Sexual assault prominent news focus presently: What exactly is it?

Unless you’ve been on a weeks’-long hiatus to some remote corner of the earth or simply sworn off all media for a month, you are acutely aware that sexual assault allegations and stories have been front-and-center news items of late.

We won’t get into the details of what’s been a focal point of public discourse recently (there’s certainly enough info to go around on nightly recaps of this year’s scorched-earth political campaign), but we will run a bit with the topic, since its strong emergence on the national scene has raised some interesting and even provocative questions concerning the subject matter.

Here’s a central one: What is it?

Seriously, what qualifies as behavior that is clearly within the realm of sexual assault? Facially, that query might seem easily answered, but, in real life, civil and criminal disputes become embroiled in hair splitting that can virtually turn that question upside down.

“It’s actually harder to define than you’d think,” notes one recent media piece spotlighting the subject matter.

“It’s complex” is the simple response from one commentator on sexual behavior that does or does not rise to the level of sexual assault under California civil and criminal law.

The above-cited media focus duly notes that state laws focused upon sexual assault differ widely, given that “the details are crafted on a state level” and driven by local sentiments, case precedents and additional factors.

Here’s a logical query: What should you do if you think you’ve been victimized by behavior that arguably qualifies as sexual assault or harassment?

Candidly, doing nothing accomplishes nothing and, moreover, enables a perpetrator to continue violating other individuals.

Many victims justifiably feel materially empowered by taking aggressive and proactive action in the wake of wrongful third-party sexual behavior.

Timely consultation with a law firm driven by a desire to help sexually abused victims and with a demonstrated record of doing so can greatly foster a victim’s piece of mind. A civil complaint, for example, can result in a money recovery, punish the wrongdoer and send a strong message of deterrence to other would-be offenders,