Court Says Sexual Assault Can Occur Without Force
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In a ruling that reaffirmed one of the toughest rape laws in the nation, the State Supreme Court today said that physical force need not be involved in order to convict a person of sexual assault. “We conclude that any act of sexual penetration engaged in by the defendant without the affirmative and freely given permission of the victim to the specific act of penetration constitutes the offense of sexual assault,” Justice Alan B. Handler said in writing the opinion on behalf of a unanimous Court. Today’s decision came in a 1990 case involving a 17-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl who were living in the same house and knew each other. The Justices used the ruling to expound on the subject of “acquaintance rape,” giving lower courts and prosecutors more latitude in handling those types of complaints, but warning that such cases are “sensitive and depend on the reasoned judgment and common sense of judges and juries. More : query.nytimes.com |