Legal Question in Criminal Law in Washington

Re: Rape

Laura,

I am sorry to hear about your friend's situation. It sounds like she has made some decisions that have led to her unhappiness. However, it does sound like the decisions were hers. First, in whom she chose as a boyfriend and, second, in deciding to have sex (unprotected?) with him. It sounds like she was not ready. What you call "pressure," others might just call expressing their wishes or desires. How are people suppose to communicate without expressing their wishes? The only "pressure" resulted from her giving into his wishes when they were not her own. She should have equally communicated her desire to NOT have sex rather than "pressuring" herself into pleasing him. No, this doesn't sound like a rape charge.

Their is a legal principle called "Assumption of Risk" which is to say when you do a given activity you take responsibility for certain risks that go along with that activity. Unfortunately, STD's go along with sex. The responsibility is on the person to make sure that they trust the person with whom they are having sex and to make sure that the sex is safe. Quite possibly, he may not even know he has a STD and thus cannot be held accountable for giving it to her.

If she could show that he knew he had an STD and still had unprotected sex with her, than she may have a law suit but I don't think any prosecutor would press criminal charges.