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A major change in recent years has been in two major pieces of legislation: the Sexual Offences Act (SOA) of 2003 and the Domestic and Violent Crime Act (DVCA) of 2004. The SOA was intended to provide a great deal of clarification to a number of issues. One of these issues was the definition of various crimes; another was the recognition of the significance of gender and age to these issues. The DVCA also clarifies many issues, such as the definition of sexual abuse in the home as being not just physical but also mental and psychological.
 
The SOA is also important in that it classifies offences by gender and age, which ensures that all categories of sexual crime are covered and legislated for. We mentioned in the introduction that in this essay we would be considering sexual offences against women, not children as there are differences between the offences in each group. This difference has been recognized in the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which requires the recording of rape and other sexual offences to be separated out into bands defined by gender and age (SOA, 2003). There are further issues that need clarification, such as a more exact understanding of the situation of consent while intoxicated, but it has gone a long way to ensuring this precision.
 
The better understanding of women as victims of sexual crime has also led to a radical change in how they are treated when they report the crime to the police. In the past the police were considered to be unsympathetic to women reporting these crimes; however, great strides have been made to alter this situation. Thought has been given to who takes the first information from a victim, and care is taken to try and provide a woman officer for this task. If the victim agrees to evidence being taken from their bodies, this can now frequently be done in special units prepared to give as much comfort to the victim as possible under the circumstances. This is increasingly done in partnership with other bodies, such as the health service; these sexual assault referral centers can act more holistically in order to help the victim recover psychologically, as well as physically.
 
Once a case goes to court there are also a number of bodies that are funded to offer support. One of these is Victim Support, which has campaigned for many years to raise funding to assist all victims of crime during the court process. Many of these bodies are now funded with government money, as their value has been perceived. If the victim has cause to be fearful of going to court then protection can now be arranged, as their fears are now taken seriously. Once an offender has been convicted, sentenced and served his time, the probation service is obliged to inform the victim of her attackers release, if she has so requested. Victims of sexual violence are also eligible for criminal compensation.
 
It is clear that there has been an enormous change in the way sexual crimes are perceived in our society. Although, the debate continues as to why the statistics should be rising to such height it is clear that much has been done, in light of past research results to make the criminal justice system consider carefully its procedures and responses to these crimes. It is to be hoped that the government will continue to respond with change as these crimes become better understood.
 
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