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How Does Society Make Sense Of Sex Offences Essay

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Making sense of sex offences This essay will examine sex offences and how society can make sense of them. It will offer historical, and cultural explanations, considering how sex offences are reported, recorded and measured, and argue that they may not tell the complete story. The essay will examine recent crime statistics relating to sex offences, identifying any issues. Finally the essay will suggest ways in which the media and politics impact on the public perception of sex offences. Legislation in England and Wales relating to sex offences can be traced back to 1285 when the Statute of Westminster made rape an offence punishable by death (Thomas 2005). Henry VIII introduced the Buggery Act in 1533 making homosexual activity an offence …show more content…

The Sexual Offences Act 1967 decriminalised homosexual acts between two consenting men over the age of 21 in England and Wales only. Homosexual activity between consenting adult males was decriminalised in Scotland by the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980 and Northern Ireland by the Homosexual Offences (Northern Ireland) Order 1982. The age of homosexual consent was lowered to 18 years by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 but it wasn’t until the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 2000 when the age of consent for homosexual and heterosexual behaviours was equalised at 16 …show more content…

Media led public outcry over kidnap and murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne in 2000 by convicted paedophile Roy Whiting, put the government under pressure to increase sentences for child sex offenders and strengthen the management and supervision of those in the community. This led the then Home Secretary David Blunkett to introduce new legislation to address

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QUESTION 1 (i) The scenario given is one regarding Alex, a fourteen-year-old teenage boy, who has had experimental sexual intercourse with the victim – Simone, a twelve-year-old girl. Hence, on the face of it, Alex has committed a number of sexual offences against children under the age of thirteen, contrary to the Sexual Offences Act 2003. The various strict liability offences committed by Alex will be discussed as follows.

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Policy Analysis: Megan’s Law Sexual violence, particularly against children, is a significant issue all around the world. In the early 1990’s in the United States, there were multiple well-publicized cases of sexual violence against children. From kidnappings, to rapes, and everything in between, violence was being committed against children and something needed to be done about it. In 1996, Megan’s Law was passed in response to the sexual assault and death of Megan Kanka, a seven-year-old from New Jersey (Corrigan, 2006).

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However, also stated that there is no historical standing in that origin of law that was targeting homosexual conduct in a direct view. Sodomy laws passed in earlier times, were not passed to prohibit same sex acts but was aimed to ban sexual acts that were not intended to procreate in general, whether it was between men and woman, or man and man. Also, those laws were not enforced between consenting adults in private. Prosecutions against sodomy were of predatory acts against anyone who were forced and non consenting; such as children and men, and or between man and

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The sexual offender registration and notification act, also known as Megan’s Law, was enacted in 1995 by Pennsylivania Governor Tom Ridge. Megan Kanka was a seven year-old girl that resided in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, with her family. On Friday, July 29, 1994, Kanka was raped and murdered by their 33 year old neighbor, Jesse Timmendequas. Timmendequas had two prior convictions of attempted sexual assault on five and seven year old girls. He lured Kanka into his house by offering to show her a puppy.

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Megan Kanka was seven-years-old when she was brutally raped and murdered by a neighbor Jesse Timmendequas on December 7, 1986. Prior to killing Megan Kanke, Jesse Timmendequas was convicted of sexually assaulting two young girls and sentenced to prison (Glaberson, 1996). Upon his release from prison, Jesse moved into the neighborhood where Megan lived with her family, Jesse lured Megan to his home where he brutally raped and murdered her (Glaberson, 1996). This horrific case is what lead to the enactment of Megan’s Law which was first signed into law in 1996. Megan’s Law was an amendment to the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act of 1994 (National Alert Registry, n.d.).

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Megan’s Law is a federal law that has changed the course of the criminal justice system in the United States of America. Prior to Megan’s law, convicted sex offenders were able to easily re-offend due to lack of public notification. In the year 2000, it is estimated that there were more than 248,000 sexual victimizations and over an 8-year period in the United States there were 366,460 attempted or completed rapes and sexual assaults (Welchans, 2005). The prevalence of sexual assault, rape, and pedophilia in the United States has sparked a large conversation over the last decade, which has led to the creation of several laws, including Megan’s Law. This analysis of Megan’s Law will focus on the positive aspects that implementing this law has

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26th February 2014, ‘The Australian’ newspaper reporter, Adam Vilder reported that one of the Bilal Skaf gang rapist known as “H” attends for his first parole report. This newspaper article reminded the people of the series of sickening sexual assaults which took place in the early 2000. A gang up to 14 teenage Lebanese Australian terrorized Western Sydney by committing a four-week rampage of sexual offence; At least six young ladies were a victim of the gang rape. The youths headed by the19-year-old Bilal Skaf were caught gang raping, put on shame and humiliating the victims with violence and racist taunts. Rape has a definition of a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of penetration initiated against

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RE; Views on homosexuality are constantly changing; however, today, people are more accepting than ever. Throughout the 1800s/1900s, homosexuality was viewed as a crime and was even punishable by death. It was not until 1967 that the law was changed in England and Wales to decriminalise consensual homosexual acts taking place in private between men over 21 years old. The treatment of homosexuals was absolutely appalling.

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Riddles of DEATH In a battle of a riddle game who do you think would win Gollum the king of riddles or Bilbo a short little hobbit who has no idea of what a riddle is. The book is called “The Hobbit” written by J.R.R Tolkien and the director of the movie Peter Jackson. In the book there is a short little hobbit named Bilbo who leaves in a small hobbit hole all by himself. At of nowhere a wizard named Gandalf comes by and starts to talk to Bilbo about some weird journey he is taking and wants Bilbo to come along with him and some dwarves.

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Judges often used this as a way to ignore rape charges. Seeing this downward trend, legislators decided to not act by not reducing the age of consent. This registered our cultural as being filled with teenage girls being sexually attractive, and even more sexual active nut according to law was seen as unavailable. The legislators did make some moves to protect the teenage girls

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Sex Offenders: Being Brought to Tiers In 1995, David was at the park with his friends playing basketball. He was just a regular 17-year-old boy in high school trying to endure through the stresses that come with that age. He was an average student and had high hopes for college and the future. As the day was going on, David realized he needed to go to the bathroom.

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In the public opinion, sexual offence cases cover a particularly traumatic form of violence (BBC, 2013). Under the UK legal system, victims are vested with special rights separate from those granted to victims in other types of criminal cases. The Sexual Offences Act 1976(Amendment) guarantees lifetime anonymity for the identity of the alleged victim. This legal restriction means the media cannot report on any matter that may link somebody the victim to the case. This restriction was first proposed by Heilbron in 1975 to improve the rate of reporting (Robertson& Nicol, 2008).

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Sex Offenders Sex offense is one of the most common and frightening crimes that often catch our attention due to its harshness and high level of publicity in today’s society. Whether it is men, women, or children, almost everyday we turn on our news channels and hear stories about someone being sexually assaulted. Sex offenses can range from minor incidents such as sending explicit messages or photos over media, to major incidents such as rape. No sex offender shares the exact pattern as another sex offender.

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This essay will look at the issue of consent with regard to the Sexual Offences Act (SOA) 2003. Prior to the SOA, the issue of consent was governed by case law, but was considered unsatisfactory by the home office. This prompted various consultations and white papers, namely Setting the Boundaries, headed by then Home Secretary Jack Straw, with the view to modernise and strengthen uk law, whilst protecting the victims of sexual offences. A highlighted and most widely accepted proposal from Setting the Boundaries, was the introduction of the statutory definition of consent, calling that consent becoming essential in determining the guilt of an offender, therefore it is rudimentary to be defined in judicial law. Consent is therefore written

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