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Sex crimes are a prevalent and controversial problem on both a national and an international scale. Modern sex crimes may involve a single or group of sexual offenders. The victim of sex crimes may experience a variety of grotesque and unwelcoming sexual acts; the most predominate sexual crimes in the western world include rape, sexual assault, child sexual abuse, human trafficking, and prostitution.
Law enforcement agencies have executed many strategies that aim to protect men, women, and especially children from sexual offenders. Any sexually deviant act with a minor can literally ruin the lives of those who expose them to inappropriate material, gestures, and acts. Every sexual offender has their name entered into a national registry that informs entire neighborhoods of their whereabouts, including their current residential address.
Rape
Rape involves forcible sexual intercourse initiated by one or more persons against a non-consenting individual. A rapist may exert physical force, abuse their authority, threaten, or blackmail an individual into having sexual intercourse against their will. Rape knows no boundaries as it happens in all regions of the world. According to the American Medical Association (AMA), sexual violence and coercion via rape ranks as the highest under-reported violet crime. The United States Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that ninety-one percent of all rape victims happen to be women and nine percent male. In addition, an astounding ninety-nine percent of all rapists are male. Rape may also occur between the victim and a person he or she knows personally.
- The National Institute of Justice: Rape and Sexual Violence: A government website that defines rape and other forms of sexual violence, such as sexual assault, sexual battery, and even sexual harassment.
- New York Division of State Police: Date Rape: A police-based website that describes the phenomena as "date rape," where an unsuspecting victim falls into the hands of a sexual predator after a casual date.
- Girl's Health: Rape and Date Rape: A female-based website intended to inform young women about the potential danger of rape, even from those they least expected.
- The United States Department of Justice: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services: COPS releases a document to raise public awareness for college students who can prevent themselves from becoming potential victims of "acquaintance rape" on the college campus.
- The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI): Forcible Rape: The FBI shares the federal definition of forcible rape via the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.
Sexual Battery/Assault
Sexual battery or assault involves physically touching another person in a sexual manner without consent. Sexual assault frequently occurs as a male-female combination, with the male being the offending party. Sexual assault involves an involuntary sexual act between threatened, coerced, or forced individuals against their will. It may involve sexual penetration of the vaginal or anal canal with another object, or forced oral penetration. Sexual assault may range in severity from forced kissing to the brutal torture of a victim in a sexual context.
- Medline Plus: Sexual Assault: Medline Plus defines sexual assault in its more down-to-earth terms, including the inappropriate engagement of sexual acts between an offender and his or her victim.
- §43.1. Sexual battery: The lawful provisions that define sexual battery and how it differentiates from forcible rape.
- What Men Should Know About Sexual Battery: The San Diego Police Department shares examples of sexual violations where men neglected to take control of their actions before it spiraled out of control.
- Sexual Battery Statutes: A comprehensive document that lists and defines numerous sexual battery statutes.
- Fact Sheet- Sexual Battery: A fact sheet that explains the pertinent facts related to the offense known as sexual battery, the involuntary act of fondling, kissing, touching, or penetrating with a foreign object.
Human Trafficking
Human trafficking has exploded on across the world's black market, with more women and children being forced into prostitution through reproductive slavery. Human trafficking has become the modern form of slavery for unfortunate people around the world. No governmental agency has explicitly defined human trafficking; however, most consider it the involuntary servitude and sexual exploitation of men, women, and children for the sole purpose of commercial gain. Many human traffickers subject their victims to forced prostitution through coercion, deception, and bondage through debt owed. Some victims of human traffickers may become sexual slaves to their new "owners," which may also entail uncompensated labor.
- An Overview of Human Trafficking: The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime provide an extensive document that explains the growing phenomenon known as human trafficking.
- Human Trafficking and Slavery: An extensive document that draws correlations between human trafficking and slavery.
- Human Trafficking Facts): The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence provides a comprehensive fact sheet that answers commonly asked questions and provides statistical data behind the world's largest detestable crime.
- The Academy for Educational Development: Human Trafficking: An organization dedicated to educating the masses regarding the horrors of human trafficking, or the illegal trade of human beings for commercial purposes.
- The Facts About Sex Trafficking: The Advocates for Human Rights shares an important document that offers pertinent facts about sex trafficking rings.
Child Sexual Abuse
Child sexual abuse, also known as child molestation, involves the inappropriate exposure of sexual images, gestures, or acts to minors. Pedophiles are sexual offenders who engage in pressuring adolescents into engaging in illegal sexual activities. A percentage of cases involve a parent or legal guardian who intentionally victimizes their children for their own pleasure. Many forms of child sexual abuse include enticing a child to perform sexual acts through bribery and deception, indecent exposure of the genitals for self-gratification, or to inappropriately groom a child through physical contact. Other forms of child sexual abuse may include forced sexual intercourse and using a child to produce pornography. Adolescents who become victims of child sexual abuse may experience severe depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety attacks, and may have an urge to commit the same sexual abuse they had experienced.
- Child Sexual Abuse: The United States Department of Veteran Affairs describes how early child sexual abuse leads to deep emotional wounds and psychological disturbances if left untreated by professionals.
- Indicators Of Child Sexual Abuse: The United States Department of Health and Human Services provides an authoritative list of indicators that a child may be a victim of sexual abuse.
- Preventing Child Sexual Abuse Within Youth-serving Organizations: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers several documents that helps parents and legal guardians inform children of potential dangers around them that may come in the form of sexual deviance.
- Long-Term Consequences of Childhood SexualAbuse by Gender of Victim: An abstract paper that examines the long-term consequences of child sexual abuse by gender, especially if the child was left untreated.
- Child Sexual Abuse: The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP): A psychiatric organization dedicated to identifying and treating children who have fallen victim to sexual abuse.