19 The Irish Jurist 417
- ↑ For a copy the judgement, see BAILII. As to this case, see Gillespie, "Tackling Voyeurism" (2019) 82 Modern Law Review 1107 ; Richardson and Clark: Sexual Offences A Practitioner's Guide, 2014, p 275; Pegg and Davies, Sexual Offences: Law and Context, 2016, p 133; Pamela R Ferguson, Scots Criminal Law, 2015, para 11.10.1.
- ↑ As to this Act, see "Attempted Rape, etc., Act (Northern Ireland) 1960", The Statutes Revised: Northern Ireland, 2nd Ed, 1982, vol 3, p 15; [1960] 26 The Irish Jurist 24; Current Law Statutes, service
- ↑ Halsbury's Statutes of England, 3rd Ed, 1969, vol 8, p 149
- ↑ "Attempted Rape, etc. Act (N.I.), 1960" (1961) 95 The Irish Law Times and Solicitors' Journal 37 (No 4908, 4 March 1961)
- ↑ As to R v Taylor [1958] NI 135, see "Ireland: Sentences for Misdemeanours: R v Taylor" (1960) 24 The Journal of Criminal Law 55; "Week to Week" (1959) 93 Irish Law Times and Solicitors' Journal 245 (17 October 1959); "Equity and Common Law Digest" (1960) 93 Irish Law Times Reports viii; (1969) Dublin University Law Review, vols 1-2, p 80; [1959] 25 The Irish Jurist 12; Annual Review of Irish Law 1992, p 299; Mews' Digest of English Case Law 1959, p 57
- ↑ As to article 19, see Johnson, Going to Strasbourg, 2016, pp 13 & 58; Johnson and Vanderbeck, Law, Religion and Homosexuality, 2014, pp 59, 63 & 64.
- ↑ As to this enactment, see Comerton, A Handbook on the Magistrates' Courts Act (Northern Ireland) 1964, Belfast, 1968, p 63