Sexual violence is very common indeed, and women are most often the victims of this kind of criminal activity. It is a type of crime that exists within every aspect of society. Every ethnic group, every social class, people of every nationality take part in sexual violence, which is why it is so important that the right kind of legislation is passed in order to make it possible for the people committing these violent acts to get prosecuted for the good of society.
The important thing to remember here is that there are a number of different kinds of sexual violence, and each of these types carry their own kinds of penalty. Rape is generally considered a class six offense in Maryland, which means that it carries a penalty of anywhere between ten to forty years, although in a best case scenario one could get paroled halfway through a sentence or perhaps even earlier if the convict’s behavior is good enough in jail.
Another important thing to note here is that statutory rape, while illegal and carrying a heavy penalty for those that commit it, is not considered sexual violence. This is because of the fact that statutory rapes usually involves at least some kind of consent, even if this consent is considered rather dubious. The reason that this is illegal is because of the fact that minors usually don’t have the wisdom or mental development to understand what they are doing when they are consenting to sex, and this usually results in toxic dynamics developing between the two people having sex. That being as it may, there is no actual violence if the charge is just statutory rape; if violence was a part of the equation then this would be part of a separate charge or the original charge might get changed to rape instead of statutory rape.
Other forms of sexual violence are sexual harassment which is usually considered a class four felony which means that you are going to get sentenced to anywhere between five to fifteen years if you end up getting convicted, although it is important to note that there are occasions where people have been sentenced to shorter terms due to the judge’s decision to give lenience for whatever reason they thought was good enough. It is also possible to get out even earlier if you end up behaving well in prison since they are going to consider you fully rehabilitated if you behave like this and don’t cause the authorities at the prison any real trouble.
Sexual violence is taken very seriously in the state of Maryland, and it has recently started to get taken a lot more seriously due to the manner in which state legislators have been looking at it after feminist ideals have started to form a much more important part of political discourse. If you have been accused of sexual violence, you are going to need a very good lawyer to get you off.