User:FloNight/Police sexual misconduct in the United States

Police sexual misconduct is sexual abuse and sex crimes that occur in law enforcement agencies. When a law enforcement officer takes advantage of their status and misuses their authority to engage in sexual contact with another person, it is sexual misconduct. Lewd or lascivious communication or behavior is also considered sexual misconduct. Police sexual misconduct might be directed at the public, detainees, or other law enforcement officers. In the United States, sexual abuse is the second most common form of police misconduct to be reported.

The complete extent of the issue is difficult to known because victims may be reluctant to report the crime to the authorities. Also there is no registrar for police misconduct in many places in the United States. A 2013 study shows that the majority of the victims of sex-related police misconduct were unrelated to the officer. And the study shows that 75% of the victims with an age listed were less than 18 years of age. Only small number of the victims in the study were a current or former intimate partner of the officer.