Bulletin 32 - Age of consent and related sexual offences
Legal issues bulletin 32 - Age of consent and related sexual offences
Legal issues bulletin 32 - Age of consent and related sexual offences
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The Crimes Act 1900 has a number of important provisions dealing with sexual offences and the age of consent for sexual intercourse.
The major general features can be summarised as follows:
While there are a variety of sexual offence provisions within the legislation, those with specific importance for departmental staff are:
For the purposes of the above offences, "circumstances of aggravation" includes where:
The legislation defines the relationship of "special care" as including circumstances where the offender:
It is a defence to a prosecution under the "special care" offences if, at the time of the offence, the offender and victim were married to each other.
Staff should note the various provisions relating to school teachers. While the "special care" provisions specifically refer to school teachers, both school staff will generally be in a position of authority over students aged 10 to 16 and thus subject to the aggravated offence provisions.
School counsellors are most likely to be included in the definition of health professional and thus are also captured by the new provisions.
Staff should also note these changes apply only to the criminal law and do not affect or alter their obligations to comply with relevant departmental policies in respect of child protection. In particular, school staff should be aware that sexual intercourse with any student, irrespective of age, will be regarded as misconduct or improper conduct and may result in disciplinary action being commenced by the department. Staff should refer to the department's Responding to allegations against employees in the area of child protection (PDF 2021.9KB) (June 2010) policy for further information.
School counsellors should also note that the changes do not affect or alter any obligations they may have to comply with any code of ethics or conduct that may be approved from time to time by the Psychologists Registration Board.