Rape Penetration

Rape Penetration
The following post appears courtesy of Susan B. Carbon, Director of the Office on Violence Against Women.

In a victory for survivors of rape and their advocates, the Attorney General announced a newly revised definition of rape for nationwide data collection, ensuring that rape will be more accurately reported nationwide.

The change sends an important message to all victims that what happens to them matters, and to perpetrators that they will be held accountable. It was because of the voices of survivors, advocates, law enforcement personnel and many others that FBI Director Robert Mueller was able to make this important change within the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report (UCR) Summary Reporting System (SRS).

“Forcible rape” had been defined by the UCR SRS as “the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will.” That definition, unchanged since 1927, was outdated and narrow. It only included forcible male penile penetration of a female vagina.

The new definition is:
“The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”
For the first time ever, the new definition includes any gender of victim and perpetrator, not just women being raped by men. It also recognizes that rape with an object can be as traumatic as penile/vaginal rape. This definition also includes instances in which the victim is unable to give consent because of temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity.

Furthermore, because many rapes are facilitated by drugs or alcohol, the new definition recognizes that a victim can be incapacitated and thus unable to consent because of ingestion of drugs or alcohol. Similarly, a victim may be legally incapable of consent because of age. The ability of the victim to give consent must be determined in accordance with individual state statutes. Physical resistance is not required on the part of the victim to demonstrate lack of consent.

The UCR is the national “report card” on serious crime; what gets reported through the UCR is how we, collectively, view crime in this country. Police departments submit data on reported crimes and arrests to the UCR SRS. Even though most states have more expansive definitions of rape in their criminal codes, they had to report the smaller number of crimes falling under the more narrow UCR SRS definition. This meant that the statistics that were reported nationally were both inaccurate and undercounted.

Because the new definition is more inclusive, reported crimes of rape are likely to increase. This does not mean that rape has increased, but simply that it is more accurately reported. In addition, the UCR program will also collect data based on the historical definition of rape, enabling law enforcement to track consistent trend data until the statistical differences between the old and new definitions are more fully understood.

The new UCR SRS definition of rape does not change Federal or state criminal codes or impact charging and prosecution on the Federal, State or local level, it simply means that rape will be more accurately reported nationwide.

The Office of Violence Against Women (OVW) worked closely with White House Advisor on Violence Against Women Lynn Rosenthal and the Office of the Vice President, as well as multiple DOJ divisions, to modernize the definition. The change was supported by external partners such as the National Sheriffs Association, National Association of Police Organizations, International Association of Chiefs of Police, Major City Chiefs, Major County Sheriffs, and the Police Executive Research Forum.

For more information about the Office on Violence Against Women, visit ovw.usdoj.gov . We remind all those in need of assistance, or other concerned friends and individuals, to call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE.
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Some readers will find this story disturbing
Men are often ashamed to report FTP experiences - they may report domestic abuse without mentioning the sexual abuse The mental health impact can be severe, including PTSD, thoughts of suicide and sexual dysfunction Some men report being repeatedly victimised - some experienced childhood sexual abuse, some had endured varying types of sexual violence from different perpetrators, including men Many had overwhelmingly negative perceptions of the police, criminal justice system, and the law
When a man has penetrative sex with a woman without her consent, that's rape. But what if a woman makes a man have penetrative sex with her, without his consent? That's not rape under the law of England and Wales, but the author of a new study of the phenomenon says perhaps it should be.
Dr Siobhan Weare of Lancaster University Law School carried out the first research into forced penetration in the UK in 2016-7, gathering information from more than 200 men via an online survey.
Her latest study , published this week - based on one-to-one interviews with 30 men between May 2018 and July 2019 - explores in greater detail the context in which forced penetration occurs, its consequences, and the response of the criminal justice system.
All the participants were anonymised, but I will call one of them John.
John says the first sign that something was wrong was when his partner started to self-harm. After a particularly frightening incident he rushed her to A&E for treatment. The couple spent hours discussing possible psychological causes.
About six months later instead of harming herself, she trained her sights on John.
"I was sitting in the living room and she just came in from the kitchen, punched me very hard on the nose and ran off giggling," John says. "The violence then started happening quite regularly."
She tried to get help from her GP, John says. She had some counselling, and she was referred to a psychologist - though didn't attend the appointment.
She'd come home from her job "and basically demand sex", he says.
"She would be violent, and it got to the stage that I dreaded her coming back from work."
On one occasion John woke up to find that his partner had handcuffed his right arm to the metal bed frame. Then she started hitting him on the head with a loudspeaker from the stereo system beside the bed, tied up his other arm with some nylon rope and tried to force him to have sex.
Scared and in pain, John was unable to comply with her demands - so she beat him again and left him chained up for half an hour, before returning and freeing him. Afterwards she refused to talk about what had happened.
Not long after that she became pregnant, and the violence abated. But a few months after the baby was born, John again woke one night to discover that he was being handcuffed to the bed.
Then, he says, his partner force-fed him Viagra and gagged him.
"There was nothing I could do about it," he says.
"Later I went and sat in the shower for I dunno how long… I eventually went downstairs. The first thing she said to me when I went into the room was, 'What's for dinner?'"
When John has tried to tell people about it, he says he has often met with disbelief.
"I've been asked why I didn't leave the house. Well, it was my house that I'd bought for my kids . And the financial side as well, I was so locked into the relationship financially," he says.
"I still get disbelief because it's like, 'Well why didn't you hit her back?' I get that quite a lot. Well that's a lot easier said than done.
"I wish I'd run away a lot sooner."
Listen to Katie Silver and Alex Skeel discuss Siobhan Weare's research into forced penetration on the BBC Sounds podcast, The Next Episode
Aspects of John's story are repeated in the experiences of some of the other men Dr Weare has interviewed. One of her findings is that the perpetrator in "forced-to-penetrate" (FTP) cases is often a female partner or ex-partner (her research focuses only on forced penetration involving men and women), and that the experience is frequently one element in a wider pattern of domestic abuse.
The experience of disbelief is also mentioned by other interviewees.
"You must have enjoyed it or you'd have reported it sooner," one man says he was told by a police officer.
Another participant said: "We're scared to talk about it and embarrassed, and when we do talk about it, we're not believed, because we're men. How can a man possibly be abused? Look at him, he's a man."
One myth Weare's research dispels is that forced penetration is impossible because men are physically stronger than women. Another is that men view all sexual opportunities with women as positive.
A third myth is that if men have an erection they must want sex. In fact, Weare says, "an erection is purely a physiological response to stimulus".
"Men can obtain and sustain an erection even if they're scared, angry, terrified etc," she says.
"There's also research that shows women can respond sexually when they are raped (e.g. have an orgasm) because their body is responding physiologically. This is an issue for both male and female victims that is not discussed enough, but there is clear evidence in this area."
A number of the participants in Weare's 2017 study reported FTP experiences after getting extremely drunk or high, and being unable to stop what was happening.
One of those interviewed for the new study describes going home with a woman after a night out clubbing, and blacking out after being given what he suspects was a date rape drug. He says he was then forced to engage in non-consensual sex.
Another describes being coerced into sex while working at a holiday camp one summer, while he was a student. A female co-worker had discovered a letter he had written to a boyfriend, and threatened to out him as gay unless he slept with her.
She thought that if he had sex with a woman "this would transform my life and I would be straight", he says. As he had not come out to his friends, family or co-workers he felt that he had no choice but to comply.
Weare says that most of the participants in the latest study regarded their forced-to-penetrate experiences as "rape", and some were frustrated that it would not count as rape under the law of England and Wales. There was frustration also that British society would most likely not recognise it as rape.
"Talking about the fact that your ex-partner used to get drunk and force herself on you, rape you essentially, it's like most blokes' fantasy isn't it?" said one of the participants.
"Down the pub, you know, she gets a bit drunk, she gets a bit frisky 'Yay! Oh that would be fantastic! I would love a bit of that!' No you really wouldn't, you bloody wouldn't. It's not the way that you think it is."
In one of Weare's papers - titled " Oh, you're a guy, how could you be raped by a woman, that makes no sense " - she points out that in several US states rape is broadly defined as non-consensual sexual intercourse, and that in the Australian state of Victoria a specific offence exists of "rape by compelling penetration".
One of eight recommendations made in the latest study is that reform of the law of rape to include FTP cases requires "serious consideration".
When Hannah Price was sexually assaulted as a student, she felt unable to report it. She has since discovered she is far from alone - and that sexual assault may be far more common on campus than official figures suggest.
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17th June 2019 |
Sex Offences |

The Act replaced older sexual offences laws, providing more explicit wording and making extra provisions to protect the young and particularly vulnerable. It legally reclassified rape and newly defined the offence of sexual assault by penetration.

Digital penetration is sexual penetration using the fingers – meaning that when enacted by force or without consent it is categorised under the offence of sexual assault by penetration.

The term indecent assault is less commonly used than it was previously, and the two terms and relatively interchangeable – both broadly referring to touching for sexual purposes without consent.

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Home > Knowledge Centre > What is sexual assault by penetration according to UK law?
Sexual assault by penetration, occurs when someone intentionally penetrates the vagina or anus of another person without that individual’s consent. Sexual assault by penetration is an extremely serious offence which is charged where there is insufficient evidence to prove rape . Rape can only be committed via penile penetration by a man, whereas sexual assault by penetration can be committed by either a man or a woman. The maximum sentence for sexual assault by penetration is life imprisonment, but because the issue of consent is complex there are certain defences which can be raised in court.
If you are found guilty of committing sexual assault by penetration, the consequences are severe, with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Nick Titchener, director and solicitor advocate at Criminal Defence Solicitors, Lawtons , explains this highly complex area of the law and breaks down the implications of a conviction.
Sexual assault by penetration is one of the three most common sexual crimes classified under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 .
The offence, also referred to as assault by penetration, occurs when someone intentionally penetrates the vagina or anus of another person without that individual’s consent, and the perpetrator does not reasonably believe that the other person consents to the act.
Penetration can take place by use of a body part or alternatively an object such as a bottle. The offence can be committed by either gender.
Sexual assault by penetration is a very serious allegation and is an indictable only offence, meaning that a case can only be heard by the Crown Court .
Each of these is a very specific offence and your plea will depend on the specific charge against you.
A person found guilty of sexual assault can be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment.
If you are convicted of the criminal offence of sexual assault by penetration, the maximum sentence is life imprisonment.
If you are accused of sexual assault by penetration, the prosecution will start building a case against you straight away and, as such, it’s paramount that you instruct expert legal representation as soon as you are able.
Every case is different but defences that may be raised and argued may be that:
The issue of consent is a relatively complex one. It is essenti
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