Sexual Offences Involving Sexual Assault: Literature Review

The remit of this review was to consider in particular, the following offences under the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009: 2, 3, 4, 19, 20, 21, 28, 29, 30, 31 and 37 and other contact offences of a sexual nature under the 2009 Act and the common law equivalents. It was considered that such a review would include amongst other things, the available data on sentencing in this area, an overview of studies which have examined public perceptions of sexual assault sentencing and reference to relevant academic literature such as that which consider the wider principles and purposes of sentencing. It was never the intention that this review provide an analysis of current definitions of offences, an extended discussion of the problems pertaining to conviction rates in this area or the feminist framework which situates sexual offences as a form of violence against women, all of which lie outwith the Council’s remit. There is a significant body of legal and sociological literature on the subject of sexual offences which is not the focus of this report.