Sex Offending

Question 1

Sexual offences

Answer 1

— complex, always changing- laws etc
— Criminalisation of rape within marriage 1994

Consent — for all offences where A offender does not reasonably believe that B victim consents

Question 2

Child sexual abuse

Answer 2

—any intercourse with a child under 13 years
—age of consent is 16 years— unlikely that similar aged children eg 15/16 will be prosecuted

Question 3

Prevalence and Trends

Answer 3

Intimate partner violence— most violence against women occurs within relationships

—Globally, 1 in 3 women worldwide 30%— subjected to either physical or sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime

—27% of women aged 15-19 in a relationship report their partner has subjected them

Police recorded— march 21 to 22 just under 200k sexual offences- highest level recorded— part of increasing set
—however, around pandemic time— fluctuations in data— police more on point
—31% higher than previous year

86,962– sexual offences against children 22-23
—around half child sex abuse cases involved child perpetrators

Increase in offences may be— due to improvement in crime recording by police
—yewtree effect— operation yewtree— finding convicting ppl lile jimmy savile— offenders
——used to describe instance where one sexual offence is reported in the media— leads to other people coming forward and reporting other instances

—changes in law— more laws/ more crimes
—or geniune increase in sexual offending

Question 4

Crime Survey for England and Wales

Answer 4

—before, BCS
—Method of verifying prevalance— through confidential self completion questionnaires
—crimes dont have to be reported to police— if asked in anonymous survey- might get better answer there- report on experiences
—little influence by police

—approx 1.1 mill adults aged 16 or over experienced sexual assault in 12 months prior to interview
—798,000 females 3.3%— majority
—275,000 males 1.2%

Question 5

Perpetrators

Answer 5

Most sexual violence perpetrated by partners or ex partners

—most common perpetrator for women is partner/ex— outweigh stranger rape
—males more likely to be victimised by strangers

Both male and female victims— unlikely to report to police
—16% female, 19% male