Different types of rape.

[tonywiltshire]

Surely there are different types of rape if a16 year old male has consenting sex with his girlfriend who is not quite 16 that is statutory rape, but can that be compared to a man who forces a female to have sex by violent means?

[jackthehat]

Rape is rape and the legal definition has been given elsewhere on the site today.

Anything else is assault.

[ummmm]

Of course it can't. And if they are that close in age it's unlikely to be prosecuted.

[tonywiltshire]

Remember that an MP was severely criticized for even suggesting there were different types of rape.

[New Judge]

Intercourse with a girl not quite sixteen (with her consent) is not statutory rape. It is unlawful sexual intercourse.

Statutory rape occurs when the female is under 13. The law considers that a girl of that age cannot legally give her consent and even if she seemingly agrees to intercourse, statutory rape has taken place.

It was the idiotic Kenneth Clarke who said that there were different types of rape but he did not make his point very well. A violent rape of a female by two or three men, dragging her into the bushes whilst she was walking aloing a footpath would certainly be treated differently to an episode where, say, a man and women were naked in bed together (by mutual consent) and she decided (at the twelfth hour) that she did not want to continue their activities.

[tonywiltshire]

The law does not accept that a person under 16 can give consent it would be assault, jackthehat is correct.
Kenneth Clarke is far from being an idiot.

[New Judge]

Yes it does, tony. Let me try to explain properly as my first answer perhaps did not make clear what I was trying to say.

Sexual intercourse with a girl under aged 16 is “unlawful sexual intercourse” (USI). The definitions are here:

http://www.cps.gov.uk...on_of_unlawful_sexual

Note that there is a distinction between those under 16 and those under 13.

If you scroll down you will see a section headed “charging practice”. Here you will see the paragraph:

“A charge of unlawful sexual intercourse will normally be appropriate if a girl consents in fact to intercourse but she is under the statutory ages in sections 5 and 6 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956.”

Important for this argument is that the paragraph from the “charging practice” clearly says that a charge of USI (not rape) is appropriate for girls under 16 who give their consent "in fact". It does not concern itself with assault and nor it should. One of the elements of the offence of assault is violence (or threat of violence) against a person against their will. Clearly if they have given their consent to being touched (which a girl aged under 16 can give) then no assault can have occurred.

Thusfar, this has had nothing to do with rape, but only concerns itself with USI.

Rape is intercourse without consent. “Statutory Rape” is not an offence in itself recognised in UK law but is used to describe a charge of rape where consent has been given but that consent is deemed legally invalid. You can see from above that a girl aged under 16 can give her consent "in fact" and if she does a charge of rape is not normally appropriate. However, if the girl is under 13 the matter is treated differently and so the offence of Rape is established. There are plenty of other places you can find out about this in greater detail.

The upshot of all this is that intercourse with a girl aged over 13 but under 16 (who consents) is most unlikely to result in a charge of rape (although the law does provide for it). Consensual intercourse with a girl aged under 13 is almost certain to result in a charge of rape.

We’ll have to agree to differ over the qualities of Mr. Clarke. However his “different types of rape” statement was correct, if clumsily put. A glance at judges’ sentencing guidelines will confirm that whilst “rape is rape” there is a wide variety of circumstances that differentiate between the nature and seriousness of individual offences:

http://www.cps.gov.uk...ncing_manual/s1_rape/

[grasscarp]

I am often amazed at the clarity, depth and professionalism of the answers on here.

[exdc]

Please Note:

The Sexual Offences Act 2003 (the Act) came into force on the 1 May 2004. It repealed almost all of the existing statute law in relation to sexual offences.