A new phenomenon of forced sex has emerged in the United States in recent years, and law enforcement officials say the trend could become a new threat to women’s safety and security.
In the past several months, there have been dozens of lawsuits alleging that some of the women who have been filmed in sexual situations have been forced to engage in sex acts, sometimes in front of the men who recorded them.
In response to the rise in cases, the Justice Department has said it is considering changes to its existing laws that would require people to have consent for such situations, including a provision that would give the person who is being forced a chance to explain why he or she has given consent.
But some critics have argued that the law would do little to deter people who may be engaging in sex or who have already been convicted of sex crimes.
“The issue is the way in which we are going to enforce existing laws,” said Amy B. Tompkins, director of the Women’s Rights Project at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning advocacy group.
“We have to be vigilant and we have to do more to make sure we are making the law work, but we also have to make it a little less coercive.”
The trend began in 2012 when a man accused of raping a 13-year-old girl was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping her.
The woman who was filmed had asked the man to stop, and the two had sex, but the video ended when the woman reached the end of the bed.
The woman’s lawyers said the video was recorded without her consent, and her parents said they were forced to watch it for weeks, with their daughter being terrified of the man’s actions.
In March 2013, another woman who had been forced into sex by a stranger and later prosecuted for that act filed a lawsuit alleging that she was raped by her husband after he tried to force her to perform oral sex on him.
The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of Texas, alleges that the man who filmed the attack was sentenced in January 2015 to six years in federal prison.
In April 2014, another case involving a woman who said she was forced to have sex with her boyfriend by his mother was settled for $1.6 million, according to the New York Daily News.
In January 2015, a man who was accused of sexually assaulting a 13 year-old boy at a high school in Colorado was sentenced by a judge to three years in state prison.
He had been convicted on two counts of first-degree sexual assault, and was scheduled to be released on parole in March.
The girl who was in the video, who is not being identified because she was a minor, was the only one who was arrested.
The other victims in the case are 13 and 15.
In another case, a woman told police in February 2016 that she and a friend were at a house party and that she got a call that her friend was being sexually assaulted.
She said she did not believe her friend, who lived in her apartment complex, and did not want to go to the police.
The man who recorded the encounter told investigators he heard noises at the party, and that he was not sure what was happening.
The victim filed a police report with the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Department in Pennsylvania, according a police affidavit.
The case is pending.