Norwalk Rape Penalties

The penalties for Norwalk rape charges are determined in a case by case basis. Potential penalties include any combination of jail time, probation, a fine, and the potential and position of a standing protective, and/or a criminal protective order prohibiting contact with the victim of the crime. If you are facing any of these penalties, an experienced sex crimes attorney can help you build an appropriate defense.

Aggravating Factors in Rape Charges

An aggravating factor regarding Norwalk rape penalties is the age of the alleged victim. If somebody is 16 years old, they are a minor and therefore sort of incapacitated in either physical or mental offense. The other aggravating factors would be the person’s mental capacity so somebody that is either passed out or mentally incapacitated either by a medical condition or because of voluntary intoxication. Other circumstances considered are the degree of force that is used to commit the rape.

When somebody uses a high degree of force, either with their physical faculties or with a weapon, or a deadly weapon in order to commit the rape or to commit the sexual assault, that is considered force and it aggravates circumstances substantially. All of those different kinds of categories create a high degree of aggravation.

Pregnancy as an Aggravating Factor

In terms of Norwalk rape penalties, pregnancy would be an aggravating factor in the sense that there is some discretion in terms of the degree of punishment that a person may get depending on the type of and degree of sexual assault in the case. A case that is considered a class B felony means that the maximum sentence would be 20 years in prison and the mandatory minimum could be anywhere from two to five years.

If the alleged victim happened to be pregnant at the time that the sexual assault occurred that would be a factor that the judge would take very serious into account when deciding where along that spectrum of up to two to 20 years to place the person in terms of punishment.

Pregnancy will include a more serious range of rape penalty notwithstanding the fact that there is no specific statutory aggravating circumstance just by virtues of a person being a pregnant if it was just a regular assault or somebody was hurting somebody else by touching. Whenever someone is pregnant, it is considered statutory aggravation, and it raises the degree of the crime but it does not do that in the sexual assault realm.

Difference to Other Sex Crimes

The intimate relationship between the people that are involved makes it different, and the nature of the fact that it is usually a two-person situation, and the fact that there are rarely other witnesses to the actual events, in addition to the degree of medical evidence that needs to be used to speak to what actually happened during the events. Being accused of rape or another sex crime should be taken seriously. Anyone facing Norwalk rape penalties should contact an attorney right away.

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