Sexual Offences Act : The Sexual Offences Act 2003

Sarah’s Law is an improvement of the U.S. version and modifying the flaws in that law to make the U.K. law extremely more effective and reinforcing the objective of the scheme to protect the children (NSPCC, 2017). As reported by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), the official statistics indicated that around 1 in 20 children in the U.K. have been subjected to sexual abuse; and the Home Office in 2007 discovered that around 75% of the victims knew their offenders. Therefore, the scheme needs to be open about the facts and figures surrounding this particular type of offence in order to make the public more aware and educated of the risks. What is more, the possible situations that these offences that takes place in (Penny, 2014). However, the biggest problem resulting with statistics is that most cases are not reported or disclosed. Majority of the sexual abuse are not reported, prosecuted or detected, and the vast majority of the children do not tell anyone about their encounter of sexual abuse. In addition, this particular crime is generally witnessed amongst the abuser and the victim (NSPCC, 2017; Radford et al., 2011: p. 8).

Sexual assault is defined as “any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient.” (“Sexual Assault”, 2nd heading). An average of 237,868

Sexual abuse is a prevalent crime that can have numerous short and long term effects on a victim. It describes as any form sexual activity that is accomplished by force or threat where consent is not given. This includes rape, molestation, incest, and other similar forms of non-consensual sexual contact. The effects of sexual abuse are not the same for every victim, victims may feel varied responses and emotions that can depend on own situations. The act of abuse may had happened a long time ago or be more recent.

It includes the offences of grooming, abuse of position of trust, trafficking, and covers offences committed by British citizens whilst abroad. It also updated the Sex Offenders Act 1997 to strengthen the monitoring of offenders on the sex offenders’ register.

Have the legislative changes introduced by the Sexual Offence Act (SOA) amended and improved the current law. The amendments were made because protection against sex offenders was poor and needed to be changed in the 1956 act. Therefore protection was attempted to be improved by the SOA 2003 so that further security against sex offenders is provided. For example, the SOA 1956 before would only consider a man liable for rape which means a woman could not be charged even if she attempted to rape. The current law SOA 2003 holds both a male and female liable for rape. The concept of consent is important in considering a crime and helps determine whether a defendant is guilty of a sexual offence. SOA 2003 has attempted to simplify consent under

Laws regarding child abduction and molestation have strengthened and improved over time. Liam Dillon describes the improved consequences for sex offenders due to Chelsea’s Law.

* Sexual Assault – this involves sexual contact with another without their consent. Even when consent has been given, sexual assault can also occur. If a person over 16 has intercourse with a person under 16 they can be charged with sexual assault (statutory rape). This also occurs if a person is drugged/drunk for the purpose of having sex with them. Aggravated sexual assault comes with a longer sentence, because of the use of force.

Aggravated sexual assault: In New South Wales Crimes Act 1900, aggravated assault is defined as, ‘any person who has sexual intercourse with another person without the consent of the other person and in circumstances of aggravation and who knows that the other person does not consent to the sexual

This reflection paper and article critique has helped me to better understand the issue of sexual offense and the state of sexual offenders. This paper has helped me gain understanding on the varied features of sexual offense which subsequently allowed me to grasp the way in which measures can be taken to stop the issue altogether; these future measures include formulation of new policy reforms across different

The prosecution of statutory rape laws violations has led many to question the judicial proceedings for cases of non-violent underage sex. Some have wondered if current laws are used appropriately and do they effectively protect minor subjected to sexual

Sexual penetration includes oral and anal sex, sexual intercourse, and penetration of the victim’s body or the defendant’s body.

Consent means a clear ‘yes’ to the sexual act, however not saying ‘no’ also does not necessarily mean that you have given consent. Section 74 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 defines consent as 'if he agrees by choice, and has the freedom and capacity to make that choice’. This means that the person must know and understand as to what is going on, what they want to do, are able to say what they want to do and are sober i.e. not under the influence of drugs or

Thus, people especially women faced many difficulties in reporting and prosecuting sexual assaults. Back in history, the accused could not be convicted if the only prove was a woman's testimony because women were considered morally underdeveloped. A woman's statement credibility was based on her sexual reputation and past sexual relationships with other men. Furthermore, a woman's past sexual conduct with other men was considered significant in establishing her consent to the sexual offence. As a result of these gender biases, women were less inclined to report a sexual assault (Handbook, 2007:5). Although, the 1983 legislative reforms were implemented to encourage individuals to report sexual offences to the police, there is still a vast majority of cases

This act means that any one convicted of a sexual offence must be known t the police and will be placed on the sex offenders register. When on the register the police must be informed of all travel in and out of the uk. They must inform the police of where they are staying if they are not in a permanent home, if they are living in a house with a child under the age of 18. This also includes the offender providing any change to their bank/credit card details, passport or any other identify documents to the police, this helps prevent the offender changing their name to try and avoid being know on the sex offenders register. An example of this is a sex offender can be prevented from working with vulnerable adults as the manager can check for this

Title I of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 was established as The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (‘SORNA’)[footnoteRef:1] and received the most media attention because it expanded the National Sex Offender Registry nationally and established sanctions up to a maximum of twenty years for sex offenders who do not comply with the laws registration requirements. (Zgoba, K., & Ragbir, D. (2016). [1: