Sexual assault support services and the Labor party have renewed calls for the government to rename the criminal offence "maintaining a sexual relationship with a young person" to "persistent sexual abuse of a child" because the term "relationship" implies consent by the child.

Attorney-General Elise Archer last year promised to look into how the legislation could be changed and a government spokesperson said this work was ongoing.

Related: Renewed push to update sexual abuse offence

TLRI director Terese Henning said the institute agreed the law should be reworded, however it needed to be considered carefully to make sure any changes did not have unintended consequences.

"I can really see the point of wanting to change it because it does suggest that there was consent, or even instigation, by the victim," Ms Henning said.

Ms Henning said one of the problems with adding the term "abuse" to the offence was a jury could get the wrong idea.

"If they think that it has to involve injury, violence or the use of weapons, then that can actually affect their judgment for the case, where there may not have been violence in that sense," Ms Henning said.

"They can find it more difficult to convict if they have a stereotypical view of what sexual assault is.

"It makes it easier for juries to think outside the square if we are not automatically labeling things in terms of traditional concepts of violence that permeate the community."

Ms Henning said whatever new terminology is chosen needed to give a proper acknowledgement of what has happened without making it more difficult for victims and complainants.

"We need to think of something that enables a harmony to be achieved between how difficult these cases are to run before juries, and to get round their stereotyped notions of what is genuine abuse and a genuine sexual offence in their eyes, and terminology that actually does encapsulate the violence and the imposition of what has occurred," Ms Henning said.

Survivor and Beyond Abuse founder Steve Fisher said the law was psychologically damaging to people who had been sexually abused and had already gone through enough.

Mr Fisher was one of seven boys abused by Devonport priest Garth Hawkins in the 1970s and 1980s.

Hawkins was jailed in 2003 under the offence "maintaining a sexual relationship with a young person."

"When I went through court and I found out that was what [Hawkins] was charged with I thought - are you serious?" Mr Fisher said.

"It's almost like saying that you had an affair.

"It just made me feel sick.

"The bottom line is an adult cannot have an affair with a 12-year-old kid."

Mr Fisher said, as with any law change, the wording had to be specific and carefully considered.

"The government has been incredible in their support of changing the law," Mr Fisher said.

"They have already committed to it so it's just a matter of when.

"Until it all happens we will be campaigning very hard [to change the law]."