What is Sexual Assault?

Sexual assault/ noun 1) sexual activity inflicted on a person without their consent
2) (in some jurisdictions) a statutory crime replacing rape, divided into categories according to the degree of violence accompanying the sexual intercourse.
Macquarie Australian Encyclopedic Dictionary 2006 The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd



Australian Crimes Act 1900 part 3 section 50 http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/a/1900-40/current/pdf/1900-40.pdf



Perhaps it is the only crime in which the victim becomes the accused
Freda Adler Sisters in Crime 1975
The Beacon Book of Quotations by Women compiled by Rosalie Maggio
Beacon Press Boston 1996

Experience-based definition
Sexual assault is unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature directed
towards a person:
-which makes that person feel uncomfortable, distressed, frightened
or threatened, or which results in harm or injury to that person;
-to which that person has not freely agreed or given consent, or to
which that person is not capable of giving consent;
-in which another person uses physical, emotional, psychological or
verbal force or (other) coercive behaviour against that person.
Sexual assault may be located on a continuum of behaviours from
sexual harassment to life-threatening rape. These behaviours may
include lewdness, stalking, indecent assault, date rape, drug-assisted
sexual assault, child sexual abuse, incest, exposure of a person to
pornography, use of a person in pornography, and threats or attempts
to sexually assault.

Australian Bureau of Statistics 2004 Sexual Assault in Australia: A Statistical Overview. 4523.0 ABS. Canberra 7th September 2004 pp.8