ucsc
policies
UCSC
Policy on Sexual Assault and UC Policy on Sexual Harassment
appendix b: definition of sex crimes
(taken from the California Penal Code)
The
following definitions are provided to educate the campus community about
sex crimes and to assist a complainant in determining the wrongs that
may have been committed. These definitions are taken from the California
Penal Code and they explain the elements that must be present for the
crime to have occurred. If what happened to you does not exactly meet
any of these definitions but you feel uncomfortable or angry, please
contact one of the resources listed in this policy for support and/or
clarification.
RAPE
Rape is an act of sexual intercourse. Any sexual penetration, however
slight, is sufficient to complete the crime. Rape is accomplished with
a person under any of the following circumstances:
1.
Where a person is incapable, because of a mental disorder or developmental
or physical disability, of giving legal consent, and this is known
or reasonably should be known to the person committing the act.
2.
Where the act is accomplished against a person's will by means of
force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful
bodily injury on the person or another.
a.
Duress
A direct or implied threat of force, violence, danger, hardship,
or retribution sufficient to coerce a reasonable person of ordinary
susceptibility (liable to be affected by something) to perform an
act which otherwise would not have been performed, or acquiesce
in an act to which one would not have submitted.
b.
Menace
Any threat, declaration or act which shows an intention to inflict
an injury upon another.
c.
Consent
Positive cooperation in the act or attitude pursuant to an exercise
of free will. The person must act freely and voluntarily and have
knowledge of the nature of the act or transaction involved. A current
or previous dating relationship shall not be sufficient to constitute
consent.
3.
Where a person is prevented from resisting by any intoxicating or
anesthetic substance, or any controlled substance, administered by
or with the privity (knowledge) of the accused.
4.
Where a person is at the time unconscious of the nature of the act,
and this is known to the accused. As used in the paragraph, "unconscious
of the nature of the act" means incapable of resisting because
the victim meets one of the following conditions:
a.
was unconscious or asleep;
b. was not aware, knowing, perceiving, or cognizant that the act
occurred;
c. was not aware, knowing, perceiving, or cognizant of the essential
characteristics of the act due to the perpetrator's fraud in fact.
5.
Where a person submits under the belief that the person committing
the act is the victim's spouse, and this belief is induced by any
artifice, pretense, or concealment practiced by the accused with intent
to induce the belief.
6.
Where the act is accomplished against the person's will by threatening
to retaliate in the future against the victim or any other person,
and there is a reasonable possibility that the perpetrator will execute
the threat.
7.
Where the act is accomplished against the victim's will by threatening
to use the authority of a public official to incarcerate, arrest,
or deport the victim or another, and the victim has a reasonable belief
that the perpetrator is a public official.
ACQUAINTANCE
RAPE (Date Rape)
This is the most prevalent form of rape on college campuses. The acquaintance
may be a date or boyfriend of the target, or someone the target knows
only casually, from her residence on campus, a class, or through mutual
friends. Regardless of the relationship between them, if one person
uses any of the above circumstances to force or coerce sexual intercourse
with another it is rape. The same criminal laws and penalties apply
in cases of acquaintance rape as in cases of stranger rape.
ORAL
COPULATION
Oral copulation is the act of copulating (uniting) the mouth of one
person with the sexual organ or anus of another person. The seven factors
described above under rape are applicable here.
SODOMY
Sodomy is sexual conduct consisting of contact between the penis of
one person and the anus of another person. Any sexual penetration, however
slight, is sufficient to complete the act of sodomy. The seven factors
described above under rape are applicable here.
PENETRATION
OF GENITAL OR ANAL OPENINGS BY FOREIGN OBJECT
Penetration, however slight, of the genital or anal openings of any
person, or causing another person to so penetrate another person's genital
or anal openings, for the purpose of sexual arousal, gratification,
or abuse, by any foreign object, substance, instrument, or device (foreign
object includes any part of the body except a sexual organ, including
fingers) is considered rape when the act is accomplished against the
victim's will by means of force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of
immediate and unlawful bodily injury on the victim or another person,
or where the act is accomplished against the victim's will by threatening
to retaliate in the future.
ASSAULT
WITH INTENT TO COMMIT RAPE
An assault is an unlawful attempt, coupled with a present ability, to
commit a violent injury on the person of another. According to the California
Penal Code, "Every person who assaults another with intent to commit
. . . rape . . . is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for
two, four, or six years."
SEXUAL
BATTERY
Any person who touches an intimate part of another person, if the touching
is against the will of the person touched and is for the specific purpose
of sexual arousal, sexual gratification, or sexual abuse, is guilty
of a sexual battery.
a.
Touches
Touches means physical contact with the skin of another person whether
accomplished directly or through the clothing of the person committing
the offense.
b.
Intimate part
Intimate part means the sexual organ, anus, groin, or buttocks of
any person, and the breast of a female.
INDUCING SEXUAL ACT
Whenever any person induces any other person to engage in sexual intercourse,
penetration of the genital or anal openings by a foreign object, substance,
instrument, or device, oral copulation, or sodomy when his or her consent
is procured by false or fraudulent representation or pretense that is
made with the intent to create fear, and which does induce fear, and
that would cause a reasonable person in like circumstances to act contrary
to the person's free will, and does cause the victim to so act is guilty
of a crime. Fear means the fear of unlawful physical injury or death
to the person or to any relative of the person.
STATUTORY
RAPE
See below - Unlawful Sexual Intercourse with a Minor
RAPE
IN CONCERT WITH ANOTHER PERPETRATOR
Aiding or abetting or acting in concert with another person in the commission
of a rape or the penetration of the anal or vaginal opening with a foreign
object is a crime.
UNLAWFUL
SEXUAL INTERCOURSE WITH A MINOR
Unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor occurs when the victim is considered
incapable of giving legal consent because they are 17 years or younger,
even if the intercourse is consensual. Where the person engaging in
sexual intercourse with a minor is younger, or not more than three years
older than the minor, the crime is a misdemeanor. If more than three
years, then the crime is a felony.
Amended
2001
