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What is Considered Sexual Assault? A Guide on Sexual Assault.

Legally reviewed by: Chad K. Florin, M.B.A., LL.M. July 22, 2020

If you’re searching for advice on what to do after a sexual assault, consider this step-by-step guide for a detailed overview of what to do immediately following the incident, your rights, sexual assault laws in your state, and how to seek help with filing a sexual assault claim.

What To Do If You Have Been Sexually Assaulted

Trigger Warning: If you have been sexually assaulted, this guide may contain information that is painful or difficult to read.

If you’ve been sexually assaulted, it can be hard to know what to do, whether the incident happened a few hours ago or a few years ago. You may be feeling a myriad of emotions, from shame to anger, or even guilt. You may need medical care, but feel too upset or humiliated to seek it. And you may want to seek legal help, but be unsure where to turn for support after such a traumatic experience.

Immediately following a sexual assault, your safety should be the number one priority. Beyond seeking immediate stability, it’s important that you know your legal rights in case you want to file a sexual assault claim now or in the future.

Perhaps the most important thing to understand is that healing and recovery should be your greatest goal following a sexual assault, but legal recourse may be available, too. Whether you seek damages for physical, emotional, or psychological harm, a sexual assault claim may help with the recovery process.

What Is Considered Sexual Assault?

With so much stigma surrounding sexual assault, it’s necessary to first have an understanding of the definition of sexual assault. This type of assault unfortunately takes many forms. When considering a sexual assault, it’s important to remember that the incident is never the victim’s fault and that if force or coercion was used and the actions were nonconsensual – not wanted or agreed to (having a person’s consent), an assault occurred.

Types of sexual assault include any unwanted sexual activity:

  • Attempted rape
  • Fondling
  • Unwanted sexual contact or touching
  • Forcing victim to perform sexual acts (i.e. oral penetration or other forms of sex)
  • Rape: unlawful sexual intercourse or penetration of the victim’s body by a body part or object

Other sexual crimes include:

Consideration Of Force In Sexual Assault

Force is not simply defined as physical force, such as holding a person down to assault them. Force can also be when one person coerces another with emotional or psychological force. Examples of this include threats and verbal abuse. If the person who assaulted you threatened to hurt you, your children, your family, or themselves, this is an act of force.

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