Legislation, Key Facts
The Sexual offences Act
The Sexual Offences Act 2003 overhauled the legal framework for dealing with sexual offences. It provides a coherent and comprehensive set of offences appropriate for the modern day with penalties that reflect the seriousness of the offences. Importantly, the Act also strengthened the law on consent, by creating for the first time a definition of consent and by removing the defence that a person could avoid conviction for rape if he had an honest but mistaken belief in consent.
View documents:
Guidance to the Sexual Offences Act Part I
Guidance to the Sexual Offences Act part II
Explanotory Notes to Sexual Offences Act 2003
Leaflets on Sexual Offences Act 2003 for: Adults, Children and families, those with learning disabilities
Key Facts and why it is important to tackle Sexual Violence and Abuse
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The British Crime Survey (BCS) Interpersonal Violence Module (IPV) 2005-06 found that 51% of serious sexual assaults were committed by current or former partners of the victim. Only 11% were committed by strangers.
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In the year 2005-06, 62,081 sexual offences were recorded by the police. Of this number, 14,449 were offences of rape, of which 92% were rape of a female and 8% were rape of a male.
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Sexual offences account for less than 1% of all recorded crime and 5% of all recorded violent crime.
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Conviction rate for rape was fewer than 6% in 2005/06.
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It’s much more common than people think. Around 21% of girls and 11% of boys experience some form of childhood sexual abuse. 23% of women and 3% of men experience sexual assault as an adult. 5% of women and 0.4% of men experience rape.
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The most vulnerable in society are disproportionately affected. Childhood sexual abuse is more likely to be experienced by children with a disability, missing or looked after children and children from families experiencing domestic violence. Adult sexual violence and abuse is more likely to be experienced by people with a disability, people involved in prostitution, people who have been childhood sexual abused as children and young women who have been drinking.
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It represents a form of gender inequality. Most perpetrators are male and most victims are female. It is both a consequence and cause of gender inequality.
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It causes fear in communities. Women are more worried about rape than any other crime
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It can cause severe and long lasting harm to victims. Direct physical health consequences of sexual violence and childhood sexual abuse include physical injury, sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancy. Long-term consequences of sexual violence and childhood sexual abuse include post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and panic attacks, depression, social phobia, substance abuse, obesity, eating disorders, self harm and suicide, domestic violence and in some cases, offending behaviour. Childhood sexual abuse can also impact on educational attainment and school attendance.
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To society: The overall cost to society of sexual offences in 2003-04 was estimated at £8.5 billlion, with each rape costing over £76,000. Much of this cost is made up of lost output and costs to the health service resulting from long term health issues faced by victims. Addressing problems early should help to prevent these long-term costs.
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Victims don’t always get the support they need: 40% of adults who are raped tell no one about it. 31% of children who are sexually abused reach adulthood without having disclosed their childhood sexual abuse. This means that victims don’t get the support they need to deal with the sexual abuse or violence they have experienced. Where victims do try and access support, it hasn’t always been available. We need to increase the capacity in support services to deliver services for those who need them.
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It is an important and dangerous element of domestic violence. Many people believe that adult sexual violence and childhood sexual abuse is normally committed by a stranger. In fact, perpetrators are normally known to the victim and many are partners or family members. Rape is associated with the most severe cases of domestic violence, and is a risk factor for domestic homicide.
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Offenders have been getting away with it. Only 15% of serious sexual offences against people 16 and over are reported to the police and of the rape offences that are reported, fewer than 6% (2005-06) result in an offender being convicted of this offence. This means that those who commit these very serious crimes may continue to pose a risk to the public.
Power of entry and search under s.96B of the Sexual Offences Act 2003
On 31 May 2007, a new power, introduced by the Violent Crime Reduction Act, comes into force. The power will enable police to apply for a warrant to enter and search a property of a registered sex offender for the purpose of risk assessment, where the police have been unable to obtain entry on two previous occasions. The following documents will be relevant to criminal justice practitioners.
Home Office Circular 17/2007 sets out what the law is in relation to the new power and how it should be applied in practice. This can be downloaded here :
Annex A provides further operational guidance for the police in relation to how s.96B interacts with PACE powers and how the warrants should be executed. Download this here.
Click here to download the Template forms . They are available for the police and courts to use in relation to s.96B warrants. The attachment includes:
- Form 1 Application for warrant to enter and search premises under section 96B of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (SOA 2003).
- Form 2 Warrant to enter and search premises under s.96B SOA 2003.
- Form 3 Record of Authority given by inspector or above to execute search warrant issued under section 96B SOA 2003.
Last update: Last update: Thursday, May 31, 2007