THE MORE YOU UNDERSTAND,
THE BETTER YOU CAN HELP
WHAT IS SEXUAL ASSAULT?
LEGAL DEFINITIONS
The legal definitions are set out in the Criminal Code of Canada.
According to Quebec government guidelines (2001) :
Sexual assault is an act that is sexual in nature, with or without physical contact, committed by an individual without the consent of the victim, or in some cases, through emotional manipulation or blackmail, especially when children are involved.
It is an act that aims to impose the assailant’s own desires on another person through the abuse of power, through the use of force or coercion, or through implied or explicit threats.
Sexual assault interferes with fundamental rights, notably the right to bodily security and inviolability, and to physical and psychological security.
Sexual assault is illegal.
In the legal sense, a sexual assault is fundamentally an assault as defined in Section 265(1) of the Criminal Code.
There are three levels of severity for the offence of sexual assault:
Simple sexual assault (Section 271): This type of assault causes no bodily harm, or almost none, to the victim.
Sexual assault with a weapon (Section 272): This type of sexual assault involves any one of the following aggravating factors:
- carrying, using, or threatening to use a weapon or an imitation of a weapon;
- threatening to cause bodily harm to a person other than the victim;
- causing bodily harm to the victim;
- being a party to the offence with any other person.
Aggravated sexual assault (Section 273): This type of sexual assault involves wounding, maiming, disfiguring, or endangering the life of the victim.
(Criminal Code, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-46)Source : Information Guide for Sexual Assault Victims, project led by the Table de concertation sur les agressions à caractère sexuel de Montréal (Montréal working group on sexual assault), 2007.
