Australian Criminology: Sexual Assault and its Impacts

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Criminology Essay
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Definition and criminalization of the offense..................................................................................3
Rate of offense.................................................................................................................................4
Issues in measuring and combatting the offense.............................................................................5
Recommendations for improving measurement and lowering offense rates...................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
In Australia, there are several amendments are made in relation to the crimes as per the criticism
in the law prevailing in the laws of the Australia. To effectively combat with the offences, there
is continuously struggle of judicial powers to analyze the collection of crime in relation to data.
This essay consist brief analysis in relation to the offences prevail in Australia and the issues
prevail in the natural environment. In this essay, the main discussion is over the criminalization
of the sexual assault and the issues arise in such offence. It consist the recommendations that
assist in lowering the rates of offences. The main topic discuss in this essay is to effectively deal
with the offences prevailing in the country. There are several recommendation that suggest over
the identification and minimise the impact of the offence in the country as well as it citizens.
Definition and criminalization of the offense
As per Section 21 A of the Crime Act, 1958 covers various behaviors which constitute the
offense with the maximum penalty of 10 years. In Australia, the highest penalty is for the
stalking along with a description in relation to the offense (Palmer, 2016). Sexual assault is an
act when one person touches the other person without his or her consent or physically forces the
other person to engage in the act of sexual nature against the will of the other person. It is the
type of sexual violence which includes rape, child sexual base, groping or torture of any person
by doing the sexual activities which conclude forced for vaginal activities, oral penetration, or
anal or drug facilitation. The sexual offense is the unwanted contact made sexually and this act
takes various forms which include attacks like rape or attempted rape or threat or made sexual
contact without the wish of the other persons. Sexual assault is divided into several categories
which include child sexual abuse, assault of elders sexually, groping, rape, sexual harassment,
and mass sexual assault. Child sexual abuse is such a form of abuse, in this the older people
person abuses the child for any sexual stimulation and it include activities like forcing the child
by the elder person to engage in the sexual activities, displaying the video of pornography to the
small, child, intentionally shows the genital parts to the child for engage in the sexual practices,
made physical contact with the child and her genitals parts or force the child to produce the
pornography (Cantor, et. al., 2015). This offense effect the child which force him or her to get
into the depression, anxiety, physical injury to the child, past traumatic disorder from stress to
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the child and there is always a risk in the child to develop raise violent activities in the child. In
this type of offense, the children are too young to understand this type of offense and not able to
communicate exactly with their parent about the situation they are going through (Light, 2018).
They are under the pressure of getting abused by the criminal and afraid of this thing that no one
believes in them what they say to their parents. They also feel guilty about the things which are
happened to them. The next is the domestic violence which is one of the crimes which is strongly
related to the sexual assault and abuse domestically by physically, financially, emotionally or
psychologically, these are the signs of abusing sexually. The next is the elderly sexual assault is
the person victimization is over the 60 age who suffer from the assault by decreasing the frailty,
weakness, and functionality and their whole dependence are upon the caretakers. In such
situation, the most reliant situation is the situation that this elderly people are adult by their own
people for instance if the elderly people are assaulted, its evidence is an infection, bruising,
bleeding, soft tissue, bone injury, vaginal tearing, pelvic injury or soft tissue. It symptom that can
be seen in this assault are stress disorder, panic attacks, disturbances in sleep and take longer
rime from recovery. Groping is such an assault which is used to depict then situation of touching
the other person without taking the consent of other person. The next offence is concern with the
offense like rape which is also another type of sexual assault includes rape or other form of
sexual activity. The next type of assault is sexual harassment which includes coercion or
intimidation belongs to the sexual nature. It includes the illegal promise for the exchange of
favors sexually. This is the serious form of abuse that violates the individual respect (Van der
Kolk, 2017). It is the physical activity which demands sexual favor from the other person. This
type of harassment at the place of occupation seems that it directly impact the performance of the
employee and make the working environment more offensive. The rate of this type of offense is
increasing at rapid speed and its victims are especially women where the supervisor harassed the
women work below them.
Rate of offense
A sexual offense is an act of sexual nature which is carried against the will of the other person
without his or her consent. It involves the use of physical force from the person to do the sexual
activities against his or her will. With increasing in the sexual offenses, it is noticed that the
number of the matters in relation to the assault are registered in the police and from the past
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year's statistics of these types of the offense are increased. In Australia, this type of harassment
especially seems in industries like trade, banking, finance, and business. The rate of women
suffering from sexual offense is increased. ABS (2013), the personal safety, the statistics Bureau
released the information that focused over the partner's violence., abuse emotional, sexual
harassment and threats in relation to the physical assault along with the matter concerning with
the stalking. As per the data are shown in the survey, it displayed that the 21,250 people who
bare aged 18 years and above it, which is conducted between the year 2016 to June 2017. As per
the data shown, it depicts that the Australian proportion who are experience violence in the year
2017 and the proportion of the Australian who are experience the nature of violence which are
noticed that it is fallen from 8.3% noticed in the year 2005 to 5.4% in the year 2016, which is the
greater drop noticed between these years concerning with the natural violence. The next is the
proportion of the men which are also experiencing the matter in relation to the physical violence
from the last decade and this percent is noticed that it is drop-down from the 10% in 2005 to the
5.4% in the year 2016 and on the other hand, the ratio of the woman fallen dawn from 4.7% to
3.5%. The rate of sexual violence against women has been increased and expands from the last
five years. Sexual assault includes the act of rape, indecent assault, attempted rape, penetration
with the help of the objects, aggravated sexual assault and forced any person to indulge in the
practices of sexual nature (Victims Of Crime, 2013). In the year 2016, the women that faced the
offense in relation to sexual assault is increasing from 1.2% in 2012 which was increased from
1.8% in the year 2016. It means that almost one from the five-woman experience the violence of
sexual nature. In the case of man, in the age of 15 years, only one from 20 men experience sexual
violence. As per the data are shown in the survey, it is noticed that women also noticed that the
woman also suffered from stalking which is the most common offense. There is increased in the
number of stalking by male gender swords the female gender. Male tried to maintain the
unwanted contact with women without their consent through postal email, text messages, social
media messages, and phone.
Issues in measuring and combatting the offense
One of the major issues in measuring the offense of sexual assault in the Aiustr4ealia is that the
data collection in relation to the particular offense is specific. As per the current data showed it
states that statistics that are grouped with the other offenses like stalking, threatening behavior
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and harassment, where the rate of the sexual assault consist small percentage. The CSA (2016),
CSA method of classification is done by grouping the several offenses in accordance with their
nature. This not assists in knowing the accuracy of the commitment of the crime and leaving the
confusion over the estimation in relation to the commission of the offense and its true occurrence
in Australia (Henry and Jozkowski, 2017). As per the national statistics published by the ABS,
which consist several errors in relation to the data and information of the crimes committed in
Australia and there is a doubt in the accuracy of the data in concerning with the crime. This
problem arises where the country of greater population. As per the Crime Statistic Agency, the
behavior of stalking, sexual harassment, and assault are the crime which is increasing at rapid
speed in the country and these are crimes which remain unsolved from the several years. Within
Australia, these are offenses which are most likely to occur and the due to increasing in the
unsolved crimes’, the number the clear representation of the actual occurrence of the crimes are
not exactly determinable. Due to an increase in the rates of unsolved cases of sexual assault,
makes the enforcement responses weak and which may lead to the lack of response towards the
crime. Further, the responses of the police are hiding up that the ability to prove the occurrence
of the offense is minimized. There are various cases, where the victim does not report to the
police about the occurrence of the sexual crime with him or her and such unregistered crime
remain unresolved (Germain, 2016). This matter, where the police do not pay attention to the
crime commission and due to this, many victims not get justice. Police not recorded that offense
and or of recorded that they depict that the offense is resolved and the victim is rated whether
they arrested the real victim of not, there is an inquiry on such things, that whether the police
arrested the actual person or not. These are the matter which makes the victim deprived of
getting justice and an increase in the number of these types of offenses.
Recommendations for improving measurement and lowering offense rates
To ensure the validity in relation to the crime of sexual assault givers the view of unrealistic
nature this not provides a comparison to the crime occupier in other jurisdiction of the country.
As per the recommendation is given by the CSA, the classification is reviewed for the separation
of the crime so that the statistics of the crime is recorded properly, for example, it is important to
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know the location of the crime commuted along with its clearance rate (Hoover and Morrow,
2015). It is recommended that the order of jurisdictional nature to be available so that the target
in relation to the offense of sexual assault will be achieved. It allows providing protection to the
victim by specially focused over such crimes and it allows displaying the correct results of the
crime committed in the country. It is recommended that the legislative provision should be
reviewed. It is important that the enforcement of the law should be effectively implemented and
the evidenced obtained by the police report should be properly recorded. It is recommended that
proper rule and regulation are enacted in relation to the offenses like sexual assault and educate
the citizens of the country and ensure that the victim should properly collect the accurate
evidence so that it correctly displayed in the court to get justice.
Conclusion
As per the statistical data, it is important that the legislation should be implemented properly and
gives an effective response towards the crime. Step of legislative and institutional nature should
be placed effectively so that the conduct of the offense should be implemented accurately.
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References
 Cantor, D., Fisher, B., Chibnall, S.H., Townsend, R., Lee, H., Thomas, G., Bruce, C. and
Westat, Inc, 2015. Report on the AAU campus climate survey on sexual assault and
sexual misconduct.
 Crime Statistics Agency., 2016. Recorded offences. [online] Available
at:https://www.crimestatistics.vic.gov.au/crime-statistics/latest-crime-data/recorded-
offences-0 [Accessed on: 6th August, 2019].
 Germain, L.J., 2016. Campus sexual assault: College women respond. JHU Press.
 Henry, D. and Jozkowski, K.N., 2017. Challenges in Research Partnerships to Serve
Community Needs: Sexual Assault Prevention on a College Campus. SAGE Publications
Ltd.
 Hoover, S. and Morrow, S.L., 2015. Qualitative researcher reflexivity: A follow-up study
with female sexual assault survivors. The Qualitative Report, 20(9), pp.1476-1489.
 Light, R., 2018. Sexual assault in a college environment: examining the relationship
between bystander intervention, consent, and rape myths.
 NSW Police., 2012.What is Stalking?. [online] Available
at:http://www.police.nsw.gov.au/community_issues/domestic__and__family_violence/
what_is_ stalking [Accessed on: 6th August, 2019].
 Palmer, D., 2016. The mythical properties of police body-worn cameras: a solution in the
search of a problem. Surveillance & Society, 14(1), pp.138-144.
 Van der Kolk, B.A., 2017. Developmental trauma disorder: toward a rational diagnosis
for children with complex trauma histories. Psychiatric annals, 35(5), pp.401-408.
 Victims Of Crime. (2013).Stalking - How to keep safe and where to get help.
[online]Available at:http://www.victimsofcrime.vic.gov.au/utility/for+professionals/
order+publications/stalking+-+how+to+keep+safe+and+where+to+get+help [Accessed
on: 6th August, 2019].
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