Written by Andrelyn Izquierdo.
A curated list of legal sexual violence terminology.
WARNING: This article contains sensitive content and may be found offensive or triggering to some people. It is intended for educational and awareness purposes to help victims and their loved ones to recognize signs of Racism, Harassment, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking, and/or Rape. Very graphic details may include explanations from my personal experiences. If for any reason you are not ready to see details of abuse, feel free to move on and come back when you are ready. It is also recommended that you view this with a friend or family member for emotional support.
Trying to identify different forms of sexual violence can be triggering as well as tricky to understand even when mentioning the word sexual. Read through each term carefully to see to its entirety of what it pertains to in the world of sexual violence. One may wonder why some of the words have been added onto this list because it does not seem relative to the subject of sexual violence. But if delving deep into the analysis of the definitions, the discovery will reveal that they all in fact are related to one of the most compact of subjects to exist.
Image from Pixabay.
Some vocabulary may seem repetitive, but there are multiple sources used for listed definitions. Be aware of the tense of each word while reading also.
A
Abduction
n. (17c) Criminal law. The act of leading someone away by force or fraudulent persuasion. Some jurisdictions have added various elements to this basic definition, such as that the abductor must have the intent to marry or defile the person, that the abductee must be a child, or that the abductor must be a child, or that the abductor must intend to subject the abductee to concubinage or prostitution. Archaic. The crime of taking away a female person, esp. someone who is below a certain age (such as 16 or 18), without her effective consent by use of persuasion, fraud, or violence, for the purpose of marriage, prostitution, or illicit sex. Loosely, KIDNAPPING. See ENTICEMENT OF A CHILD. --abduct, vb. --abductor, n. --abductee, n.
"Abduction seems not to have been a crime at early common law, but found its way
thereinto through an old English statute which defined the crime substantially as the
taking of a woman against her will for lucre, and afterwards marrying her, or causing
her to be married to another, or defiling her, or causing her to be defiled." Justin Miller,
Handbook of Criminal Law 104, at 319 (1934).
Child Abduction
(1949) The abduction of a minor, esp. a young one; specif., the wrongful taking or
retention of one's child in violation of another's custody rights, esp. by one who has
parental responsibility for the child.
Abduction (2)
Act of abducting.
The state of being abducted.
Law. The illegal carrying or enticing away of a person, especially by interfering with a relationship, such as the taking of a child from their parent.
Abduction (3)
The act of taking someone away by force or cunning; kidnapping. The action of certain muscles in pulling a leg, arm, etc away from the median axis of the body.
Abuse
vb. (15c) To damage (a thing). To depart from legal or reasonable use in dealing with (a person or thing); to misuse. To injure (a person) physically or mentally. In the context of child welfare, to hurt or injure (a child) by maltreatment. In most states, a finding of abuse is generally limited to maltreatment that causes or threatens to cause lasting harm to the child. Cf. MALTREAT; MISTREAT.
Abused Child
See CHILD.
Abusee
n. (1805) Someone who is or has been abused.
Abuse Excuse
(1983) Criminal law. The defense that a defendant cannot tell right from wrong or control impulses because of physical or mental abuse suffered as a child. Like the traditional excuse of insanity, the abuse excuse is asserted by a defendant in an effort to mitigate or avoid culpability for the crime charged. Cf. BATTERED-CHILD SYNDROME; BATTERED-WOMAN SYNDROME.
Abuse of Discovery
See DISCOVERY ABUSE.
Abuse of Discretion
(18c) An adjudicator's failure to exercise sound, reasonable, and legal decision-making. An appellate court's standard for reviewing a decision that is asserted to be grossly unsound, unreasonable, illegal, or unsupported by the evidence. See DISCRETION.
Abuse of Rights
(1841) Int'l law. A country's exercise of a right either in a way that impedes the enjoyment by other countries of their own rights or for a purpose different from that for which the right was created (e.g., to harm another country). Louisiana law. A person's exercise of a right in an unneighborly spirit that provides no benefit to the person but causes damage to the neighbor.
Abuse-of-Rights Doctrine
(1933) Civil law. The principle that a person may be liable for harm caused by doing something the person has a right to do, if the right is exercised for the purpose or primary motive of causing harm, without a serious and legitimate interest that is deserving of judicial protection, against morality, good faith, or elementary fairness, or for a purpose other than its intended legal purpose.
Abuser
n. Someone who abuses someone or something. Hist. ABUSE, n. MISUSER.
Abusive
adj. (16c) Characterized by wrongful or improper use <abusive discovery tactics>. (Of a person) habitually cruel, malicious, or violent; esp., using cruel words or physical violence <abusive parent>. --abusively, adv.
Abusive Discovery
See DISCOVERY ABUSE.
Assault
n. (14c) Criminal & tort law. The threat or use of force on another that causes that person to have a reasonable apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive contact; the act of putting another person in reasonable fear or apprehension of an immediate battery by means of an act amounting to an attempt or threat to commit a battery. Criminal law. An attempt to commit battery, requiring the specific intent to cause physical injury. --Also termed (in senses 1 & 2) simple assault; common assault. Criminal law. The offense of causing a physical injury to another person intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence. In this sense, the term is often called third-degree assault or fourth-degree assault in various jurisdictions. Popularly, any attack. Cf. BATTERY. --assault, vb. --assaultive, adj.
"Ordinary usage creates a certain difficulty in pinning down the meaning of 'assault.' Etymologically, the word is compounded of the Latin ad + saltare, to jump at. In popular language, it has always connoted a physical attack. When we say that D assaults V, we have a mental picture of D attacking V, by striking or pushing or stabbing him. In the middle ages, however, the terms 'assault' and 'battery' were given technical meanings which they have retained ever since. It became settled that though an assault could be committed by physical contact, it did not require this, since a show of force raising an apprehension in the mind of the victim was sufficient. Also a 'battery' did not require an actual beating; the use of any degree of force against the body would suffice. The acts of spitting on a person and kissing without consent are both batteries." Glanville Williams, Textbook of Criminal Law 135-36 (1978).
Aggravated Assault
(18c) Criminal assault accompanied by circumstances that make it more severe, such as
the intent to commit another crime or the intent to cause serious bodily injury, esp. by
using a deadly weapon. See Model Penal Code 211.1.
"The common law did not include any offense known as 'aggravated assault.' However,
it did make provision for certain situation in this field, under other names. If, for
example, the intended application of force to the person would have resulted in murder,
mayhem, rape or robbery, if successful, and the scheme proceeded far enough to
constitute an attempt the prosecution was for an attempt to commit the intended felony."
Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law 180 (3d ed. 1982).
Assault and Battery
See ASSAULT AND BATTERY.
Assault By Contact
(1980) The offense of knowingly or intentionally touching another person when the actor
knows or believes that the touch will offend or provoke the other person.
Assault Purpense
[French] Hist. Premeditated assault. --Also termed assultus premeditatus.
"Even before the conquest,...deliberately planned assassinations came to be
distinguished and put into the list of Crown pleas as forsteal. The original sense of this
word was lying in wait to ambush the victim. After the conquest this is expressed in
various terms in French and Latin, but frequently takes the form of assault purpense, or
assultus premeditatus. In tims this yields before malitia excogitata, and so introduces us
to the very troublesome word 'malice'." Theodore F.T. Plucknett, A Concise History of the
Common Law 444 (5th ed. 1956).
Assault to Rape
See assault with intent to commit rape.
Assault With a Dangerous Weapon
See assault with a deadly weapon.
Assault With a Deadly Weapon
(1803) An aggravated assault in which the defendant, using a deadly weapon,
threatens the victim with death or serious bodily injury. --Also termed assault with a
dangerous weapon.
Assault With Intent
(17c) Any of several assaults that are carried out with an additional criminal purpose in
mind, such as assault with intent to murder, assault with intent to rob, assault with intent
to rape, and assault with intent to rob, assault with intent to rape, and assault with intent
to inflict great bodily injury. These are modern statutory inventions that are often found in
state criminal codes.
Assault With Intent to Commit Rape
(1837) An assault carried out with the additional criminal purpose of raping the victim.
--Also termed assault to rape.
Atrocious Assault
(18c) An assault that causes severe wounding or maiming.
Attempted Assault
(1870) An attempt to commit an assault; an attempted battery that has not progressed
far enough to be an assault, as when a person intends to harm someone physically but is
captured while or after trying to locate the intended victim in his or her place of
employment. Traditionally, most commentators held that an attempted assault could not
exist because assault was in itself an attempt to commit a crime. Many modern
authorities, however, assert that an attempted assault can occur, and that it should be
punishable. --Also termed attempt to assault. See ATTEMPT TO ATTEMPT.
"[I]t is apparent that reference may b made to an 'attempt to assault' without logical
absurdity. There is nothing absurd in referring to an attempt to frighten, which would
constitute, if successful, a criminal assault in most jurisdictions....It is not surprising,
therefore, that there is a tendency to break away from the ancient view that there is no
such offense known to the law as an attempt to commit an assault." Rollin M. Perkins &
Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law 168 (3d ed. 1982).
Civil Assault
(1892) An assault considered as a tort and not as a crime. Although the same assaultive
conduct can be both a tort and a crime, this term isolates the legal elements that give
rise to civil liability.
Common Assault
ASSAULT.
Conditional Assault
(1971) An assault expressing a threat on condition, such as "your money or your life."
Criminal Assault
(1835) An assault considered as a crime and not as a tort. This term isolates the legal
elements that give rise to criminal liability even though the act might also have been
tortious.
Excusable Assault
(1903) An assault committed by accident or while doing a lawful act by lawful means,
with ordinary caution and without any unlawful intent.
Felonious Assault
(18c) An assault that is of sufficient severeity to be classified and punished as a felony.
See aggravated assault; assault with a deadly weapon.
Indecent Assault
See INDECENT ASSAULT.
Indecent Assault By Contact
See sexual assault.
Indecent Assault By Exposure
See INDECENT EXPOSURE.
Intoxication Assault
(1993) An assault that occurs when an inebriated person causes bodily injury to another
person.
Malicious Assault With a Deadly Weapon
(1888) An aggravated assault in which the victim is threatened with death or serious
bodily harm from the defendant's use of a deadly weapon. Malice is inferred from both
the nature of the assault and the weapon used.
Sexual Assault
(1880) Sexual intercourse with another person who does not consent. Several state
statutes have abolished the crime of rape and replaced it with the offense of sexual
assault. Offensive sexual contact with another person, exclusive of rape. The Model
Penal Code lists eight circumstances under which sexual contact results in an assault, as
when the offender knows that the victim is mentally incapable of appreciating the nature
of the conduct, either because of a mental disease or defect or because the offender has
drugged the victim to prevent resistance. Model Penal Code 213.4. --Also termed
indecent assault; sexual assault by contact; indecent assault by contact; criminal sexual
conduct. Cf. RAPE; sexual battery under BATTERY.
Sexual Assault By Contact
See sexual assault.
Simple Assault
See ASSAULT.
"Simple Assault. A person is guilty of assault if he: (a) attempts to cause or purposely,
knowingly or recklessly causes bodily injury to another; or (b) negligently causes bodily
injury to another with a deadly weapon; or (c) attempts physical menace to put another
in fear of imminent serious bodily injury." Model Penal Code 211.1 (1997).
Assault (2)
n. A sudden, violent attack; onslaught: an assault on tradition.
Law. An unlawful physical attack upon another; an attempt or offer to do violence to another, with or without battery, as by holding a stone or club in a threatening manner.
Military.
The stage of close combat in an attack.
verb (used with object)
To make an assault upon; attack; assail.
Assault (3)
n. A violent attack, either physical or verbal.
Law
An intentional or reckless act that causes another person to expect to be subjected to immediate and unlawful violence.
Compare battery (def. 4), assault and battery
The culmination of a military attack, in which fighting takes place at close quarters.
(as modifier) assault troops.
Rape or attempted rape.
verb (tr)
To make an assault upon.
To rape or attempt to rape.
Assault and Battery
(16c) Loosely, a criminal battery; esp., the act of threatening to attack someone physically and then actually doin git. See BATTERY.
"Although the term assault and battery is frequently used when a battery has been
committed, one who commits a battery cannot also be punished for committing an
assault, since the lesser offense of assault blends into the actual battery." Paul Marcus,
"Assault and Battery," in Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice 88, 88 (Sanford H. Kadish
ed., 1983).
Assault and Battery (2)
n. Law. An assault with an actual touching or other violence upon another. Abbreviation: a&b
Assaultee
(1871) Someone who is assaulted.
Assaulter
(16c) Someone who assaults another.
B
Badge of Slavery
(17c) Strictly, a legal disability suffered by a slave, such as the inability to vote or to own property. Broadly, any act of racial discrimination -- public or private -- that Congress can prohibit under the 13th Amendment.
Battery
n. (16c) Criminal law. The nonconsensual touching of, or use of force against, the body of another with the intent to cause harmful or offensive contact. --Also termed criminal battery.
"Criminal battery, sometimes defined briefly as the unlawful application of force to the
person of another, may be divided into its three basic elements: the defendant's conduct
(act or omission); his 'mental state', which may be an intent to kill or injure, or criminal
negligence, or perhaps the doing of an unlawful act; and the harmful result to the victim,
which may be either a bodily injury or an offensive touching." Wayne R. LaFave &
Austin W. Scott Jr., Criminal Law 7.15, at 685 (2d ed. 1986).
Aggravated Battery
(1811) A criminal battery accompanied by circumstances that make it more severe, such
as the threatened or actual use of a deadly weapon or the fact that the battery resulted
in serious bodily harm. In most state statutes, aggravated battery is classified as a felony.
Sexual Battery
(1974) The nonconsensual penetration of or contact with another's sexual organs or the
perpetrator's sexual organs. In most state statutes, sexual battery is classified as both a
misdemeanor and a felony. --Also termed criminal sexual battery (CSG). Cf. RAPE;
sexual assault under ASSAULT.
Simple Battery
(1877) A criminal battery not accompanied by aggravating circumstances and not
resulting in serious bodily harm. Simple battery is usu. a misdemeanor but may rise to a
felony if the victim is, for instance, a child or a senior citizen.
Torts. A nonconsensual, intentional, and offensive touching of another without lawful
justification, but not necessarily with the intent to do harm or offense as required in a
criminal battery. --Also termed tortious battery. Cf. ASSAULT --batter, vb.
"A battery is the actual application of force to the body of the prosecutor. It is, in other
words, the assault brought to completion. Thus, if a man strikes at another with his cane
and misses him, it is an assault; if he hits him, it is a battery. But the slightest degree of
force is sufficient, provided that it be applied in a hostile manner; as by pushing a man
or spitting in his face. Touching a man to attract his attention to some particular matter,
or a friendly slap on the back is not battery, owing to the lack of hostile intention."
Stephen's Commentaries on the Laws of England 62-63 (L. Crispin Warmington ed., 21st
ed. 1950).
Battery (2)
The act of beating or battering.
Law. An unlawful attack upon another person by beating or wounding, or by touching in an offensive manner.
An instrument used in battering.
C
Commercial Sex Act
(1977) Any sexual relations for which anything of value is given to or received by any person. Cf. SEXUAL RELATIONS.
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of a Minor
(1978) Any one of a range of crimes committed against a child or adolescent as a subject of child abuse, including the recruiting, enticing, harboring, transporting, providing, obtaining, or maintaining of a minor for sexual exploitation, the exploitation of a minor through prostitution, the exploitation of a minor by exchanging sexual acts for anything of value, such as food, shelter, or drugs, the use of a minor in pornography, the exploitation of a minor through sex tourism, mail-order-bride trade, or inappropriately early marriage, and the exploitation of a minor through performances in sexual venues (such as peep shows and strip clubs.). See National Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, Confronting Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Sex Trafficking of Minors in the United States 31 (Ellen Wright Clayton et al. eds., 2013). --Also termed sex trafficking of minors; sex-trafficking in minors. Cf. child prostitution under PROSTITUTION.
Consent
n. (14c) A voluntary yielding to what another proposes or desires; agreement, approval, or permission regarding some act or purpose, esp. given voluntarily by a competent person; legally effective assent. Consent is an affirmative defense to assault, battery, and related torts, as well as such torts as defamation, invasion of privacy, conversion, and trespass. Consent may be a defense to a crime if the victim has the capacity to consent and if the consent negates an element of the crime or thwarts the harm that the law seeks to prevent. See Model Penal Code 2.11.
"The consent [to a contract] is none the less 'genuine' and 'real,' even though it be
induced by fraud, mistake, or duress. Consent may be induced by a mistaken hope of
gain or a mistaken estimate of value or by the lie of a third person, and yet there is a
contract and we do not doubt the 'reality of the consent.' Fraud, mistake, and duress are
merely collateral operative facts that co-exist with the expressions of consent and have a
very important effect upon the resulting legal relations." William R. Anson, Principles of
the Law of Contract 199 n.1 (Arthur L. Corbin ed., 3d Am. ed. 1919).
Voluntary Consent
(16c) Consent that is given freely and that has not been coerced.
Consent (2)
verb (used without object)
to permit, approve, or agree; comply or yield (often followed by to or an infinitive): He consented to the proposal. We asked her permission, and she consented.
Archaic. to agree in sentiment, opinion, etc.; be in harmony.
noun
permission, approval, or agreement; sanction; acquiescence: He gave his consent to the marriage.
agreement in sentiment, opinion, a course of action, etc.: By common consent he was appointed official delegate.
Archaic. accord; concord; harmony.
Contraband
n. (16c) Illegal or prohibited trade; smuggling. Goods that are unlawful to import, export, produce, or possess. --contraband, adj.
Crime
(14c) An act that the law makes punishable; the breach of a legal duty treated as the subject-matter of a criminal proceeding. --Also termed criminal wrong. See OFFENSE.
"Understanding that the conception of Crime, as distinguished from that of Wrong or Tort
and from that of Sin, involves the idea of injury to the State of collective community, we
first find that the commonwealth, in literal conformity with the conception, itself
interposed directly, and by isolated acts, to avenge itself on the author of the evil which
it had suffered." Henry S. Maine, Ancient Law 320 (17th ed. 1901).
"It is a curious fact that all the minor acts enumerated in the penal code of a state like,
say, New York are in law called crimes, which term includes both murder and over-
parking. It is a strong term to use for the latter, and of course the law has for centuries
recognized that there are more serious and less serious crimes. At the common law,
however, only two classes were recognized, serious crimes or felonies, and minor crimes
or misdemeanors." Max Radin, The Law and You 91 (1948).
Continuing Crime
See continuing offense under OFFENSE.
Continuous Crime
(1907) A crime that continues after an initial illegal act has been consummated; a crime
the involves ongoing elements. An examples is illegal U.S. drug importation. the criminal
act is completed not when the drugs enter the country, but when the drugs reach their
final destination. A crime (such as driving a stolen vehicle) that continues over an
extended period. --Also termed continuous offense. Cf. instantaneous crime.
Crime Laboratory
(1914) A forensic-science laboratory that examines and analyzes evidence from criminal cases. --Also termed crime lab; forensic lab; police lab.
D
Discrimination
n. (1866) The intellectual faculty of noting differences and similarities. The effect of a law or established practice that confers privileges on a certain class or that denies privileges to a certain class because of race, age, sex, nationality, religion, or disability. Federal law, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, prohibits employment discrimination based on any one of those characteristics. Other federal statutes, supplemented by court decisions, prohibit discrimination in voting rights, housing, credit extension, public education, and access to public facilities. State laws provide further protections against discrimination. Differential treatment; esp., a failure to treat all persons equally when no reasonable distinction can be found between those favored and those not favored.
"The dictionary sense of 'discrimination' is neutral while the current political use of the term is frequently non-neutral, pejorative. With both a neutral and a non-neutral use of the word having currency, the opportunity for confusion in arguments about racial discrimination is enormously multiplied. For some, it may be enough that a practice is called discriminatory for them to judge it wrong. Others may be mystified that the first group condemns the practice without further argument or inquiry. Many may be led to the false sense that they have actually made a moral argument by showing that the practice discriminates (distinguished in favor of or against). The temptation is to move from 'X distinguished in favor of or against' to 'X discriminates' to 'X is wrong' without being aware of the equivocation involved." Robert K. Fullinwider, The Reverse Discrimination Controversy 11-12 (1980).
The effect of state laws that favor local interests over out-of-state interests. Such a discriminatory state law may still be upheld if it is narrowly tailored to achieve an important state interest. Cf. FAVORITISM. --discriminate, vb. --discriminatory, adj.
Age Discrimination
(1930) Discrimination based on age. Federal law prohibits discrimination in employment against people who are age 40 or older. Cf. AGEISM.
Direct Discrimination
(1869) Differential treatment of a person or a particular group of people based on race, gender, or other characteristic.
Disability Discrimination
(1974) Discrimination based on a person's actual, perceived, or past physical or mental impairment.
Economic Discrimination
(1919) Any form of discrimination within the field of commerce, such as boycotting a particular product or price-fixing. See BOYCOTT; PRICE DISCRIMINATION; PRICE- FIXING.
Employment Discrimination
(1932) Discrimination against an employee, former employee, or job applicant by an employer based on a characteristic or status such as race, age, religion, disability, or sexual orientation. Employment discrimination may be lawful if an employer can show that there is a valid job-related reason for it. See TITLE VII OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT of 1964.
Gender Discrimination
See sex discrimination.
Indirect Discrimination
(1923) Discrimination arising from the application of a provision, criterion, or policy in such a way that a particular definable group is disadvantaged.
Institutionalized Discrimination
See systemic discrimination.
Invidious Discrimination
(1856) Discrimination that is offensive and objectionable, esp. because it involves prejudice or stereotyping.
National-Origin Discrimination
(1949) Discrimination based on the country or place where a person was born or a person's ancestors lived; discrimination based on a person's ethnicity (or presumed ethnicity), cultural heritage, or association with a certain ethnic group or organization.
Racial Discrimination
(1891) Discrimination based on race.
Religious Discrimination
(1908) Discrimination based on a person's religious or spiritual beliefs or association.
--Also termed religion discrimination.
Sex Discrimination
(1885) Discrimination based on gender, esp. against women. The Supreme Court has established an intermediate-scrutiny standard of review for gender-based classification, which must serve an important governmental interest and be substantially related to the achievement of that objective. Craig v. Boren, 429 U.S. 190, 97 S.Ct. 451 (1976). The terminology is gradually shifting. Increasingly in medicine and sociology, gender is distinguished from sex. Gender refers to the psychological and societal aspects of being male or female; sex refers specifically to the physical aspects. --Also termed gender discrimination.
Sexual-Orientation Discrimination
(1979) Discrimination based on a person's predisposition or inclination to be romantically or sexually attracted to a certain type of person (i.e., heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, or asexuality), or based on a person's gender identity (i.e., a person's internal sense of gender).
Systemic Discrimination
(1969) An ingrained culture that perpetuates discriminatory policies and attitudes toward certain classes of people within society or a particular industry, profession, company, or geographic location. Examples of systemic discrimination include excluding women from traditionally male jobs, holding management trainee programs on evenings and weekends, and asking unlawful preemployment screening questions. --Also termed institutionalized discrimination; systematic discrimination.
Viewpoint Discrimination
(1979) Content-based discrimination in which the government targets not a particular subject, but instead certain views that speakers might express on the subject; discrimination based on the content of a communication. If restrictions on the content of speech are reasonable and not calculated to suppress a particular set of views or ideas, a governmental body may limit speech in a nonpublic forum to expressions that serve a specific purpose. For example, an agency holding a workshop to inform state employees of laws related to the agency's functions may reasonably prohibit the expression of opinions regarding the motives of the legislators. But if speech favorable to the legislators' intent is allowed and opponents are denied the opportunity to respond, the restriction would constitute viewpoint discrimination. --Also termed viewpoint-based discrimination.
Discrimination (2)
n. An act or instance of discriminating, or of making a distinction.
Treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit.
The power of making fine distinctions; discriminating judgment.
Archaic. Something that serves to differentiate.
Discrimination (3)
n. Unfair treatment of a person, racial group, minority, etc; action based on prejudice.
Subtle appreciation in matters of taste.
The ability to see fine distinctions and differences. Electronics The selection of a signal having a particular frequency, amplitude, phase, etc, effected by the elimination of other signals by means of a discriminator.
E
Exploitation
n. (19c) The act of taking advantage of something; esp., the act of taking unjust advantage of another for one's own benefit or selfish end. See SEXUAL EXPLOITATION. --exploit, vb. --exploitative, adj.
Exploitation (2)
noun
Use or utilization, especially for profit.
Selfish utilization.
The combined, often varied, use of public-relations and advertising techniques to promote a person, movie, product, etc.
Extortion
n. (14c) The offense committed by a public official who illegally obtains property under the color of office; esp., an official's collection of an unlawful fee. --Also termed common-law extortion.
"The dividing line between bribery and extortion is shadowy. If one other than the officer
corruptly takes the initiative and offers what he knows is not an authorized fee, it is
bribery and not extortion. On the other hand, if the officer corruptly makes an unlawful
demand which is paid by one who does not realize it is not the fee authorized for the
service rendered, it is extortion and not bribery. In theory if would seem possible for an
officer to extort a bribe under such circumstances that he would be guilty of either
offense whereas the outraged citizen would be excused." Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N.
Boyce, Criminal Law 538 (3d ed. 1982).
The practice or an instance of obtaining something or compelling some action by illegal means, as by force or coercion. --Also termed statutory extortion. --extortionate, adj.
"The distinction traditionally drawn between robbery by intimidation and blackmail or
extortion is that a person commits robbery when he threatens to do immediate bodily
harm, whereas he commits blackmail or extortion when he threatens to do bodily harm
in the future." James Lindgren, "Blackmail and Extortion," in Encyclopedia of Crime and
Justice 115, 115 (Sanford H. Kadish ed., 1983).
F
Federal Crime
(1860) A criminal offense under a federal statute. Most federal crimes are codified in Title 18 of the U.S. Code --Also termed federal offense.
Federal Kidnapping Act
A 1932 federal law punishing kidnapping for ransom or reward when the victim is transported interstate or internationally. The law rebuttably presumes that a victim has been transported in violation of the law if the victim is not released within 24 hours. The Federal Kidnapping Act, by express provision, does not apply to the kidnapping of a minor of either parent. the law was enacted after the son of aviator Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped and murdered. For this reason, it is also termed Lindbergh Act. 18 USCA 1201. Cf. PARENTAL KIDNAPPING PREVENTION ACT.
"The Federal Kidnapping Act was passed in 1932 to close a dangerous loophole
between state and federal law. At that time, marauding bands of kidnappers were
preying upon the wealthy with ruthless abandon, seizing their victims for ransom while
operating outside the reach of existing state laws. Knowing that authorities in the victim's
home state were powerless once a hostage was transported across state lines, the
criminals would kidnap their target in one state, then move quickly to the next. In
response, Congress made kidnapping a federal crime when the victim was moved from
one state to another, and comprehensive language was used to cover every possible
variety of kidnapping followed by interstate transportation." 1 Am. Jur. 2d Abduction
and Kidnapping 14, at 185 (1994).
Federal Offense
See FEDERAL CRIME.
H
Harassment
n. (18c) Words, conduct, or action (usu. Repeated or persistent) that, being directed at a specific person, annoys, alarms, or causes substantial emotional distress to that person and serves no legitimate purpose; purposeful vexation. Harassment is actionable in some circumstances, as when a creditor uses threatening or abusive tactics to collect a debt. –harass, vb.
Discriminatory Harassment
(1961) Harassment that denigrates, shows hostility to, or exhibits aversion toward a person or group (esp. of a protected class), thereby creating a hostile environment that unreasonably interferes with learning, living, or working.
Sexual harassment and gender-based harassment are forms of discriminatory harassment. See gender-based harassment; SEXUAL HARASSMENT.
Gender-Based Harassment
(1981) Harassment motivated by hostility and intended to enforce traditional heterosexual norms and roles and discourage what is seen as nontraditional behavior. See discriminatory harassment.
Hostile-Work-Environment Harassment
See hostile-environment sexual harassment under SEXUAL HARASSMENT.
Quid Pro Quo Harassment
See hostile-environment sexual harassment under SEXUAL HARASSMENT.
Same-Sex Harassment
See same-sex sexual harassment under SEXUAL HARASSMENT.
Harassment (2)
n. An act or instance of harassing; torment, vexation, or intimidation. The condition or fact of being harassed.
Harbor
n. Any place of shelter or refuge: The old inn was a harbor for tired travelers.
verb (used with object)
To give shelter to; offer refuge to: They harbored the refugees who streamed across the borders.
To conceal; hide: to harbor fugitives.
To keep or hold in the mind; maintain; entertain: to harbor suspicion.
To house or contain.
To shelter (a vessel), as in a harbor.
verb (used without object)
(Of a vessel) to take shelter in a harbor.
Harbor, Safe
See SAFE HARBOR.
Harboring
n. (14c) The act of affording lodging, shelter, or refuge to a person, esp. a criminal or illegal alien.
Human Trafficking
n. See TRAFFICKING.
Human Trafficking (2)
noun
The illegal practice of procuring or trading in human beings for the purpose of prostitution, forced labor, or other forms of exploitation.
I
Incapacitate
vb. (17c) To make (someone) too weak or too ill to work or function normally <he was incapacitated after the fall>. To stop (a system, piece of equipment, etc.) from working properly <the motor was incapacitated>.
Incapacitate (2)
verb (used with object), in·ca·pac·i·tat·ed,in·ca·pac·i·tat·ing.
to deprive of ability, qualification, or strength; make incapable or unfit; disable.
Law. to deprive of the legal power to act in a specified way or ways.
Incapacitate (3)
verb (tr)
to deprive of power, strength, or capacity; disable
to deprive of legal capacity or eligibility
Incapacitated Person
(1834) Someone who is impaired by an intoxicant, by mental illness or deficiency, or by physical illness or disability to the extent that personal decision-making is impossible.
Incest
n. (13c) Sexual relations between family members or close relatives, including children related by adoption. Incest was not a crime under English common law but was punished as an ecclesiastical offense. Modern statutes make it a felony. See SEXUAL RELATIONS.
Incestuous
adj. (16c) Involving sexual activity between people who are closely related in a family <incestuous relations between mother and son>. By metaphorical extension, involving a small group of people who spend time only with each other, not others outside the group <an incestuous political community>.
Intercourse
(15c) Dealings or communications, esp. between businesses, governmental entities, or the like.
Physical sexual contact, esp. involving the penetration of the vagina by the penis. --Also termed sexual intercourse; congress.
Common Intercourse
(16c) The normal, day-to-day interactions and dealings that people, esp. those in the
same community, have with one another.
M
Molestation
(15c) The persecution or harassment of someone <molestation of a witness>. The act of making unwanted and indecent advances to or on someone, esp. for sexual gratification <sexual molestation>. --molest, vb. --molester, n.
Child Molestation
(1951) Any indecent or sexual activity with, involving, or surrounding a child, usu. under
the age of 14. See Fed. R. Evid. 414.
N
Negotiable
adj. (18c) (Of a written instrument at common law) capable of being transferred by delivery or indorsement when the transferee takes the instrument for value, in good faith, and without notice of conflicting title claims or defenses.
"The truth is that 'negotiable'
Nonconsensual
p.1263
O
Organ Trafficking
See TRAFFICKING.
P
Paedophile
See PEDOPHILE.
Paedophilia
See PEDOPHILIA.
Pedophile
(1941) Someone who engages in pedophilia; specif., someone who is sexually attracted to children. --Also spelled (BrE) paedophile.
Pedophilia
(1906) A sexual disorder consisting in the desire for sexual gratification by molesting children, esp. prepubescent children. An adult's act of child molestation. Pedophilia can but does not necessarily involve intercourse. The American Psychiatric Association applies both senses to perpetrators who are at least 16-years-old and at least five years older than their victims. --Also spelled (BrE) paedophilia. Cf. PEDERASTY.
Peeper
See PEEPING TOM.
Peeping Tom
(18c) Someone who spies on another (as through a window), usu. for sexual pleasure; VOYEUR. --Also termed peeper.
Penetration
n. (15c) The act of piercing or passing something into or through a body or object. Criminal law. The entry of the penis or some other part of the body or a foreign object into the vagina or other bodily orifice. This is the typical meaning today in statutes defining sexual offenses. --Also termed intromission. See RAPE. The depth reached by a bullet or other projectile in something against which the projectile is fired. --penetrate, vb.
People-Smuggling
(1988) The crime of helping a person enter a country illegally in return for a fee. Cf. human trafficking under TRAFFICKING; SMUGGLING.
Person
(13c) A human being. --Also termed natural person.
Associated Person
See ASSOCIATED PERSON.
Disadvantaged Person
(1968) Someone who experiences deprivation or discrimination because of a disability,
inherent trait, or social or economic factors.
Disappeared Person
See DISAPPEARED PERSON.
Displaced Person
(1944) Someone who remains within an internationally recognized state border after
being forced to flee a home or place of habitual residence because of armed conflict,
internal strife, the government's systematic violations of human rights, or a natural or man-
made disaster. --Also termed internationally displaced person. Cf. EVACUEE; REFUGEE.
Homeless Person
(1849) Someone who has no accommodation that he or she is entitled to occupy or that
it would be reasonable to allow the person to continue occupying; esp., one who
habitually stays in a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as
regular lodging for human beings.
Interested Person
(1844) A person having a property right in or claim against a thing, such as a trust or
descendant's estate. The meaning may expand to include an entity, such as a business
that is a creditor of a decedent. --Abbr. IP.
Known Person
(16c) A person whose identity is familiar to others or discoverable from records or other
sources of information.
Person in Need of Supervision
See child in need of supervision under CHILD. --Abbr. PINS.
Person Not Deceased
(1894) Someone who is either living or has not yet been born.
Person of Incidence
(1880) The person against whom a right is enforceable; a person who owes a legal
duty. The meaning may expand to include an entity, such as an insurance company.
Person of Inherence
(1909) The person in whom a legal right is vested; the owner of a right. The meaning
may expand to include an entity.
Person of Interest
(1937) Police jargon. Someone who is the subject of a police investigation or wanted for
questioning but who has not been identified by investigators as being suspected of
committing the crime itself.
Smuggled Person
(1896) Immigration law. A person who pays another to help the person illegally cross a
border, and is free to go once the border crossing is achieved. Cf. trafficked person.
Trafficked Person
(1994) A person who is deceived or forced into illegally entering a country and then
forced to work for another. Cf. smuggled person.
The living body of a human being <contraband found on the smuggler's person>. An
entity (such as a corporation) that is recognized by law as having most of the rights and
duties of a human being. In this sense, the term includes partnerships and other
associations, whether incorporated or unincorporated.
"So far as legal theory is concerned, a person is any being whom the law regards as capable of rights or duties. Any being that is so capable is a person, whether a human
being or not, and no being that is not so capable is a person, even though he be a man.
Persons are the substances of which rights and duties are the attributes. It is only in this
respect that persons possess juridical significance, and this is the exclusive point of view
from which personality receives legal recognition." John Salmond, Jurisprudence 318
(Glanville L. Williams ed., 10th ed. 1947).
"The word 'person' is now generally used in English to denote a human being, but the
word is also used in a technical legal sense, to denote a subject of legal rights and
duties. English law recognizes two categories of persons in this legal sense: 'natural
persons' and 'artificial persons.' Natural persons are those animate beings which
possess a capacity to own legal rights and to owe legal duties; artificial persons are
sometimes also described as 'legal' or 'juristic' persons, but this usage can be confusing,
as the latter terms are also used of both animate beings and inanimate entities, to denote
the fact that they have an existence as legal actors, rather than the fact that they exist
only in the legal, and not in the biological sphere. English Private Law 3.18, at 142-43
(Peter Birks ed., 2000).
Artificial Person
(17c) An entity, such as a corporation, created by law and given certain legal rights and
duties of a human being; a being, real or imaginary, who for the purpose of legal
reasoning is treated more or less as a human being. An entity is a person for purposes of
the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses but is not a citizen for purposes of the
Privileges and Immunities Clauses in Article IV 2 and in the Fourteenth Amendment. --Also
termed conventional person; fictitious person; juristic person; juridical person; legal
person; moral person. Cf. LEGAL ENTITY.
Pregnancy
n. (16c) The period during which a woman or a female animal has a fetus growing inside her body. --pregnant, adj.
Pregnancy (2)
n. The state, condition, or quality of being pregnant.
Pregnancy (3)
n. The state or condition of being pregnant. The period from conception to childbirth.
Pregnancy-Discrimination Act
(1979) A federal statute that prohibits workplace discrimination against a pregnant woman or against a woman affected by childbirth or a related medical condition. 42 USCA 2000e. The Pregnancy-Discrimination Act is part of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. --Abbr. PDA.
Prostitute
n. (16c) Someone who engages in sexual acts in exchange for money or anything else of value. --Also termed sex worker.
Child Prostitute
See prostituted child under CHILD.
Prostituted Child
See CHILD.
Prostitution
n. (16c) The practice or an instance of engaging in sexual activity for money or its equivalent; commercialized sex. Cf. COMMERCIAL SEX ACT.
"Prostitution is not itself a crime in England or Scotland, although certain activities of prostitutes and those who profit from prostitution are prohibited, such as soliciting in a public place, procuring, letting premises for the purpose or prostitution and so forth. On the other hand, prostitution was, at least at one time, prohibited in all American Jurisdictions." Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law 470 (3d ed. 1982).
The act of debasing a skill, ability, important principle, etc., esp. to earn money or for personal gain. --prostitute, vb. --prostitute, n.
Child Prostitution
(1930) The practice or an instance of offering or using a minor for sex acts in exchange
for money. See prostituted child under CHILD. Cf. COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION
OF A MINOR.
Pornography
n. (1842) Material (such as writings, photographs, or movies) depicting sexual activity or erotic behavior in a way that is designed to arouse sexual excitement. Pornography is protected speech under the First Amendment unless it is determined to be legally obscene. --Often shortened to porn. See OBSCENITY. --pornographic, adj. --pornographer, n.
Child Pornography
(1967) Material depicting a person under the age of 18 engaged in sexual activity.
Child pornography is not protected by the First Amendment, even if it falls short of the
legal standard for obscenity, and those directly involved in its distribution can be
criminally punished.
Revenge Pornography
(2007) Pornography that is created or distributed without the consent of one of the
participants portrayed, usu. to harass or cause distress to the nonconsenting participant;
specif., sexually explicit photos or videos of someone either distributed or threatened to
be distributed without the person's consent for an improper purpose such as punishing
the victim for ending a relationship, coercing the person to continue the relationship, or
extorting sex acts from the victim. --Often shortened to revenge porn. Cf. SEXTORTION.
Virtual Child Pornography
(1996) Material that includes a computer-generated image that appears to be minor
engaged in sexual activity but that in reality does not involve a person under the age of
18.
R
Rape
n. (15c) Criminal law. At common law, unlawful sexual intercourse committed by a man with a woman not his wife through force and against her will. The common-law crime of rape required at least a slight penetration of the penis into the vagina. Also at common law, a husband could not be convinced of raping his wife. --Formerly termed rapture, ravishment. Criminal law. Unlawful sexual activity (esp. intercourse) with a person (usu. a female) without consent and usu. by force or threat of injury. Most modern state statutes have broadened the definition along these lines. Rape includes unlawful sexual intercourse without consent after the perpetrator has substantially impaired his victim by administering, without the victim's knowledge or consent, drugs or intoxicants for the purpose of preventing resistance. It also includes unlawful sexual intercourse with a person who is unconscious. Marital status is now usu. irrelevant, and sometimes so is the victim's gender. --Also termed (in some statutes) unlawful sexual intercourse; sexual assault; criminal sexual conduct; sexual battery; sexual abuse; (in Latin) crimen raptus. Cf. sexual assault under ASSAULT; sexual battery under BATTERY.
"[Another offence, against the female part also of his majesty's subjects, but attended
with greater aggravations that that of forcible marriage, is the crime of rape, raptus
mulierum, or the carnal knowledge of a woman forcibly and against her will." William
Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 210 (1769).
"If force is to be declared an element of the crime [of rape] it becomes necessary to resort to the fiction of constructive force' to take care of those cases in which no force is needed beyond what is involved in the very act of intercourse itself. A better analysis is to recognize that the requirement of force is simply a means of demonstrating that the unlawful violation of the woman was without her consent and against her will. Therefore, evidence of serious force need not be shown in many cases. Hence the better view is that 'force' is not truly speaking an element of the crime itself, but if great force was not needed to accomplish the act the necessary lack of consent has been disproved in other than exceptional situations. The courts today frequently state the position that a woman's resistance need not be 'more than her age, strength, the surrounding facts, and all attending circumstances' make reasonable." Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law 211-12 (3d ed. 1982).
Archaic. The act of seizing and carrying off a person (esp. a woman) by force; abduction. The act of plundering or despoiling a place. Hist. One of the six administrative districts into which Sussex, England was divided, being smaller than a shire and larger than a hundred.
Acquaintance Rape
(1980) Rape committed by someone known to the victim, esp. by the victim's social
companion. Cf. date rape; relationship rape.
Command Rape
(2006) Military law. Coerced or forced sexual contact between a superior member and
subordinate member of the armed forces.
Corrective Rape
(2005) The use of rape against a person whose perceived sexual orientation or gender
role is contrary to social norms in order to change the victim's sexuality or behavior. This
crime was first reported and the term coined in South Africa.
Date Rape
(1975) Rape committed by a person who is escorting the victim on a social occasion.
The assaults in date-rape cases sometimes take place in contexts in which it might be
reasonable to assume that consensual sexual activity might have occurred. Loosely, date
rape also sometimes refers to what is more accurately called acquaintance rape or
relationship rape.
"The new women's consciousness has focused attention also on 'date rape.' It forced
recognition of an uncomfortable fact: most men who push unwanted sex on women are
not psychopathic or brutal strangers: they are not strangers at all. Date-rape prosecutions
were not common; but the problem was widely discussed on college campuses; and
what was arguably an instance of date rape burst into national prominence in 1991,
when a woman accused William Kennedy Smith, a nephew of the late John F. Kennedy,
of rape. The couple met at a bar in Palm Beach, Florida, and went from there to the
Kennedy estate, where they had sex -- willingly, in Smith's account; violently, in hers.
Millions saw the trial on television (the victim's face was reduced to an electronic blur).
The six-person jury (four members were women) acquitted Smith, on December 11,
1991." Lawrence M. Friedman, Crime and Punishment in American History 433-34
(1993).
Gang Rape
(1875) Rape committed by two or more people against the same victim in the same or
sequential criminal episodes. When large numbers of attackers are involved, it is also
termed mass rape.
Genocidal Rape
Int'l law. See war rape.
Marital Rape
(1936) A husband's sexual intercourse with his wife by force or without her consent.
Marital rape was not a crime at common law, but under modern statutes the marital
exemption no longer applies, and in most jurisdictions a husband can be prosecuted for
raping his wife. --Also termed spousal rape.
Mass Rape
See gang rape. See war rape.
Prior-Relationship Race
See relationship race.
Rape by Means of Fraud
(1887) An instance of sexual intercourse that has been induced by fraud. Authorities are
divided on the question whether rape can occur when a woman is induced by fraudulent
statements to have sexual intercourse. But the term rape by means of fraud is not
uncommon in legal literature.
Rape Under Age
See statutory rape.
Relationship Race
(1999) Rape committed by someone with whom the victim has had a significant
association, often (though not always) of a romantic nature. This term encompasses all
types of relationships, including family, friends, dates, cohabitants, and spouses, in
which the victim has had more than brief or perfunctory interaction with the other
person. Thus it does not extend to those with whom the victim has had only brief
encounters or a nodding acquaintance. --Also termed prior-relationship race. Cf. date
rape; acquaintance rape.
Spousal Rape
See marital rape.
Statutory Rape
(1873) Unlawful sexual intercourse with a person under the age of consent (as defined
by statute), regardless of whether it is against that person's will. Generally, only an adult
may be convicted of this crime. A person under the age of consent cannot be convicted.
--Also termed rape under age. See age of consent under AGE.
"Carnal knowledge of a child is frequently declared to be rape by statute and where this
is true the offense is popularly konwn as 'statutory rape,' although not so designated in
the statute." Rollin M. Perkins & Ronald N. Boyce, Criminal Law 198 (3d ed. 1982).
Stranger Rape
(1973) Rape by someone unknown to the victim.
War Rape
(1949) Int'l law. The systematic use of rape as a physical and psychological weapon
against civilians, esp. women and girls, by enemy soldiers during wartime. War rape
became a crime under Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention in 1949. When
many victims are involved or when many soldiers take turns raping the same victim over
a period, it is also termed mass rape. In the context of ethnic cleansing, it is also termed
genocidal rape.
Rape (2)
n. Unlawful sexual intercourse or any other sexual penetration of the vagina, anus, or mouth of another person, with or without force, by a sex organ, other body part, or foreign object, without the consent of the person subjected to such penetration. See SEXUAL ASSAULT. Any sexual activity, with or without penetration, that takes place without the consent of one of the people involved. Statutory Rape (def.) An act of plunder, violent seizure, or abuse; Despoliation; violation. Archaic. the act of seizing and carrying off by force.
Rape
vb. (14c) To commit rape against; to force (someone) to have sex, esp. by using violence.
Archaic. To seize and carry off by force; abduct. To plunder or despoil. --rapist, raper, n.
Rape (2)
vb. (Used with object), raped, raping.
To commit the crime of rape against (a person).
To plunder; despoil. Informal: Offensive. To totally defeat, wreck, dominate, or decimate. Archaic. to seize, take, or carry off by force.
vb. (Used without object), raped, raping.
To commit rape.
Rape Kit
n. (1975) Criminal law. An ensemble of instruments, vials, etc., to be used, typically in a specified order, for the systematic gathering of evidence relating to an alleged rape.
S
Servant
(13c) Someone who is employed by another to do work under the control and direction of the employer. A servant, such as a full-time employee, provides personal services that are integral to an employer's business, so a servant must submit to the employer's control of the servant's time and behavior. See EMPLOYEE. Cf. MASTER.
"A servant, strictly speaking, is a person who, by contract or operation of law, is for a limited period subject to the business or occupation....The word servant, in our legal nomenclature, has a broad significance, and embraces all persons of whatever rank or position who are in the employ, and subject to the direction or control of another in any department of labor or business. Indeed it may, in most cases, be said to be synonymous with employee." H.G. Wood, A Treatise on the Law of Master and Servant 1, at 2 (2d ed. 1886).
Assigned Servant
(1991) Hist. In early colonial times, an unpaid servant, usu. a deported convict,
sentenced to labor on an estate, esp. in America or Australia. --Also termed assignee.
See ASSIGNMENT SYSTEM.
Indentured Servant
(18c) Hist. A servant who contracted to work without wages for a fixed period in
exchange for some benefit, such as learning a trade or cancellation of a debt or paid
passage to another country, and the promise of freedom when the contract period
expired. Indentured servitude could be voluntary or involuntary. A contract usu. lasted
from four to ten years, but the servant could terminate the contract sooner by paying for
the unexpired time. Convicts transported to the colonies were often required to serve as
indentured servants as part of their sentences.
Servant of Servants
(15c) Hist. A person degraded to extreme servitude.
Servantry
n. (1860) Servants collectively.
Servus
n. [Latin](16c) Roman law. A slave; a human being who was property, and could be bought, sold, pledged, and testated. A Roman slave who was formally freed became a Roman citizen. Cf. INGENUUS; LATINI JUNIANI; LIBERTINII. Hist. A bondman; a servant.
Sex
(14c) The sum of the pecularities of structure and function that distinguish a male from a female organism; gender. Sexual intercourse. SEXUAL RELATIONS (2).
Sex (2)
The male, female, or sometimes intersex division of a species, especially as differentiated with reference to the reproductive functions or physical characteristics such as genitals, XX and XY chromosomes, etc.
A label assigned to a person at birth, usually male or female and sometimes intersex, and typically based on genital configuration.
See Usage note at the current entry.
The sum of the structural and functional differences by which male, female, and sometimes intersex organisms are distinguished, or the phenomena or behavior dependent on these differences.
Sexual relations or activity, especially sexual intercourse.
The sexual instinct or attraction drawing one organism toward another, or its manifestation in life and conduct.
The genitals; genitalia.
verb (used with object)
To ascertain the sex of or assign a sex to, especially newly-hatched chicks.
Sex Abuse
See sexual abuse under ABUSE.
Sex Act
See SEXUAL RELATIONS (2); COMMERCIAL SEX ACT.
Sex Bias
(1873) The unfair treatment of people on grounds that they are male, female, or intersex.
Sex Change
See SEX REASSIGNMENT.
Sex Crime
See sexual offense under OFFENSE.
Sex Discrimination
See DISCRIMINATION (3).
Sex Industry
(1965) The business and activities related to pornography and prostitution.
Sex-Offender Registry
n. (1987) A publicly available list of the names and addresses of sex offenders who have been released from prison. The registries were started by state statutes known as “Megan’s laws.” The lists are often posted on the Internet, and some states require publication of the offender’s photograph, name, and address in local newspapers.
Megan’s law
(1994) A statute that requires sex offenders who are released from prison to register with a local board and that provides the means to disseminate information about the registrants to the community where they live. Although many of these statutes were enacted in the late 1980s, they took their popular name from Megan Kanka of New Jersey, a seven-year-old who in 1994 was raped and murdered by a twice-convicted sex offender who lived across the street from her house. All states have these laws, but only some require community notification (as by publishing offenders’ pictures in local newspapers); in others, people must call a state hotline or submit names of persons they suspect. The federal version of Megan’s law may be found at 42 USCA 14071. –Also termed registration and community-notification law; community-notification law.
Sexual Abuse
See ABUSE. See RAPE.
Sexual Activity
(1895) See SEXUAL RELATIONS.
Sexual Assault
See ASSAULT. See RAPE.
Sexual Assault (2)
Nonconsensual touching of one person for the sexual gratification of another, including rape, fondling, molestation, or other unwanted contact with the genitals, anus, buttocks, groin, or breasts of either party.
Sexual Assault by Contact
See sexual assault under ASSAULT.
Sexual Battery
See BATTERY. See RAPE.
Sexual Crime
See sexual offense under OFFENSE.
Sexual Exploitation
(1935) The use of a person, esp. a child, in prostitution, pornography, or other sexually manipulative activity. –Sometimes shortened to exploitation.
Sexual Harassment
(1973) A type of employment discrimination consisting in verbal or physical abuse of a sexual nature, including lewd remarks, salacious looks, and unwelcome touching. See HARASSMENT.
Hostile-Environment Sexual Harassment
(1986) Sexual harassment in which a work environment is created where an employee is subject to unwelcome verbal or physical sexual behavior that is either severe or pervasive. This type of harassment might occur, for example, if a group of coworkers repeatedly e-mailed pornographic pictures to a colleague who found the pictures offensive. --Also termed hostile-work-environment harassment.
Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment
(1982) Sexual harassment in which an employment decision is based on the satisfaction of a sexual demand. This type of harassment might occur, for example, if a boss fired or demoted an employee who refused to go on a date with the boss. --Also termed quid pro quo harassment.
Same-Sex Sexual Harassment
(1981) Sexual harassment by a supervisor of an employee of the same sex. --Also termed same-sex harassment.
Sexual Harassment (2)
Unwelcome sexual advances, either verbal or physical, especially by someone with power or authority.
Sexual Harassment (3)
The persistent unwelcome directing of sexual remarks and looks, and unnecessary physical contact at a person, usually a woman, esp in the workplace.
Sexual Intercourse
See INTERCOURSE.
Sexually-Abused-Child Syndrome
(1983) A medically recognized mental disorder that causes a person to behave in highly sexualized ways, usu. as a result of incest, molestation, or other sexual acts during childhood. Other symptoms frequently described are age-inappropriate sexual knowledge, difficulty trusting others, withdrawal, anxiety, depression, guilt, and shame.
Sexually Dangerous
adj. (1948) (Of a person) having serious difficulty in refraining from sexually violent conduct or child molestation. Under federal law, the government may detain a mentally ill, sexually dangerous federal prisoner beyond the release date only if it first establishes, by clear and convincing evidence, that the prisoner "has previously 'engaged or attempted to engage in sexually violent conduct or child molestation,' currently 'suffers from a serious mental illness, abrnomality, or disorder,' and 'as a result of that mental illness, abnormality, or disorder is 'sexually dangerous' to others,' in that 'he would have serious difficulty in refraining from sexually violent conduct or child molestation if released.'" U.S. v. Comstock, 130 S.Ct. 1949, 1954 (2010) (quoting 18 USCA 4247). See SEXUAL PREDATOR.
Sexually Dangerous Person
See SEXUAL PREDATOR.
Sexually Transmitted Disease
(1962) A disease transmitted only or chiefly by engaging in sexual acts with an infected person. Common examples are syphilis, gonorrhea, and HIV. --Abbr. STD. --Also termed venereal disease.
Sexually Violent Predator
See SEXUAL PREDATOR; SEXUALLY DANGEROUS.
Sexual Offense
See OFFENSE.
Sexual Orientation
(1931) A person's predisposition or inclination toward sexual activity or behavior with other males or females; heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality.
Sexual-Orientation Discrimination
See DISCRIMINATION.
Sexual Predator
(1960) Someone who has committed many violent sexual acts or who has a propensity for committing violent sexual acts. --Also termed predator; sexually dangerous person; sexually violent predator. See SEXUALLY DANGEROUS.
Sexual Psychopath
(1920) Someone who has been diagnosed as a psychopath and who has committed multiple sex offenses; specif. one who has committed sex crimes and has been medically determined to be sane but incapable of controlling his or her sexual impulses.
Sexual-Psychopath Law
(1942) A statute providing that someone who has been convicted of a crime and found to be medically classified as a sexual psychopath may be indefinitely confined to a mental hospital as well as sentenced to a term in prison.
Sexual Relations
(1909) Sexual intercourse; SEX. --Also termed carnalis copula. Physical sexual activity that does not necessarily culminate in intercourse. Sexual relations usu. involve the touching of another's breast, vagina, penis, or anus. Both persons (the toucher and the person touched) are said to engage in sexual relations. --Also termed sexual activity; sex act.
Sex Worker
See PROSTITUTE.
Sexting
(2005) The creation, possession, or distribution of sexually explicit images via cellphones. The term is a portmanteau of sex and texting.
Sexting (2)
The sending of sexually explicit digital images, videos, text messages, or emails, usually by cell phone.
Sextortion
(1950) Slang. The practice or an instance of coercing a victim to provide sexual favors by threatening to publicly disclose embarrassing facts, esp. nude or sexually explicit photographs of the victim. See EXTORTION. Cf. revenge pornography under PORNOGRAPHY.
Sex Trafficking
(1982) The practice or an instance of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or procuring a person, or inducing a person by fraud, force, or coercion, to perform a sex act for pay. Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, victims of severe forms of sex trafficking are those who are induced or are less than 18-years-old, or both. Sex trafficking is a type of human trafficking. See HUMAN TRAFFICKING.
Sex Trafficking of Minors
See COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF A MINOR.
Slave
Roman law. See SERVUS.
Slave Labor
(1820) Work done by slaves. By extension, work for which one is paid an unfairly small amount of money. A workforce made up of slaves.
Slaver
(1842) A slave-trader; one who enslaves. An owner of one or more slaves.
Slavery
n. (16c) A situation in which one person has absolute power over the life, fortune, and liberty of another. The practice of keeping individuals in such a state of bondage or servitude. Slavery was outlawed by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Cf. WHITE SLAVERY.
"Slavery was a big problem for the Constitution makers. Those who profited by it insisted
on protecting it; those who loathed it dreaded even more the prospect that to insist on
abolition would mean that the Constitution would die aborning. So the Framers reached
a compromise, of sorts. The words 'slave' and 'slavery' would never be mentioned, but the Constitution would safeguard the 'peculiar institution' from the abolitionists." Jethro K.
Lieberman, The Evolving Constitution 493 (1992).
"Although the substance of slavery was varied from place to place, and over time,
systems of slavery include most, or all, of the following conditions: (1) slaves are
property, and can be sold, traded, given away, bequeathed, inherited, or exchanged
for other things of value; (2) the status of a slave is inheritable, usually through the
mother; (3) formal legal structures or informal agreements regulate the capture and return
of fugitives [sic] slaves; (4) slaves have limited (or no) legal rights or protections; (5)
slaves may be punished by slave owners (or their agents) with minimal or no legal
limitations; (6) masters may treat, or mistreat, slaves as they wish, although some
societies required that masters treat slaves 'humanely' and some societies banned murder
and extreme or barbaric forms of punishment and torture; (7) masters have unlimited
rights to sexual activity with their slaves; (8) slaves have very limited or no appeal to
formal legal institutions; (9) slaves are not allowed to give testimony against their masters
or (usually) other free people, and in general their testimony is not given the same weight
as a free person's; (10) the mobility of slaves is limited by owners and often by the State;
(11) owners are able to make [sic] slaves into free persons through a formal legal
process (manumission), but often these freed persons are not given full legal rights; (12)
slave ownership is supported by laws, regulations, courts, and legislatures, including
provisions for special courts and punishments for slaves, provisions for the capture and
return of fugitive slaves, and provisions and rules for regulating the sale of slaves. All of
these aspects of slavery have been part of the development of the international law
regulating slavery." Seymour Drescher & Paul Finkelman, "Slavery," in The Oxford
Handbook of the History of the International Law 890, 890-91 (Bardo Fassbender &
Anne Peters eds., 2012).
Slavery, Badge Of
See BADGE OF SLAVERY.
Slave Trade
n. (18c) The practice of capturing human beings by force or deception and forcing or selling them into unpaid servitude, usu. for life. See human trafficking under TRAFFICKING.
Slave Wage
See WAGE.
Stalking
(bef. 12c) The act or an instance of following another by stealth. The offense of following or loitering near another, often surreptitiously, to annoy or harass that person or to commit a further crime such as assault or battery. Some statutory definitions include an element that the person being stalked must reasonably feel harassed, alarmed, or distressed about personal safety or the safety of one or more persons for whom that person is responsible. And some definitions include acts such as telephoning another and remaining silent during the call. Cf. CYBERSTALKING. --stalker, n.
"Harassing or 'stalking' conduct fits uneasily with the general structure of offenses against the person, because such conduct can encompass a broad range of disparate behaviors which are best understood in aggregation rather than isolation. The conduct involved in stalking can vary substantially, but seems to infringe both on the victim's right to personal autonomy and personal integrity, either by violating these rights directly or giving rise to well-founded fear that they may be infringed." James Chalmers, "Offenses Against the Person," in The Oxford Handbook of Criminal Law 727, 744 (Markus D. Dubber & Tatjana Hornle eds., 2014).
Stalking (2)
The act or an instance of stalking, or harassing another in an aggressive, often threatening and illegal manner. Of or relating to the act of pursuing or harassing.
Smuggled Person
See PERSON
Smuggling
n. (17c) The crime of importing or exporting illegal articles or articles on which duties have not been paid. See CONTRABAND. Cf. PEOPLE-SMUGGLING; TRAFFICKING. --smuggle, vb.
Statutory Law
(17c) The body of law derived from statutes rather than from constitutions or judicial decisions. --Also termed statute law; legislative law; ordinary law. Cf. COMMON LAW; CONSTITUTIONAL LAW.
Statutory Offense
See statutory crime under CRIME.
Statutory Rape
See RAPE.
STD
abbr. (1974) SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASE. See short-term disability under DISABILITY.
Surviving
adj. (16c) Remaining alive; living beyond the happening of an event so as to entitle one to a distribution of property or income <surviving spouse>. See SURVIVAL ACTION.
Survivor
(15c) Someone who outlives another. A trustee who administers a trust after the co-trustee has been removed, has refused to act, or has died.
T
Trafficker
n. (16c) Someone who buys and sells illegal goods, esp. drugs. Someone who engages in human trafficking. See human trafficking under TRAFFICKING.
Trafficking
(16C) The act of transporting, trading, or dealing, esp. in illegal goods or people. Cf. PEOPLE-SMUGGLING; SMUGGLING.
Drug Trafficking
(1912) The act of illegally producing, importing, selling, or supplying significant
amounts of a controlled substance.
Human Trafficking
(1823) The illegal recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of a person,
esp. one from another country, with the intent to hold the person captive or exploit the
person for labor, services, or body parts. Human -trafficking offenses included forced
prostitution, forced marriages, sweatshop labor, slavery, and harvesting organs from
unwilling donors. --Also termed trafficking in persons. Cf. PEOPLE-SMUGGLING; WHITE
SLAVERY.
Organ Trafficking
(1987) Illegal trafficking in human body parts, esp. transplantable organs that may be
offered for sale or that have been harvested without the consent of the donor or the
donor's next of kin. In international law, organ trafficking is broadly included in the
offense of human trafficking. --Also termed trafficking in persons. Cf. human trafficking.
Trafficking in Persons
See human trafficking. See organ trafficking.
Trafficking in Persons
See TRAFFICKING.
V
Victim
n. (15c) A person harmed by a crime, tort, or other wrong. --Sometimes shortened (in slang) to vic. --victimize, vb. --victimization, n.
Victimhood
The state of suffering that someone feels as a result of having been wronged.
Victim-Impact Statement
(1980) Criminal procedure. A statement read into the record during sentencing to inform the judge or jury of the financial, physical, and psychological impact of the crime on the victim and the victim's family. --Abbr. VIS.
Victimize
vb. (1830) To cheat or defraud (someone). To treat (someone) abusively or unfairly.
Virtual Child Pornography
See PORNOGRAPHY.
Voyeur
n. (1900) Someone who observes something without participating; esp., one who gains pleasure by secretly observing another's genitals or sexual acts. See PEEPING TOM.
Voyeurism
n. (1900) Gratification derived from observing the genitals or sexual acts of others, usu. secretly. --voyeuristic, adj.
W
White Slavery
(1857) The practice of forcing a female (or, rarely, a male) to engage in commercial prostitution. Trafficking in persons for prostitution is prohibited by the Mann Act (18 USCA 2421-2424). Cf. human trafficking under TRAFFICKING.
While this list is long, it is not necessary to have each term memorized. Feel free to use these vocabulary terms as a resource to aid you or a loved one in surviving sexual violence. Remember that #knowledgeispower. Hope this helps.
Bibliography
Dictionary.com, LLC. Meanings and Definitions of English Words: https://www.dictionary.com/. 6/25/24.
Garner, Bryan A. Black's Law Dictionary, Deluxe 11th Edition. Thomson Reuters. Copyright 2019. 6/25/24.
#sexualviolence #awareness #sexcrimes #law #HumanTrafficking #victim #survivor #UnseenFortitude #empowerment #blogger #poet #writer #KnowTheTruth
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