The Crimes Amendment Act (No. 3) 1985 removed sections of the Crimes Act 1961 that related to rape and substituted new provisions relating to ‘sexual violation’, which included male rape of a woman and ‘a person having unlawful sexual connection with another person’. Both men and women could be charged with sexual violation if they engaged in any form of penetration of the body of another person using part of their own body, or an object, without the consent of that person, or ‘without believing on reasonable grounds that the other person consents’. The law specified that the absence of protest and physical resistance was not to be interpreted as consent to what was defined as ‘sexual connection’. It recognised that people sometimes submit to sex because they are physically threatened, or fear that force will be used if they do not comply.
Using this item
Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
Reference: New Zealand Statutes, 1985, pp. 1395-1396
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