Sex Offenses

Question 1

Rape

Answer 1

Modern Statutes — Sex & Lack of Consent

• Penetration
  
  • Slightest penetration is sufficient
• V can be Man or Woman
  
  • Often “rape” is renamed as gender-neutral “sexual assault”
• Marital Status
  
  • Most states have abolished element
  • But exists under MPC

Common Law

• unlawful carnal knowledge
• of a woman
• by a man
• not her husband
• without her effective consent

Lack of Effective Consent
Exists where:

• (1) Intercourse is accomplished by
  
  • (a) actual force
  • (b) threats of great and immediate bodily harm
• (3) V is incapable of consenting due to
  
  • unconsciousness
  • intoxication
  • mental condition
• (4) Fraud
  
  • V is fraudulently caused to believe that the act is not intercourse.
  • Consent due to other types of fraud may be sufficient
    
    • perpetrator persuading victim that he is her husband or that he will marry her

Question 2

Statutory Rape

Answer 2

Carnal knowledge
of a Person Under the Age of Consent

Consent Irrelevant

• it is not necessary to show lack of consent

Reasonable Mistake as to Age

• D’s reasonable mistake as to V’s age
  
  • will not prevent liability since statutory rape is a strict liability crime.
• A second best answer (if this isn’t a choice)
  
  • is that a reasonable mistake as to age will prevent conviction if D reasonably believed the victim was old enough to give an effective consent.