Sexual indecency with a child is found in Title 5-14-110 of the Arkansas Code. It is a serious sexual offense that covers many different types of criminal activity. You can be charged if, being 18 years of age or older, you solicit someone less than 15 years of age or who is represented to be less than 15 to engage in sexual intercourse, deviate, sexual activity, or sexual contact. So this law doesn’t cover actual sex–that’s in the statutory rape laws. Sexual indecency with a child is when you simply talk about it, or you solicit sexual activity from a minor. Think about all the ways this can happen with electronic communication. All you have to do is send a message or a photo. And the law says that the victim does not have to be under 15, they only have to tell you they’re under 15. It could be law enforcement conducting a sting operation–they do that a lot with these types of crimes.
Call Stegall Law Firm at 901-205-9894 for more information
You can also be charged if, having the purpose to arouse or gratify a sexual desire for yourself or another person, you purposely expose your sex organs to the victim or have the victim expose his or her sex organs to you or another person. Again, think of the dangers of this happening with electronic communication. Think of the photos that people send each other and have in their phones and computers. Sexual indecency with a child in Arkansas is a Class D felony, meaning the maximum punishment is six years. If convicted you are facing prison time and registration on the sex offender list.
If you have been charged with this serious offense, contact Patrick Stegall, an Arkansas Sex Crime Attorney, today. He represents people in West Memphis, Crittenden County, Marion, Wynne and Forrest City.
