Rape and Sexual Offense: A Plague for the Innocent
Posted on July 2, 2008
Filed Under Celebrities, Criminal Law, Kidnapping, News, Sex Offenders |
Rape and sexual offense charges are an incredibly serious matter, and law enforcement officials don’t take them lightly. Take for example the drummer for the band Poison, Rikki Rocket. Rocket was accused of raping a woman at a casino in Mississippi and was arrested. However, Rocket wasn’t even in the state at the time and was later acquitted of the crime. That a man not even in the state can be arrested is a sign of how serious this crime is taken.
The crime of rape (or “first-degree sexual assault” in some states) generally refers to non-consensual sexual intercourse that is committed by physical force, threat of injury, or other duress. A lack of consent can include the victim’s inability to say “no” to intercourse, due to the effects of drugs or alcohol. Rape can occur when the offender and victim have a pre-existing relationship (sometimes called “date rape“), or even when the offender is the victim’s spouse.
Sex crimes and sexual offenses are forms of human sexual behavior that are crimes. Someone who commits one is said to be a sex offender. Some sex crimes are crimes of violence that involve sex. Others are violations of social taboos, such as incest, sodomy, sexual violation, indecent exposure or exhibitionism.
The laws governing these terms and the accompanying penalties vary by state, and there can be local, state and/or federal charges regarding sexual offense.
One of the scary aspects of sexual crimes is that they are usually perpetrated by people known by the victim. One study showed that only 2% of women who have been raped were raped by someone they did not know, most of them were violated by a current or former partner or even a close friend. The same can hold true of sexual offense, as many children who are sexually abused are abused by family members or friends of the family, and rarely by strangers.
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