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Sexual Assault/Rape: Legal Definitions

Massachusetts Legal Definitions
• Rape occurs when the offender has “sexual intercourse or unnatural sexual intercourse with a person and compels such person to submit by force and against his/her will, or compels such person to submit by threat of bodily injury.”
• The crime of indecent assault and battery occurs when the offender, without the victim’s consent, intentionally has physical contact of a sexual nature with the victim.

NU Code of Conduct
• Rape: the oral, anal, or vaginal penetration by an inanimate object, penis, or other bodily part without consent.
• Sexual assault: the unwanted touching of the intimate body parts of another.

Consent
Consent is an agreement reached by both partners to engage in a specific activity. Engaging in sexual activity with a person who has not given or cannot give her/his consent is an act of sexual violence.

In MA, it is illegal to have sex with someone who is incapable of giving consent because:
• They are intoxicated.
• They are unconscious.
• They are mentally incompetent.
• They are under age.

Consent cannot be given by someone who is not of sound mind and body. Someone who is drunk, high, unconscious or mentally incompetent may not be able to give consent to a sexual act. Submission is not necessarily consent. Having sex with someone who reasonably believes that there is threat of force meets the legal definition of rape in Massachusetts.