ILLINOIS LAWS

Under Illinois law, rape is termed Criminal Sexual Assault

A person commits criminal sexual assault if that person commits an act of sexual penetration and:

1. uses force or threat of force;

2. knows that the victim is unable to understand the nature of the act or is unable to give knowing consent;

3. is a family member of the victim, and the victim is under18 years of age; or

4. is 17 years of age or over and holds a position of trust, authority, or supervision in relation to the victim, and the victim is at least13 years of age but under18 years of age.

Criminal sexual assault is a Class 1felony.

720 ILCS 5/12-3.2—Domestic Battery

A person commits Domestic Battery if he or she knowingly without legal justification by any means:

1. causes bodily harm to any family or household member;

2. makes physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature with any family or household member.

Domestic battery is a Class A misdemeanor.

720 ILCS 5/12-7.3—Stalking

A person commits stalking when he or she knowingly engages in a course of conduct directed at a specific person, and he or she knows or should know that this course of conduct would cause a reasonable person to:

1. fear for his or her safety or the safety of a third person; or

2. suffer other emotional distress.

A person commits stalking when he or she, knowingly and without lawful justification, on at least two separate occasions follows another person or places the person under surveillance or any combination thereof and:

1. at any time transmits a threat of immediate or future bodily harm, sexual assault, confinement or restraint and the threat is directed towards that person or a family member of that person; or

2. places that person in reasonable apprehension of immediate or future bodily harm, sexual assault, confinement or restraint to or of that person or a family member of that person.

A person commits stalking when he or she has previously been convicted of stalking another person and knowingly and without lawful justification on one occasion:

1. follows that same person or places that same person under surveillance; and

2. transmits a threat of immediate or future bodily harm, sexual assault, confinement or restraint to that person or a family member of that person.

Stalking is a Class 4 felony; a second or subsequent conviction is a Class 3 felony. Illinois does not have a dating violence law.

720 ILCS 5/11-1.70 - Consent

In Illinois, sexual consent is defined as:

“Consent” means a freely given agreement to the act of sexual penetration or sexual conduct in question. Lack of verbal or physical resistance or submission by the victim resulting from the use of force or threat of force by the accused shall not constitute consent. The manner of dress of the victim at the time of the offense shall not constitute consent. A person who initially consents to sexual penetration or sexual conduct is not deemed to have consented to any sexual penetration or sexual conduct that occurs after he or she withdraws consent during the course of that sexual penetration or sexual conduct.