Personal Crime Research Paper

A personal crime is a crime that is committed against a person, which affects the victim in a personal way. There are various types of personal crimes which affect an individual, but I will be covering homicide, assault, battery, mayhem, rape and statutory rape. Homicide is defined as a person who kills another person or the killing of one human being by another. First degree murder means the criminal act had been premeditated and intentional. First degree murder is usually punishable by death or life imprisonment. Second degree murders are committed during the perpetration or attempted perpetration of an enumerated felony, such as arson, rape, robbery, or burglary. The difference between first and second degree is second degree murders is
Rape, sometimes also called sexual assault, can happen to both men and women of any age. In most of cases when referring to rape it is a female who is the victim. On rare occasions a man will be the one who will be the victim of rape. Rape is about control and a crime of great personal violence. Some states have expanded the definition of rape to include spousal rape and rape that was not forced but without consent. Lack of consent is a necessary element in all rape cases. Most states refer to rape as a sexual assault and there are four degrees of sexual assault. The laws known as shield laws were enacted in the 1970’s to protect the victim in a rape trial from her past being brought into the trial. This was important because it does not matter what type of past the victim has if she was violated and raped to the legal standard of rape then she was violated. Statutory rape is defined as sexual intercourse by an adult with a person below a statutorily designated age. The criminal offense of statutory rape is committed when an adult sexually penetrates a person who, under the law, is incapable of consenting to sex. Minors and physically and mentally incapacitated persons are deemed incapable of consenting to sex under rape statutes in all states. These persons are considered deserving of special protection because they are especially vulnerable due to their youth or condition. Most legislatures include statutory rape provisions in statutes that punish a number of different types of sexual assault. Statutory rape is different from other types of rape in that force and lack of consent are not necessary for conviction. A defendant may be convicted of statutory rape even if the complainant explicitly consented to the sexual contact and no force was used by the actor. By contrast, other rape generally occurs when a person overcomes another person by force and without the person's consent. The actor's age is an important