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Sex Crimes on Physically Incapacitated Victims

On Behalf of | Feb 6, 2015 | Sex Crimes

On the news, we hear about date rapes and druggings just about everyday. Whether it involves allegations that take place on a college campus, or whatever numbered victim we are up to in the Bill Cosby story, sex crime stories seem are an everyday occurrence.

Of course, it’s not just in this country where sex crimes happen. Authorities in Japan arrested a man accused of drugging and raping over 100 women who thought they were participating in a sleep study. He allegedly took out a newspaper ad seeking female participants for the “sleep study”. The ad stated that he needed women from their teens to 40s and he offered compensation for their time. The man, who has no medical background at all, would drug the women with sleeping pills and alcohol, assault them and then film the rape. If found guilty, he is looking at a maximum of 30 years in prison.

While that case seems cut and dry, in this country it isn’t always the case. Non-consensual sexual activity on a physically incapacitated victim is more commonly known as “date rape”. It falls within the charge of “Sexual Battery with Special Circumstances.” Someone who is consider “physically incapacitated” means that they are bodily impaired or handicapped and unable to resist or flee from the alledged attacker’s sexual advances. 

There are many factors in a sex crime charge such as this. Did the defendant actually commit a sexual act upon or with the victim in which their sexual organ penetrated or had union with the victim’s vagina or anus? And if not with their sexual organ, was an object used instead? Is there proof that the victim clearly did not give the defendant consent? Or proof of a narcotic, anesthetic, or other intoxicating substance used? This would all fall under the elements and theories of the crime, and a defense attorney would investigate this in a thorough manner. 

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