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This section refers to the law as it applies to England and Wales; it does not pretend to provide an exhaustive account (for such an account, see Stevenson et al, 2004; Gerry et al, 2014). Furthermore, legal penalties prescribed by law are discussed in Chapter Three. The SOA announced itself as a ‘comprehensive review of sexual offences’, with three aims: (1) to modernise the catalogue of sexual offences; (2) to render them appropriate for the 20th century; and (3) to protect individuals from sexual crime. The focus of the Act is very clearly on behaviours, offenders and victims. Offences are not described in terms of breaches of moral codes or of decency (with the exception of ss 45–46); consideration is given to the relationship between the victim and the offender (eg familial, breach of trust), and there is a greater awareness of how trafficking links to prostitution, and how both are serious offences against vulnerable victims. The range and nature of crimes identified by the SOA are listed in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1: Sexual Offences Act 2003 (England and Wales), offences listed by section

In highlighting the SOA, we draw attention to the current focus on offences and offending behaviours, rather than ‘decency’. Sex offence law differs across national jurisdictions; however, one issue central to the operation of sex offence law that is internationally common is ‘attrition’. Jehle (2012, p 151), in his study of attrition in relation to sex offences in Europe, defines attrition as ‘the loss of cases from the level of police to the level of conviction’. We suggest that the ‘loss of cases’ starts before crimes are reported to the police, in that many harmful sexual acts are never reported to authorities. Thereafter, ‘cases’ are lost during investigation, at the decision to prosecute and at court. These processes differ across countries, but attrition is an international phenomenon (Kelly and Lovett, 2009; Jehle, 2012). Approximately, only 10% of cases reported to the police result in a criminal conviction (Kelly et al, 2005; Kelly and Lovett, 2009; Jehle, 2012). Figure 2.2 illustrates the process of attrition in relation to sex offences.

The flow chart in Figure 2.2 outlines key issues in the prevalence, identification and processing of sexual crime. It indicates the numbers involved and how attrition works, and illustrates the limitations of relying on actual criminal convictions as an indicator of prevalence.