Florida Sexual Violence Terms

Consent

Intelligent, knowing and voluntary consent and does not include coerced submission. “Consent” shall not be deemed or construed to mean the failure by the alleged victim to offer physical resistance to the offender.

Physically Helpless

Unconscious, asleep, or for any other reason physically unable to communicate unwillingness to an act.

Offender

A person accused of a sexual offense in violation of a provision in Chapter 794, Florida Statues (2020)

Victim

A person who has been the object of a sexual offense.

Mentally Incapacitated

Temporarily incapable of appraising or controlling a person’s own conduct due to the influence of a narcotic, anesthetic, or intoxicating substance administered without his or her consent or due to any other act committed upon that person without his or her consent.

Sexual Battery

Oral, anal, or vaginal penetration by, or union with, the sexual organ of another or the anal or vaginal penetration of another by any other object; however, sexual battery does not include an act done for a bona fide medical purpose.