SEXUAL CRIMES

The laws regarding criminal sexual abuse vary by whether the victim is an adult or child. Child sexual abuse is often referred to as child molestation, while adult sexual abuse is often called rape or aggregated sexual abuse. More specific terms include:

Date Rape: When rape is committed by an acquaintance during a voluntary social engagement. The fact that the parties knew each other or that the date itself was consensual is not a legal defence to a charge of rape. But date rape does require that the victim did not consent or intend to consent to the sexual advances and that the advances were refused verbally and/or physically.

Indecent Exposure: Indecent exposure is the crime of intentionally displaying one's genitalia to a person or people in a public place. Typically, the purpose is sexual gratification for the perpetrator through the shock-reaction of the viewer.

Molestation: Any sexual acts committed with children under the legal age of consent (usually 18). This includes the exposure or touching of genitalia, the inducement of sexual acts with the molester or with other children, rape, and the taking of pornographic pictures.

Paedophilia: A sexual obsession with children and considered a mental illness. Incest by a relative with a minor falls into the category of molestation, as does any unwanted sexual acts committed between adults with the victim being non-consenting, except for rape.

Prostitution: Prostitution is the illegal profession of providing sex or performing sexual acts in exchange for money. With the exception of a few counties in the state of Nevada, where it is regulated and licensed, prostitution is a crime throughout the United States. Soliciting is the act of seeking out and hiring a prostitute. Pandering on behalf of a prostitute is the legal term for pimping.

Rape: Non-consensual sexual intercourse that occurs through force, the threat of violence or intimidation. The crime of rape requires that the victim refused the sexual advances verbally and/or physically. A lack of consent can also be construed from a victim being too drunk or under the influence of a drug to be capable of resisting or expressing resistance.

Statutory Rape: The crime of statutory rape occurs when an adult has sexual intercourse with a person who is below the legal age of consent (usually 18), but above the age of a child (usually 14). Unlike rape, the victim may have willingly participated in the crime. However, because of their age, they are not legally allowed to give their consent. Sexual intercourse with a child under 14 is rape, regardless of any consent the victim may have given.