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A Poorly Drafted Sex Crime Law and "Rape by Fraud"

By Corey Rayburnyung

Eugene Volokh (who has been doing a lot of great blogging about sex crime issues lately) has the story of a law which would unintentionally criminalize adultery in Massachusetts:That's what would happen under a proposed statute that's being promoted by Massachusetts state representative Peter Koutoujian, and is being supported by District Attorneys Joseph D. Early Jr. and Gerard Leone. I suspect that this isn't the goal of the drafters, but that's what the language would call for, when (as I'm pretty sure happens quite often) the cheater has sex afterwards with the regular lover without disclosing the cheating. Here's what the proposed law says:    Whoever has sexual intercourse or unnatural sexual intercourse with a person having obtained that person's consent by the use of fraud, concealment or artifice, and who thereby intentionally deceived such person so that a reasonable person would not have consented but for the deception, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for life or any term of years...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sex Crimes on May 05, 2008 (boomark / email).