Congressional Research Service Report Confirms That Under Federal Law There Exists No Statute of Limitations for Prosecuting Sex Crimes that Occur Aboard American Vessels on the High Seas

New York, NY

As the United States Coast Guard and other federal law enforcement agencies begin taking a much harder line against shipboard sexual misconduct, there is one crucial legal fact to consider: there is no statute of limitations for sex crimes committed upon American vessels on the high seas.

This important legal fact means that sex crimes committed aboard American ships, rigs, or boats on the high seas, even decades ago, may be prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice.

According to the Congressional Research Service:

Aside from capital offenses, crimes which Congress associated with terrorism may be prosecuted at any time if they result in a death or serious injury or create a foreseeable risk of death or serious injury. Although the crimes were selected because they are often implicated in acts of terrorism, a terrorist defendant is not a prerequisite to an unlimited period for prosecution. A third category of crimes that may be prosecuted at any time consists of various designated federal child abduction and sex offenses.

The crimes covered reside in Chapters 109A, 110 and 117 and include violations of 18 U.S.C. 2241. The crimes include “aggravated sexual abuse,” “sexual abuse,” “sexual abuse of a ward or child,” “abusive sexual contact,” “sexual abuse resulting in death,” and “failure to register as a sex offender.”

Even “Abusive Sexual Contact” that occurs “in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States” does not have an attached statute of limitations and could be prosecuted even decades after the abusive shipboard contact occurred.

Abusive Sexual Contact includes “the intentional touching, either directly or through the clothing, of the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks of any person with an intent to abuse, humiliate, harass, degrade, or arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person.”

This is great news for victims, and not so great news for shipboard sexual predators.