Legal Definitions of Criminal Sexual Conduct

What is a Sex Crime?

It is an unfortunate reality that for all of human history, people have been using and abusing each other sexually. Only in this modern era is the investigation, prosecution, and punishment for such behavior so abundant.

Today there are sex crimes charged in both state and federal court and all involve serious consequences. Charges involving criminal sexual conduct are among the most serious in criminal law and automatically stressful. Sometimes they can tear families apart.

The law concerning sex crimes can be complicated, and there are many different statutes and laws that govern sexual activity. Sex crimes include not only unwanted physical touching between adults or adults and minors, but also sending messages or videos of a sexual nature to minors, and more.

Here are some common legal state & federal terms & definitions...

What constitutesCriminal Sexual Conduct in Minnesota?

In Minnesota there are five levels of criminal sexual conduct, and each level depends on the ages of the people and behavior involved. The levels of criminal sexual conduct cover a range of behavior and with a range of penalties. The harshest penalties are reserved for nonconsensual sexual activity committed by force, coercion, or under the threat of a deadly weapon, especially if the complainant is a minor. In general, most convictions for Criminal Sexual Conduct require predatory registration, and penalties include potential prison time or onerous probation obligations.

Degrees and levels of Criminal Sexual Conduct

What is the definition of Sexual Penetration or Contact?

Under Minnesota Law, the definitions as used in the Criminal Sexual Conduct and other statutes are as follows:

Sexual Penetration is defined as the following:

1. Sexual intercourse constitutes sexual penetration if...
there is any intrusion, however slight, of the penis into the female genital opening.
2. Fellatio constitutes sexual penetration if...
there is any contact between the penis of one person and the mouth, tongue, or lips of another person.
3. Cunnilingus constitutes sexual penetration if...
there is any contact between the female genital opening of one person and the mouth, tongue, or lips of another person.
4. Anal intercourse constitutes sexual penetration if...
there is any intrusion, however slight, of the penis of one person into the anal opening of another person.
5. Any intrusion, however slight, of...
any part of one person's body (or of any object used by one person) into the genital or anal openings of another person's body constitutes sexual penetration.
Sexual Penetration is defined as:
1. Sexual intercourse constitutes sexual penetration if there is any intrusion, however slight, of the penis into the female genital opening. 2. Fellatio constitutes sexual penetration if there is any contact between the penis of one person and the mouth, tongue, or lips of another person. 3. Cunnilingus constitutes sexual penetration if there is any contact between the female genital opening of one person and the mouth, tongue, or lips of another person.1 4. Anal intercourse constitutes sexual penetration if there is any intrusion, however slight, of the penis of one person into the anal opening of another person. 5. Any intrusion, however slight, of any part of one person's body (or of any object used by one person) into the genital or anal openings of another person's body constitutes sexual penetration.
Sexual Contact is defined as:
Intentional touching of the intimate parts or the clothing over the immediate area of intimate parts. Intimate parts of the body include: the genital area, groin, inner thigh, buttocks, and breast. This includes masturbation.
Intentional touching of the intimate parts include:
the intimate parts or the clothing over the immediate area of intimate parts. Intimate parts of the body include: the genital area, groin, inner thigh, buttocks, and breast. This includes masturbation.

(Under Federal law, a sexual act includes sexual penetration or sexual contact, embracing the same definitions of the state.)

The federal definition of Illicit sexual activity includes:
1. Any sexual act with a person under age 18; 2. Any commercial sex act with a person under age 18; or 3. Production of child pornography, which is the recording of a child depicted in a sexual manner or performing, receiving, or participating in a sex act alone or with others.

Statutory rape

What is statutory rape?
There is no specific “statutory rape” statute. The term commonly refers to the act of sex being a crime only because of the ages of the parties, not because force, coercion, or violence was used. Usually what the crime associated with this term is Fourth or Fifth Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct, and means sex between someone who is underage and someone just barely 18, or two people under the age of 18. The most common example is the freshman in college that hooks up with someone still in high school.
What is Solicitation?
Criminal solicitation is the act of a person trying to get someone to have sex with them. Often this can be related to prostitution or sex trafficking *link to defs below*, and can involve adults and/or children. In both state and federal court, the act of trying to get a minor to have sex with an adult is a crime. And in both jurisdictions, it doesn’t matter if the person the defendant thought was a minor was really an undercover cop or some other adult. The crime is the intention to have sex with minors, and the efforts to fulfill that desire.
What is the Definition of Solicitation?
The law defines the word “solicit” as: commanding, enticing, entreating, or attempting to persuade a specific person, by telephone, letter, in person, or by computerized or other electronic means. Today, most cases arise from posting or communicating on the internet through social media applications or website classifieds. Many defendants get charged with solicitation after making inquiries online about meeting up for sex.
What is Prostitution?
Considered the world’s oldest profession, prostitution is the exchange of money for sex, and it is illegal. In Minnesota, it’s a crime to provide the sexual services for money, and it’s also a crime to buy sex, so both the service works and the customers could be charged. For adults engaging in prostitution with other adults, the penalties, while serious, are not as significant as for an adult engaging in child prostitution. That is a felony with significantly longer prison sentences of up to 20 years.
What is Sex Trafficking?
In Minnesota, the definition of sex trafficking is: 1. receiving, recruiting, enticing, harboring, providing, or obtaining by any means an individual to aid in the prostitution of the individual; or 2. receiving profit or anything of value, knowing or having reason to know it is derived from an act described in the first clause.
What is the definition of sex trafficking in federal court ?
whoever knowingly- 1. In or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, within the jurisdiction of the U.S., entices, harbors, transports, provides, obtains, advertises, maintains, patronizes, or solicits by any means a person; or 2. Knowing (or except where the act constituting the violation of the first clause is advertising), in reckless disregard of the fact, that means force, threats of force, fraud, coercion, or any combination of such means will be used to cause the person to engage in a commercial sex act, or that the person has not attained the age of 18 and will be caused to engage in a commercial sex act.
What is a commercial sex act?
Federal law defines a commercial sex act as any sex act, on account of which anything of value is given or received by any person. The entire law is written in broad language and is designed to criminalize the pimps, patrons, and purveyors of child prostitution, with harsh penalties including a 15 year mandatory minimum to a potential life sentence.
What is Solicitation and Promotion of Prostitution?
This applies to anyone who would be considered a pimp or aiding someone in that role. Not the customers of the sex, and not the sex workers themselves, but the person or people that are running or associated with the business of selling sex for profit. This crime is split into two degrees. Both are felonies that carry penalties that could include prison time.
What is the definition of “child”?
Under this Minnesota Statute, the age of a child is 15 years of age or younger.
What is the definition of Child Pornography?
Both the State of Minnesota and the Federal Government prohibit the production, possession, and/or dissemination of child pornography. These are felony offenses and require predatory registration. The penalties can be long prison sentences, and mandatory minimum sentences of 15 years to life in federal court.
What is the definition of “Minor”?
“Minor” means any person under the age of 18 at the time the pornographic work was created or altered.
What does “Pornographic work” mean?
1. an original or reproduction of a picture, film, photograph, negative, slide, videotape, videodisc, or drawing of a sexual performance involving a minor; 2. any visual depiction, including any photograph, film, video, picture, drawing, negative, slide, or computer-generated image or picture, whether made or produced by electronic, mechanical or other means that: a. uses a minor to depict actual or simulated sexual conduct; b. has been created, adapted, or modified to appear that an identifiable minor is engaging in sexual conduct (An identifiable minor is a person who was a minor at the time the depiction was created or altered, whose image is used to create the visual depiction.); c. is advertised, promoted, presented, described, or distributed in such a manner that conveys the impression that the material is or contains a visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexual conduct.

RELATED

a) knowingly persuades, induces, entices, or...
coerces any individual to travel in interstate or foreign commerce, to engage in prostitution *please link to def* or any sexual activity that could be charged as a criminal offense, or attempts to do so or...
b) persuades, induces, entices, or...
coerces any individual under age 18 to engage in prostitution or criminal sexual conduct *link to defs above*, or attempts to do using the mail or any facility or means of interstate commerce.

Transportation of Minors is a federal crime for anyone to...

a) Knowingly transport a person under age 18...
through interstate commerce for the purpose of engaging in prostitution or any sexual activity for which a person could be charged with a criminal offense;
b) Travel in interstate commerce or...
or travel into the US from foreign destinations for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with another person;
c) Travel in foreign commerce or...
reside temporarily in a foreign country and engage in illicit sexual conduct;
d) For the purpose of commercial advantage or private financial gain...
arranges, induces, procures, or facilitates the travel of a person in interstate or foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct;
e) Attempt or conspire to...
do any of the above criminal activity.

Other criminal sexual conduct Definitions...

What is "Sexual Performance"?
“Sexual performance” means any play, dance, or other exhibition presented before an audience or for purposes of visual or mechanical reproduction that depicts sexual conduct.

What does Sexual conduct mean?

1. An act of sexual intercourse, normal or...
perverted, actual or simulated, including genital-genital, anal-genital, or oral-genital intercourse, whether between human beings or between a human being and an animal.
2. Sadomasochistic abuse, meaning flagellation, torture, or...
similar demeaning acts inflicted by or upon a person who is nude or clad in undergarments or in a revealing costume, or the condition of being fettered, bound, or otherwise physically restrained on the part of one so clothed.
3. Masturbation;
4. Lewd exhibitions of the genitals;
5. Physical contact or...
simulated physical contact with the clothed or unclothed pubic areas or buttocks of a human male or female, or the breasts of the female, whether alone or between members of the same or opposite sex or between humans and animals in an act of apparent sexual stimulation or gratification.
Consent to the sexual performance by the minor or parent/guardian/custodian is not a defense to this charge.
What is revenge porn?
Revenge Porn is a new crime in Minnesota and prohibits the sharing of nude images of a person without that person’s consent. A relatable example is the accusation that an ex-lover posted nude pics of their former partner out of anger, retribution, or revenge.
What is Predatory Registration?
Predatory Registration is the requirement to register as a predatory offender. A predatory offender is anyone who has been convicted of a qualifying offense. People with convictions for predatory offenses will have to put their name, address, phone number, employment and other information in a database run by the state.

Do I need a lawyer if I’m charged with a sex crime?

YES! Accusations of criminal sexual conduct can have immediate consequences, such as the separation of family members or the loss of employment. Convictions for the same can have far reaching collateral consequences for the rest of a person’s life, including loss of housing or licensures, social isolation, and financial hardship. To adequately defend these charges, a defendant needs a lawyer with experience.

When Catherine represents people charged with sex crimes, she talks to them about what happened from their perspective and puts together a defense strategy that often involves talking to witnesses, gathering social media evidence, and making special motions in court.

She understands that accusations of rape, solicitation, or any other sex crime can ruin someone’s life and she’s committed to helping people fight the charges. She has won serious criminal sexual conduct trials, gotten charges dismissed, and kept people out of prison.

She knows how to work a case, and will help resolve the matter in the best interests of the client. Not every case ends up in trial, and Catherine is just as committed to negotiating a resolution that works for the client as she is to winning in front of a jury. Every situation is different and requires a unique approach. She will customize a defense that works for every client.

Catherine is an experienced criminal defense lawyer that defends against all criminal sexual conduct, solicitation, child pornography, and other sex crimes in state and federal court. If you or someone you love has been accused of a sex crime, Catherine can help. Call for a free consultation.