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Violence Against Women: Rape and Sexual Assault

WLP Filed Amicus Brief with PA Supreme Court on Behalf of Sexual Assault Victims

The Women's Law Project and the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape filed an amicus brief on April 25, 2007, with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on behalf of 30 non-profit organizations committed to vindicating the legal rights of sexual assault victims. The amici include women's rights organizations, victim's rights organizations, and rape crisis centers.  In their brief, filed in C.C.H. v. Philadelphia Phillies, Inc., amici argue that, to protect child victims of sexual assault from physical and psychological harm, the defense of consent should not be available in civil cases stemming from sexual contact with a minor under the age of 13 where the Legislature has precluded such defense by statute in criminal proceedings.

On August 9, 2000, three teenage boys led an 11-year-old girl, lost in Veteran’s Stadium, to a secluded parking lot and raped her.  In juvenile delinquency proceedings, two of the teenagers were “adjudicated delinquent” of rape.  In the civil suit against the teenagers and The Phillies, the teenagers claimed their sexual contact with the child was not rape because she had consented to the sexual acts.  Court of Common Pleas Judge Panepinto permitted testimony alleging the child’s consent, and refused to instruct the jury that a defense of consent to rape or battery could not be sustained because the child was under the age of consent.  The Superior Court affirmed this decision.  Now, having accepted an appeal by the plaintiff-child, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will decide “[w]hether the defense of consent is available in civil cases stemming from sexual contact with a minor under the age of 13 where the Legislature has precluded such defense by statute in criminal proceedings.”

In the amicus brief, filed on behalf of thirty non-profit organizations committed to advocating the legal rights of sexual assault victims, amici argue that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court should bar the defense of consent in civil cases arising from sexual contact with minors under the age of 13 where the Pennsylvania Legislature has already precluded such a defense in criminal cases.  Barring the consent defense in civil cases is consistent with the Legislature’s intent behind barring the defense in criminal cases, Pennsylvania’s strong public policy of protecting children from physical and psychological harm, and social science research on child development.