Petition Amend the law on rape to cover all non-consensual penetration of vagina or anus

Change the Sexual Offences Act to include any penetration of the vagina or anus. Currently rape only covers using a penis without consent to penetrate the vagina, mouth, or anus of another person. This excludes other acts of penetration, and means women cannot be charged with rape.

More details

There is more than the weight of sentencing, there is the weight in public opinion of how serious a crime is.

We believe the current definition of rape discourages victims of other non-consensual penetration to come forward, because other sexual offences can be regarded as less serious. This can increase the fears victims have of not being taken seriously.

This petition is closed This petition ran for 6 months

62 signatures

Show on a map

10,000

Date closed 15 November 2023
Get petition data (json format)

About petition data

The data shows the number of people who have signed the petition by country as well as in the constituency of each Member of Parliament. This data is available for all petitions on the site. It is not a list of people who have signed the petition. The only name that is shared on the site is that of the petition creator.