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Lecture notes of 6 pages for the course Law at LE (criminal law)
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lOMoARcPSD|805298Lecture notes, lecture semester 1 - Sexual offences notes
Criminal Law (University of Leicester)
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Downloaded by Shrina Sokhi (shrinasokhi@me.com)
, lOMoARcPSD|805298
Sexual offences:
The level of offending:
v difficult to assess the extent of offending in this area
clear that whether one is talking about consensual but unlawful under-age
sexual intercourse, familial sex offences, sexual assault or rape, the official
stats reveal only a tiny proportion of offending
59,466 sexual offences were recorded by the police in 2012/13, of which
18,293 were rapes
both rape and sexual offences showed a 17% increase for the year ending
Sept 2013 compared with the previous year. the current levels of reported
sexual offences now stand in stark contrast to the no. of offences reported
60-70 years go, for example in 1947 just 240 rapes were recorded by the
police.
The dark figure of offending
analysis of CSEW data in 2013 found that 2.5% of females and 0.4% of
males had reported experiencing some form of sexual offence in the previous
12 months
based on these rates, it has been estimated that there are between 430,000
and 517,000 adult victims of sexual offences each year
data gathered between 2007 and 2012 found that 56% of these offences
were committed by the victim’s partner
The law of rape
Consent:
issue of consent is fundamental to many of the sexual offences contained
within the Sexual Offences Act 2003
it has also proved to be v problematic concept to define and one of the key
objectives of the reform was to clarify this concept
English law doesn’t define rape as sexual intercourse by force, it absolves the
victim from having to make a show of resistance
although changes to legislation mean judges are no longer obliged to warn
the jury of the dangers of accepting the v’s uncorroborated story, they have
discretion still to do so
the report Speaking up for Justice concluded that there was an
‘overwhelming evidence that the practice in the courts [was] unsatisfactory
and that the existing law [was] not achieving its purpose’
as a consequence, a much tighter scheme governing sexual history evidence
has been introduced by the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999
no such evidence can be adduced unless certain statutory criteria are
satisfied e.g. that the issue is one of consent
the court must also believe that a failure to admit the evidence would render
the conviction unsafe
one basis for admitting evidence or permitting cross-examination about
sexual history might be where the complainant is biased against the D or
has a motive for fabricating the evidence
Downloaded by Shrina Sokhi (shrinasokhi@me.com)
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