This database is meant to help you find legal information relating to sexual violence in your state or province. It is not exhaustive, so these resources may not contain every single section of the law that might be applicable to you. However, we believe that the sections we have compiled on each state and provincial criminal code can point you in the right direction as you continue to research legal definitions and laws relating to sexual violence.

It is important to note that both Canada and the United States use common law. This means that statutes lay out the written laws related to criminal acts, but the law evolves and is defined through criminal cases and rulings. Prior judicial decisions on similar cases will affect a judge’s decision. These cases are jurisdictional, which refers to specific geographical areas that have the same laws and legal system. Current cases will only be based on past cases in the same geographical area, in other words decisions on prior cases in one state/province will not be used to make a decision on a case taking place in another state/province. Accordingly, any professional legal advice that you might find is required to properly understand the law in the proper area/jurisdiction.

We also want to emphasize that the following information is not legal advice; we encourage all people to seek professional legal advice in order to properly interpret the law. Please be aware that this database is up to date as of its publication but may be out of date by the time it is being accessed and we assume no liability for the information here being out of date.

There are some major differences between the U.S. legal system and the Canadian legal system that will affect the way that your case might be handled. To begin with, in Canada, criminal law is exclusively federal, meaning that all sexual assault cases will be prosecuted under the Criminal Code of Canada, not according to Provincial Law. You can find the Canadian Federal Laws in our database below alphabetically between California and Colorado.

In Canada, criminal law is exclusively federal; therefore, all sexual assault cases will be prosecuted under the Criminal Code of Canada.

In the U.S., criminal law falls under shared federal and state jurisdiction. For the most part, if a case of sexual assault occurs within a state, the laws under the state’s criminal code will apply. In other cases, such as in the District of Columbia, federal laws will apply rather than state laws. State laws differ siginificantly in how consent is defined, whether force is required as part of the legal definition of sexual assault, and which body parts are included in these definitions. Terminology also varies by state. For example “rape” is used in some places for the same crimes as “sexual assault” in others. This is what makes it important to have a tool like this one, which can help you to get a start on finding the correct legal definitions and state laws you are looking for.

Sources
https://evawintl.org/wp-content/uploads/03_Rape_SexAsslt_LegalSystem_WLP_AEQuitas_20120605.pdf

https://statelaws.findlaw.com/criminal-laws/sexual-assault.html

https://ndaa.org/wp-content/uploads/sexual-assault-chart.pdf