Legal Regulation of Sexual Behaviour in Canada

This document discusses the legal treatment of incest in Canada, including the definition of incest and the penalties for offenders. It also compares the legal and social treatment of incest in Canada to another country. Additionally, the document explores a song that deals with a legal issue related to sexual assault and analyzes a quote about lying to get someone into bed as sexual assault.

Running head: LAW - LEGAL REGULATION OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR (CANAD.
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Law - Legal Regulation of Sexual Behaviour (Canada.
Name
Institution

LAW - LEGAL REGULATION OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR (CANAD.
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Q1. Do you agree with the legal treatment of incest in Canada? Select a country other than
Canada and the United States. Do an online search on the legal and social treatment of incest
in that country.
In Canadian federal law, incest is loosely translated to mean having a sexual affiliation
with a biological brother or sister, including half-siblings or between a parent and a child or
grandparent and grandchild irrespective of knowing the actuality of blood relationship.
Anyone found guilty of this offence is sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. A person who
gets involved in the act of incest with somebody under the age of 16 years is punishable to a
minimum detention of five years.
To some extent I agree with the legal treatment of incest in Canada though at some point I
differ on how their jurisdiction handles some issues related to incest. The 14 years
imprisonment is fair enough to deter those individuals who engage in such act intentionally.
While punishing someone who was not aware of the blood existence is unjust given that
somethings are beyond the human knowledge to comprehend. Therefore, they should amend
their laws to address such an issue. I also tend to disagree with the 5 year sentence, it should
be increased in a situation where one is minor and an adult relative leads them into this,
whether they consent or not does not matter because they have not attained the majority age.
Therefore adults who get involved with minors should face heavier penalties.
The law relating to incest between family members varies between jurisdictions and even
how they are socially treated. This also depends with the nature of sexual affiliation and the
kind of parties involved and also the sex and the age (Paludi & Denmark, 2010). Aside from
the legal rules, some forms of incest are social taboo and frowned upon by some cultures in
the world.

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How incest is handled in Brazil
Brazil has no criminal punishment for incest if the case involves persons above the age of
14 years considering this as the age of consent and at that age it is presumed that a person is
cable of making their own decision. This has been debatable in Brazil. There were cases
where legal guardian-reported sex with persons aged 12 and 13 being indicted as statutory
rape. The society views incest as something bad though among some hierarchies this is
viewed as normal once there is consent.
How incest is handled in India
The Indian penal code lacks express provisions against incest and overlooks the issue.
Though there are general provisions that relates to sexual abuse of children by parents or a
custodian such as a teacher. The rules of kinship is not presided over by the penal code but is
governed by different marriage laws (Orie, 2017.
Q2 Find and listen to a song dealing with a legal issue discussed in class. Briefly
summarize
Song: Daddy don’t to touch me there.
Artist: Queen Ifrica
Album: Montego Bay
Released: 2009
Genre: Reggae

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In this song, the artist, Queen Ifrica displays what some girls go through in their families.
In her song she complains of her father sexually harassing her. In the video, her dad
approaches her when her mum is away and abuses her sexually. She threatens to tell on him if
he carries on with the barbaric behavior towards. She expresses her fear in the song through
the words, “can’t you see am scared you are supposed to be my father”. In relation to sexual
assault, her dad sexually abuses her without her consent and this is clearly evident from the
physical contact of touching her. Looking at her in a manner that can be interpreted as sexual
also amounts to sexual harassment. The legal issues in this particular song can be reduced to;
is the dad doing this intentionally? Did she consent to the sexual contact? Do this actions
amount to sexual assault?
Given that the dad sexually harasses and molest her daughter, it can be taken to be sexual
assault given that he does all this against her will. The elements of sexual assault constitute
the act, intention and consent among others. In this particular song all this elements can be
established hence this is a case of sexual assault (Pateman, 2018). Sexual assault should be
condemned in any society especially where it involves a father and a daughter. This song
encourages those girls who are suffering from sexual assault under their fathers to come out
strongly and expose them to the world.
Q3 Analyze the following quote "Lying to get someone into bed is sexual assault." Do you
agree? Why or why not?
This can be taken as inducing a person into an act without their consent. Before analyzing
this quote, the meaning of sexual assault must be taken into consideration. What constitutes
sexual assault? What action can be termed as sexual assault? Sexual assault in this context
means act in which someone knowingly sexually touches someone without that person’s

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consent. It can also be taken to mean physically forcing a person or coercing them to engage
in a sexual act against their will. It is also a form of sexual violence which includes rape inter
alia (Henderson & Wakeham, 2013). Does lying to get someone to get them into bed sexual
assault? Well, this can be debatable, for an action to constitute sexual assault there has to be
use of force, or coercion, in this case the element of intention is there, lying can be loosely
interpreted as persuading a person (Herman, 2012). Every person has a duty to be cautious,
though lying would lead into the action of sexual assault on the unsuspecting victim. Based
on this lying to someone to get into bed is using a wrong way to get them into bed and this
can be interpreted as an element of sexual assault rather than act of sexual assault. If a person
lies and get someone into bed through this, it shall be considered as unlawful persuasion
leading to sexual assault.

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References
Henderson, J., & Wakeham, P. (2013). Reconciling Canada: Critical Perspectives on the
Culture of Redress. Toronto: University of Toronto Press
Herman, J. L. (2012). Father-Daughter Incest. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Orie, L. (2017). India's Gods of Incest: : Bollywood's Myth, India's Reality.
Paludi, M. A., & Denmark, F. (2010). Victims of Sexual Assault and Abuse: Incidence and
psychological dimensions. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
Pateman, M. (2018). ‘The word is incest’. Incest in contemporary literature.
doi:10.7765/9781526122179.00011
Law sexual Assault: Your Rights and the. (2016).

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