ABSTRACT
The law of sexual offences in England and Wales has undergone radical reform in the last fifteen years. The reform process can be traced back to the then Home Secretary’s announcement in January 1999 that a major review of the law governing sex offenders was to take place. An independent review body was set up and its findings, contained in a document entitled Setting the Boundaries: Reforming the Law on Sex Offenders, were published in July 2000. The opening paragraphs of the document explain why the review was necessary:
‘Why did the law need reviewing? It is a patchwork quilt of provisions ancient and modern that works because people make it do so, not because there is a coherence and structure. Some is quite new – the definition of rape for example was last changed in 1994. But much is old, dating from nineteenth century laws that codified the common law of the time, and reflected the social attitudes and roles of men and women of the time. With the advent of a new century and the incorporation of the European Convention of Human Rights into our law, the time was right to take a fresh look at the law to see that it meets the need of the country today.’
