What is digital penetration?
Digital penetration is a form of sexual penetration. In digital penetration, an individual penetrates one or more fingers inside the female’s vagina instead of his penis as generally used during sexual intercourse.
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Sexual Intercourse
Sexual intercourse is a sexual activity typically involving the insertion and thrusting of the penis into the vagina or anus for sexual pleasure, reproduction, or both. It is also said to be coitus or copulation.
Sexual Assault
What is Rape?
The word rape means any kind of sexual assault against a person’s will. Even though, the criminal justice system in many countries all over the world right now regards rape as a heinous crime. But as far as attitudes to rape are concerned not much has changed down the ages.
When someone does something sexual to another person, without getting their permission first that can include anything from touching someone’s genitals, breasts, or buttocks, inserting something into any other body parts, or showing them something sexual without having explicit consent.
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Any sexual act without consent is considered rape, be it sexual intercourse, or penetration by other means. The term rape sometimes can be used to refer to sexual assault too.
Sexual Penetration
Sexual penetrations involve penetration of a body part or other objects like fingers into body parts, like the mouth, vagina, or anus as it is a part of sexual activity. The activity of sexual penetration comes under aggravated sexual assault.
Sex Offence
A sex offense is any behavior with a child, a non-consenting adult, or anyone unable to give consent due to physical conditions like intoxication or mental capacity like developmental disability. Sex offense includes crimes of penetration with a body part or other object.
It also includes crimes of contact (like fondling) and crimes of non-contact (like exhibitionism). It can also include crimes related to the production and consumption of certain types of pornography, especially child pornography.
The number of sex offenders is increasing in prisons. Rape and sexual assault offenders account for just under 5% of the total correctional population in the United States.
If “hidden sex offenders” are serving sentences for non-sexual offenses or who have plea-bargained to lesser crimes, it has been suggested that sex offenders account for as high as 25 to 30% of United States prison populations.
The average sentence for convicted rapists released from State prisons is about 10 years. The average time served has increased from about three and a half years to about 5 years. For those released after serving time for sexual assault, the sentence has been a stable six and half years. The average time served grew from about 6 months to just under 3 years.
Who is a Sex Offender?
Using statistical techniques, researchers have found that there are no specific demographic characteristics that predict who will be a sex offender. Sexual offenders can be of any age, and socioeconomic status and have any level of intellectual functioning. While most of those who come in contact with the criminal justice system are male, increasing numbers of sexual crimes are being committed by females (10.3%).
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There is a perception of the sexual offender as a monster. Women and children are more frequently assaulted by individuals that are related to or known to them. There are heterogeneous groups of sexual offenders. Sexual offenders are generally ordinary individuals whose deviance is not distinguishable. They come from all strata of society. Generally, they are not mentally ill (less than 4%), and they do not have an extensive criminal history.
Classification of Sex Offenders
Sex offenders have long been classified based on four offense characteristics:
- the age of the victim (child molester/ rapist)
- the gender of the victim (male/ female/ both)
- the level of coercion used to commit the offense (violent/ non-violent)
- type of victim-aggressor relationship (child molester/ incest offender/ stranger/ acquaintance)
Different victim types and relationships have different risks for reoffending.
Problem- Evidence a large number of offenders “cross-over”, upward of 50%.
Types of Sex Offenders
- Non-Contact Sexual Offences (Paraphilias) (Exhibitionism, Voyeurism, Frotteurism)
- Pedophile Incest Offender
- Rapist
- Sexual Sadist
- Sexual Murderer
Exhibitionism
It is the most common form of paraphilic behavior. It involves the exposure of genitals or the entire nude body to a stranger during which the exhibitionist achieves sexual arousal. Occasionally, a person will masturbate while exposing himself. There is no attempt for further sexual contact. It generally responds poorly to treatment.
It has two general purposes: First is that person desires to shock and surprise the victim and the second is that person has a fantasy that the observer will become sexually aroused. It is onset generally before 18 years.
It involves fewer arrests in older men. For diagnostic purposes: 6 months recurrent exposure (imaginal or in vivo) and cause clinically significant distress/ impairment.
Voyeurism
These are “peeping toms”. It involves the observation of unsuspecting individuals that are naked, getting undressed/ showering, and engaging in sexual activity. They are generally strangers.
Their purpose of peeping is to get sexual arousal. There is no sexual contact with a person is sought. It includes the fantasy of having a sexual experience with an observed person.
In extreme form, peeping constitutes an exclusive form of sexual activity. They are onset usually before 15 years of age. Voyeurism tends to be chronic.
Frotteurism
It includes touching and rubbing against a non-consenting person. It usually occurs in crowded places from which a person can easily escape arrest by subways or by sidewalks.
In frotteurism, the involvement of males in general. It usually involves rubbing genitals against the victim’s consent like thighs, and buttocks, or fondling their genitals/ buttocks with hands.
It usually frotteur imagining a relationship with the victim. However, he realizes that to avoid persecution he must escape the detection of the victim. It usually begins in adolescence. The highest prevalence in it is between the ages of 15 to 25 years with a decline after that.
Contact Sexual Offences
- Pedophilia
- Incest Offending
- Rape
- Sexual Sadism
- Sexual Murderer
Pedophilia
Pedophilia refers to sexual activity with a prepubescent child. Sex offenders in this case must be 16 years or older and victims are generally 13 years or younger (5 years older than children). In pedophilia, attraction to a child of a certain age is generally reported. Some pedophiles prefer male children, female children, or both males and females.
Pedophiles often utilize persuasion and/ or manipulation to perpetrate sexual abuse. In pedophilia, sex offender typically begins their involvement with children by using grooming behavior. Grooming behavior is intended to make the victim or potential victim or victim’s guardians feel comfortable with the abuser and even interested in interacting with him.
Pedophile often convinces themselves that their child wants to be involved in a sexual relationship with them and that their involvement with the child will meet their adult emotional needs. In pedophilia, the sex offender is usually not interested in hurting the child and wants the child to enjoy the experience.
In pedophilia, the sex offender often projects thoughts and feelings he wants the child to have about him onto the child. He interprets the child’s positive responses to the grooming and manipulation as acceptance of his behavior and convinces himself that the abusive behavior is not hurtful or damaging.
Incest
It includes sexual contact among blood relatives. In SO treatment, incest includes those offenses in which a person is in a position of quasi-parental authority. Incest is a widespread sex offense. It is thought to affect 1/10 families (Mayer, 1998).
In incest, behavior falls in a continuum from inappropriate sexual talk to exhibitionism, sodomy, and rape and it generally happens more than once over several years. It is not uncommon for an incest offender to offend several members of the same family.
Most common cases of incest offenders include sexual contact between father and daughter or step-father and step-daughter. The majority of victims of incest are female children.
A family profile can appear as there are high rates of both physical and sexual abuse, young children generally assume caretaking responsibilities at an early age, and abuse of alcohol or drugs by one or both parents, or estranged parents.
In the case of incest, offenders generally have poorly functioning marital relationships. They have low levels of sexual satisfaction with their consensual partners. It is defined in DSM-4 as a pedophile. However, unlike pedophiles, their main sexual attraction is adult women and their victims are substitutes or surrogates.
A victim often assumes the partner’s role in meeting physical and emotional needs. This allows an offender to distort his belief that the victim is an age-appropriate sexual partner. Incest offenders commonly deny or minimize their offenses.
Rape
Rape is defined as forced sexual intercourse without consent. Rape is associated with very aggressive though not necessarily physically violent behavior on the part of the perpetrator. He attacks threatens, and uses hostility and/or physical force to intimidate and overpower his victim.
While this type of offender may use physical force, he may also use threats, and intimidation as a method of forcing his victim into sexual activity. Rape behavior often does not result in physical injury. Victims are often viewed by rapists as weak and easily dominated.
Rapists do not care about the emotions of their victims. Their primary interests are self-gratification, dominance, and control. Rapists engage in penetration or specific sexual acts with their victims, as opposed to the high incidence of fondling that is commonly associated with child molestation.
Rapists generally show strong deviant sexual arousal and impulsivity. There is a significant amount of cognitive distortions about women. Rapists are angry and prone to emotional outbursts. They generally have a history of abuse and chronic problems. They are often a repeat offender with various criminal behaviors.
Why do People Commit Sex Crimes?
We still do not know why people commit sex crimes but some hypotheses exist about it. These are misuse of sex, rejection, treating women like objects, sexual attraction to children, discomfort with adults, lack of empathy, and history of abuse.
Recidivism
Sex offenders have among the lowest recidivism rates of all offender types. 5% re-arrested for new sex crimes over three years.
Meta-analysis (average 5-6 years):
- 13.7 % sexual recidivism
- 36.2 % general recidivism rate (reoffending with any criminal behavior), Comparatively
- 75 % burglary and larceny.
5-year follow-up includes 24% committing a new sexual offense. Only 5 % of sex crimes were committed by those who could have been on the registry at the time of their offenses.
Assessment of Sex Offenders
Evaluation of sex offender risk is accomplished through the identification and assessment of variables that contribute to sexually deviant behavior.
Sexual offenders vary in their risk for reoffending static factors (Static-99) and dynamic factors (SONAR). Sexual offenders vary in their response to treatment. It is requisite to provide assessments at various stages of the criminal justice process. There are general assessments and sex offender-specific assessments.
At each stage of the evaluative procedure, the assessment can be employed to simultaneously predict risk and elucidate factors to be targeted for intervention.
Final Words
Digital penetration in layman’s terms is penetrating someone using your fingers. It is a sexual act and can be considered sexual abuse if done without the concerned person’s consent.
The minimum custody an offender has to face in case of such a crime is 15 years, and the maximum is up to 19 years. Along with the prison sentence, the offender will be registered as a sex offender.
The charges to be put for digital penetration falls under aggravated sexual abuse of fourth-degree or second-degree. A person will be guilty of fourth-degree abuse if they cause any harm or injury to another person by inserting their fingers/toes into that person’s anus, vagina, rectum, or penis, and that person didn’t share consent on the same or couldn’t because of being a minor.
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Last Updated on by Saket Kumar
