137 articles
Rape in Sweden
Rape in Sweden (våldtäkt) is a sexual offence under Brottsbalken Chapter 6, defined since 1 July 2018 by lack of consent, with negligent rape added; Sweden's high reported rape statistics reflect broad legal definitions and recording practices.
Rape in the United States
Rape in the United States: state-defined criminal offense with no single national definition. Measured by NCVS, NISVS, YRBSS, and FBI UCR; 135,755 rapes reported in 2017; marital rape exemption fully abolished by 2005.
Rape of males
Rape of males: non-consensual penetration of men and boys, including being made to penetrate. Covers prevalence (CDC: 1 in 31 men), male rape myths, disclosure barriers, psychological impact, and gender-specific rape laws.
Rape pornography
Rape pornography depicts rape or non-consensual sexual activity, usually simulated. Covered by UK extreme pornography law (possession offence extended 2015; CPS 2019 guideline excluded consenting-adult material); effects research shows weak, contested associations.
Revenge porn
Revenge porn, also called non-consensual pornography or NCII, is the nonconsensual distribution of intimate images, part of image-based sexual abuse; distinguished by motive from general NCII and now criminalized by the US Take It Down Act and UK Online Safety Act.
Reynhard Sinaga
Reynhard Sinaga, Indonesian serial rapist and Britain's most prolific convicted rapist, drugged and raped men in Manchester 2015-2017; life sentence, 40-year minimum since 2020 appeal.
Richard Huckle
Richard William Huckle was a British child sex offender from Ashford, Kent, who abused children in Malaysia and Cambodia while posing as a volunteer teacher.
Ring boy scandal
Ring boy scandal: allegations that WWF/WWE ring announcer Mel Phillips sexually exploited teenage ring crew boys in the late 1980s and early 1990s, leading to 1992 departures of Phillips, Terry Garvin, and Pat Patterson, and an October 2024 negligence lawsuit against WWE, Vince and Linda McMahon, and TKO under Maryland's Child Victims Act.
Robert Hadden
Robert Hadden, former Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian OB-GYN, sexually abused patients from about 1993 to 2012; convicted federally in 2023, sentenced to 20 years, with over $1 billion in civil settlements.
Rochdale child sex abuse ring
Nine men were convicted in the Rochdale child sexual exploitation case in 2012. Later prosecutions and an independent review exposed wider abuse and repeated failures by police and public agencies.
Roman Polanski sexual abuse case
The Roman Polanski sexual abuse case is a 1977 California prosecution in which director Roman Polanski pleaded guilty to unlawful intercourse with 13-year-old Samantha Geimer, then fled the United States in 1978.
Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal
Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal: abuse of at least 1,400 children in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, 1997–2013, exposed by the 2014 Jay report, followed by the Casey inspection, government intervention, and IOPC Operation Linden.
Russell Williams (criminal)
David Russell Williams (Russ Sovka), born 1963 in Cardiff, Wales, is the ex-colonel who commanded CFB Trenton and confessed in 2010 to murdering Jessica Lloyd and Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, two sexual assaults, and 82 fetish break-and-enters; sentenced to life with no parole for 25 years.
Sde Teiman gang rape
Sde Teiman gang rape: alleged 2024 sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee by IDF Force 100 reservists at the Sde Teiman camp in the Negev; nine arrested, five indicted in 2025, charges dropped in 2026.
Sex and the law
Sex and the law: the legal regulation of sexual conduct, consent, expression, and health across criminal, family, and communications law, covering consent standards, sexual offences, sex work, decriminalization, and 2025 deepfake and age-verification laws.
Sex offender
Sex offender: a person convicted of a sex offense, defined for U.S. federal purposes by SORNA (34 U.S.C. 20901). Covers registries from the 1994 Wetterling Act and 1996 Megan's Law to the 2006 Adam Walsh Act, recidivism rates, risk assessment tools, and treatment research.
Sex offender registries in the United States
Sex offender registries in the United States: state and federal databases of convicted sex offenders, established federally by the Jacob Wetterling Act (1994), Megan's Law (1996), and SORNA (2006). Research shows little effect on recidivism.
Sextortion
Sextortion is sexual blackmail, or sexual extortion, where offenders threaten to release intimate images unless demands are met. Financial variants often target young men aged 18 to 24.
Sexual abuse
Sexual abuse: coerced sexual acts or acts directed against a person's sexuality, including child sexual abuse and image-based sexual abuse; WHO estimates 31.6% of women affected, with evolving legal responses.
Sexual abuse of animals
Sexual abuse of animals (bestiality, zoophilia) is human sexual contact with nonhuman animals, criminalized in nearly all US states and much of Europe, with veterinary forensic methods and recent UK law reforms defining the offense.
Sexual abuse scandal in New Orleans Boy Scout Troop 137
Troop 137 scandal: a 1974 New Orleans Boy Scout troop whose adult leaders ran a child sexual abuse and prostitution ring, exposed in 1976, prosecuted 1977-1978, and later featured in the Netflix film Scouts Honor.
Sexual assault
Sexual assault is sexual activity without freely given consent, covering rape and unwanted sexual contact. Key facts: CDC prevalence data, the Hale marital rape exemption, and consent-based law reform in Canada, the UK, and France.
Sexual grooming
Sexual grooming is the process of building trust with a child to prepare sexual abuse; also called online grooming or child grooming. Covers grooming strategies, online versus offline patterns, UNICEF prevalence data, and grooming laws in the UK, Australia, and Singapore.
Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment, also called unwelcome sexual conduct or sex-based harassment, is sex discrimination under Title VII, taking quid pro quo and hostile work environment forms, prohibited in nearly two-thirds of UN states and governed by ILO Convention 190.
Sexual misconduct
Sexual misconduct is a non-legal umbrella term for unwelcome or non-consensual sexual behavior, spanning harassment, abuse, and assault, used in workplace, medical, academic, military, and UN policies; neither Black's nor Ballentine's law dictionaries define it.
Sexual penetration
Sexual penetration, also known as penetrative sex, is the placing of a penis, finger, or object into the vagina or anus, or a sex organ into the mouth.
Sexual predator
Sexual predator is a legal designation, mainly in US law, for convicted sex offenders judged likely to reoffend; it triggers civil commitment, registration, and restrictions, grounded in Washington's 1990 act and Kansas v. Hendricks.
Sexual slavery
Sexual slavery: holding a person in slavery and forcing sexual acts or services. Also called sex slavery, enslavement for sexual exploitation; overlaps sex trafficking. Key facts: ISIL slave markets in Raqqa, ILO $173 billion sexual-exploitation profits, 6.3 million victims in 2021.
Sexual violence in South Africa
Sexual violence in South Africa covers rape, sexual assault, and femicide under the 2007 Sexual Offences Act, with among the world's highest recorded rates, roughly one-third of rapes unreported, and a National Strategic Plan on GBVF (2020-2030) coordinating response.
Shakti Mills gang rape
Shakti Mills gang rape: 22 August 2013 assault of a 22-year-old photojournalist by five men in Mumbai's abandoned Shakti Mills compound; rapid arrests, first Section 376E death sentences, commuted to life by Bombay High Court in 2021.