Rape

Rape of Philomela by Tereus. Engraving by Virgil Solis for Ovid's Metamorphoses Book VI, 519-562. Fol. 80 r, image 6.

Rape is a form of assault involving the non-consensual use of the sexual organs of another person's body. The assailant can be of either sex, as can their target.

Rape is generally considered one of the most serious sex crimes and can be very difficult to prosecute. Sexual violence can also be a war crime under international law. Consent may be absent due to duress arising from the use, or threat, of overwhelming force or violence, or because the subject is incapacitated in some way such as intoxication and/or underage innocence. In some cases coercion might also be used to negate consent.

Definitions of rape

There is no universally accepted distinction between rape and other forms of assault involving one or both participant's sexual organs. Some criminal codes explicitly consider all kinds of forced sexual activity to be rape, whereas in others only acts involving a coupled penis and vagina are included. Some restrict rape only to instances where a woman is forced by a man. Other assaults involving sexual organs in some way may then be grouped under the term sexual assault. In some jurisdictions rape may also be committed by assailants using objects, rather than their own body parts, against the sexual organs of their target.

In most jurisdictions the crime of rape is defined to occur when sexual intercourse takes place (or is attempted) without valid consent of one of the parties involved. It is frequently defined as penetration of the anus or the vagina by a penis. In some jurisdictions the penetration need not be by penis but can be by other body parts (e.g. one or more fingers, i.e. digital penetration) or by objects (e.g. a bottle), or may involve the forcing of a vagina or anus onto a penis by a female assailant.

Other jurisdictions expand the definition of rape to include other acts committed using the sexual organs of one or both of the parties, such as oral copulation and masturbation, for example, again enacted without valid consent.

The lack of valid consent does not necessarily mean that the victim explicitly refused to give consent. Generally, consent is considered invalid if it is obtained from someone who is:

• Under any kind of duress (force, violence, blackmail, etc.)
• Judgementally impaired or incapacitated by alcohol or drugs (legal or otherwise)
• Mentally impaired whether by illness or developmental disability
• Below the age of consent defined in that jurisdiction

In Pakistan, under the Hudood Ordinance in force from 1979 to 2006, the definition of rape required a woman to have supporting evidence from four male eye-witnesses. The sexual act was otherwise considered adultery.

The Brazilian Penal Code defines rape as unconsensual vaginal sex. Therefore, unlike most of Europe and the Americas, male rape, anal rape, and oral rape are not considered to be rape crimes. Instead, such an act is a "violent attempt against someone's modesty" ("Atentado violento ao pudor"). The penalty, however, is the same.

The definition used by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in its landmark 1998 judgement was ""a physical invasion of a sexual nature committed on a person under circumstances which are coercive."

History of rape

Origin

The Rape of the Sabine Women, a 1582 sculpture by Giambologna.

The word rape originates from the Latin verb rapere: to seize or take by force. The word originally had no sexual connotation and is still used generically in English (see rape (word)). The history of rape, and the alterations of its meaning, is quite complex. The Latin term for the act of rape itself is raptus.

"Rape of Europa" by Guido Reni

The concept of rape, both as an abduction and in the sexual sense (not always distinguishable), makes its first appearance in early religious texts. In Greek mythology, for example, the rape of women, as exemplified by the rape of Europa, and male rape, found in the myth of Laius and Chrysippus, were mentioned. Different values were ascribed to the two actions. The rape of Europa by Zeus is represented as an abduction followed by consensual lovemaking, similar perhaps to the rape of Ganymede by Zeus, and went unpunished. The rape of Chrysippus by Laius, however, is represented in darker terms, and was known in antiquity as "the crime of Laius," a term which came to be applied to all male rape. It was seen as an example of hubris in the original sense of the word, i.e. violent outrage, and its punishment was so severe that it destroyed not only Laius himself, but also his son, Oedipus.

In most cultures, rape was seen less as a crime against a particular girl or woman than against the head of the household or against chastity. As a consequence, the rape of a virgin was often a more serious crime than of a non-virgin, even a wife or widow, and the rape of a prostitute or other unchaste woman was, in some laws, not a crime because her chastity could not be harmed. Furthermore, the woman's consent was under many legal systems not a defense. In seventeenth-century France, even marriage without parental consent was classified as rapt.

In some laws the woman might marry the rapist instead of his receiving the legal penalty. This was especially prevalent in laws where the crime of rape did not include, as a necessary part, that it be against the woman's will, thus dividing the crime in the current meaning of rape, and a means for a couple to force their families to permit marriage.

Ancient World

Tarquinius Sextus and Lucretia by Titian

In pagan Rome, it was expected that an honorable woman, being raped, would like Lucretia remove the stain on her honor by committing suicide. The failure of Christian women, having been raped in the sack of Rome, to kill themselves was commented on by pagans with shock and horror; St. Augustine dedicated an entire book of The City of God to defending these women's honor and chastity. Early Christianity also maintained, as paganism did not, that slave women were entitled to chastity, and that therefore a slave woman could be raped, and honored as martyrs slave women who resisted their masters.

In Roman law, the crime of rape was not defined by the lack of consent of the woman, but by her removal from her family; the change was described by William Blackstone in his Commentaries on the Laws of England:

The civil law [of Rome] punishes the crime of ravishment with death and confiscation of goods: under which it includes both the offence of forcible abduction, or taking away a woman from her friends, of which we last spoke; and also the present offence of forcibly dishonoring them; either of which, without the other, is in that law, sufficient to constitute a capital crime. Also the stealing away a woman from her parents or guardians, and debauching her, is equally penal by the emperor's edict, whether she consent or is forced: “five volentibus, five nolentibus mulieribus, tale facinus fuerit perpetratum.” And this, in order to take away from women every opportunity of offending in this way; whom the Roman laws suppose never to go astray, without the seduction and arts of the other sex: and therefore, by restraining and making so highly penal the solicitations of the men, they meant to secure effectually the honor of the women...

But our English law does not entertain quite such sublime ideas of the honor of either sex, as to lay the blame of a mutual fault upon one of the transgressors only: and therefore makes it a necessary ingredient in the crime of rape, that it must be against the woman's will.

Rape, in the course of warfare, also dates back to antiquity, ancient enough to have been mentioned in the Bible. The Greek, Persian and Roman troops would routinely rape women and boys in the conquered towns. Rape, as an adjunct to warfare, was prohibited by the military codices of Richard II and Henry V (1385 and 1419 respectively). These laws formed the basis for convicting and executing rapists during the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453).

Modern World

Many developments in law took place during the twentieth century. These included landmark decisions by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda that defined rape as an institutionalized weapon of war and a crime of genocide. The first female judge of the tribunal Navanethem Pillay played a key part in those decisions. Similarly, many other changes occurred through the development of the feminist movement and perceptions of women's rights.

Since the 1970s many changes have occurred in the perception of sexual assault due in large part to the feminist movement and its public characterization of rape as a crime of power and control rather than purely of sex. In some countries the women's liberation movement of the 1970s created the first rape crisis centers. This movement was led by the National Organization for Women (NOW) ([7]). One of the first two rape crisis centers, the D.C. Rape Crisis Center ([8]), opened in 1972. It was created to promote sensitivity and understanding of rape and its effects on the victim.

On September 2, 1998 the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda delivered a precedent-setting verdict that made sexual violence a war crime. This was followed in November 1998 by the decision of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia that acts of rape may constitute torture under international humanitarian law.

Types of rape

There are several types of rape, generally categorized by reference to the situation in which it occurs, the sex or characteristics of the victim, and/or the sex or chacteristics of the perpetrator. It is important to note that almost all rape research and reporting to date has been limited to male-female forms of rape. Research on male-male and female-male is beginning to be done. However, almost no research has been done on female-female rape. Such widespread research biases and social double standards can and do cause systemic biases in how rape is reported and acknowledged. Therefore, this section is far from a complete summary of how rape is perpetrated in all it's forms. Sometimes animals are accused of rape, yet sometimes it is unclear who was doing the raping in these situations. Women can be charged with rape, it is usually in underage male situations,[9], however it can be rape of an adult on some few occasions.[10]

Marital Rape

Marital rape first became a crime in the United States in the state of South Dakota in 1975. Marital rape is not a crime at common law. In the 1980s, date or acquaintance rape first gained acknowledgment. On July 5, 1993, marital rape became a crime in all 50 states, under at least one section of the sexual offense codes.

Statutory Rape

Statutory rape refers to a sexual act that is considered rape by the law regardless of whether it was coercive or consensual. Such laws are common and exist in order to prevent adults from having sex with minors who are deemed legally unable to give effective informed consent.

Sexual activity involving a person below the age of consent is often known as statutory rape although some jurisdictions prefer terms such as "unlawful sexual intercourse" to avoid the forcible connotation of the word.

College campus rape

Some studies indicate a particular problem with rape on college campuses. The subject attracts attention because of the presence of many young men and women, often experiencing their first years away from home together, in an environment where prior controls, supervision and discipline are to a great extent removed, and where youths are in a position to engage in adult behavior with some anticipating new activities and freedoms, whilst others are left more vulnerable and less supervised.

In the United States, students are allegedly most vulnerable to rape during the first few weeks of the freshman and sophomore years. According to the U.S. Justice Department, 3.8% of college women and 1.7% of men were victims of completed rape within a six month period, and in 90% of the cases the attacker was known to the victim. In a typical college career, one-fifth to one-fourth were victims of attempted or completed rape. According to one 1992 study, one out of twelve college aged men and one in every twenty college aged women committed rape, making each responsible for an average of three rapes. [11]

The Department of Justice study also found that in "about half of the incidents categorized as completed rapes, the women or man did not consider the incident to be a rape." [12] According to the Journal of Counseling and Development, women aged 16–24 are at the highest risk of sexual assault. One study has concluded that as many as one in four college aged females has been a victim of either rape or attempted rape.

Rationale

Many explanations have been developed for why people commit rape. These theories range from the developmental to the ideological.

Developmental

Developmental theories include the idea that someone who grows up in a family and social environment in which other people have no value may fail to develop any empathetic structures in their life and view the abuse of others' bodies as normal. Exposure to pornography is held to have this effect by some. An unresolved childhood incident may fester into a profound hatred of one sex, typically the opposite to the later-to-become rapist, and this hatred may manifest itself in violent assault in adulthood. Others suggest overactive sex drives compel people to commit rape. Still others blame male propensity for violence, although this view is refuted by the existence of rape by females.

Ideological

The belief that some people (usually women) do not have the right to occupy public spaces may prompt some men to commit assaults intended to punish the perceived trespass: the target will have "asked" for the assault they get. Sex with junior colleagues may be seen as a prerogative of office. The junior may feel unable to respond for fear of being fired.

In mens' prisons assaulting others may seem the only way to prevent oneself being so-treated or a way to acquire status in a limited environment.

The opportunity to rape may co-exist alongside the near certainity of getting away with it. This could easily apply within a family where even if a child complains they are likely to be disbelieved, particularly if their abuser is an adult of good standing within their community.

Sociobiological analysis of rape

Some argue that rape, as a reproductive strategy, is encountered in many instances in the animal kingdom (ie: ducks, geese, and certain dolphin species).. It is difficult to determine what constitutes rape among animals, as the lack of informed consent defines rape amongst humans. See also Non-human animal sexuality.

Some sociobiologists argue that our ability to understand rape, and thereby prevent it, is severely compromised because its basis in human evolution has been ignored. Some studies indicate that it is an evolutionary strategy for certain males who lack the ability to persuade the female by non-violent means to pass on their genes.

American social critic, intellectual, author and teacher Camille Paglia and some sociobiologists have argued that the victim-blaming intuition may have a non-psychological component in some cases, because a few sociobiological models suggest that it may be genetically-ingrained for certain men and women to allow themselves to be more vulnerable to rape, and that this may be a biological feature of members of the species.

Effect of rape

After being raped it is common for the victim to experience intense, and sometimes unpredictable, emotions, and they may find it hard to deal with their memories of the event. Victims can be severely traumatized by the assault and may have difficulty functioning as well as they had been used to prior to the assault, with disruption of concentration, sleeping patterns and eating habits, for example. They may feel jumpy or be on edge. In the month(s) immediately following the assault these problems may be severe and very upsetting and may prevent the victim from revealing their ordeal to friends or family, or seeking police or medical assistance. This may result in Acute Stress Disorder. Symptoms of this are:

• feeling numb and detached, like being in a daze or a dream, or feeling that the world is strange and unreal
• difficulty remembering important parts of the assault
• reliving the assault through repeated thoughts, memories, or nightmares
• avoidance of things -places, thoughts, feelings- that remind the victim of the assault
• anxiety or increased arousal (difficulty sleeping, concentrating, etc.)
• avoidance of social life or place of rape

Acute and Reorganization Phases

In 1972, Ann Wolbert Burgess and Lynda Lytle Holstrom embarked on a study of the psychological effects of rape. They interviewed and counseled rape victims at the emergency room of Boston City Hospital and observed a pattern of reactions which they named Rape Trauma Syndrome.. They defined this as having two components which they called the Acute and Reorganisation phases.

During the Acute Phase the survivor may experience shock and disbelief, or feel frozen, and may attempt to disconnect themselves from "the person who was raped." They may feel humiliated, confused, dirty, ashamed, or at fault for the assault, particularly if the assailant was an acquaintance. Extreme nightmares, heightened anxiety, frequent flashbacks, and a strong attempt to disconnect from one's emotions are common, as is denial - trying to convince oneself that the assault did not actually occur. If raped by an acquaintance the victim may try to protect the perpetrator.

Victims may respond to the rape in either an expressive or a controlled way. The expressive way involves obvious outward effects and emotions such as crying, shaking, rage, tenseness, ironic and uncomfortable laughter (part of their denial), and restlessness. The controlled way occurs when the victim appears to be quite calm and rational about the situation, even if facing severe internal turmoil. There is no single response to rape; every individual deals with their intensely traumatic emotions differently.

After the acute phase, the Reorganization Phase begins and the survivor attempts to recreate the world that they once knew. This stage may last for months or even years following the assault and despite their best efforts this phase is often riddled with feelings of guilt, shame, fear, and anxiety. Emotions such as anger, anxiety, denial, and loss (of security) surface. Development of an inability to trust is a frequently consequence of sexual assault. This loss of the fundamental need for security can wreak havoc on the survivor’s life, causing them to feel powerless and not in control of their body. They may feel unsafe, which can cause a heightened state of anxiety as well as difficulty with intimate relationships. Victims may attempt to return to normal social interaction (i.e. go out to social engagements) and find themselves unable to do so and their attempts to re-establish themselves in relationships may be hindered by a lack of trust.

Survivors often isolate themselves from their support network either physically or emotionally. The survivor may feel disconnected from peers as a result of the perceived personal experience. The shattering of trust can adversely affect intimate relationships, as survivors may have a heightened suspicion of others' motives and feelings.

Another area of research referred to as "second victimization," has to do with the caustic and interrogatory way the police and medical staff sometimes treat people who allege rape or sexual assault.

Sexual assault can affect an individual forever, changing them into someone living in a constant state of turmoil. In extreme cases the outcome may be suicide.[13]

Loss of control and privacy

Rape has been regarded as "a crime of violence and control" since the 1970s. Psychological analysis literature identifies control as a key component in most definitions of privacy:

• "Privacy is not the absence of other people from one's presence, but the control over the contact one has with them." (Pedersen, D. 1997).
• "Selective control of access to the self." (Margulis, 2003)

Control is important in providing:

• what we need for normal psychological functioning;
• stable interpersonal relationships; and
• personal development. (Pedersen, D. 1997)

Violation of privacy or "control" comes in many forms, with sexual assault and the resulting psychological traumas being one of the most explicit forms. Many victims of sexual assault suffer from eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, which also center around control issues. Therefore, some argue that it makes more sense to look at the issue of sexual assault as an invasion of privacy (Mclean, D. 1995):

The more comfortable a person is with talking about invasion of privacy and in insisting that he or she has privacy that deserves respect, the clearer that person’s understanding of rape will be…

Approaching rape through the concept of privacy helps bypass certain social stigmas.

Rape in Contemporary Society

Rape has come to be universally reviled as an unspeakable offense, at least in theory. It is still sanctioned in many societies as a husband's right or as a weapon of war, though it is not necessarily identified as rape in these situations.

Many reports suggest that rape statistics are not reliable because some kinds of rape are excluded from official reports altogether, (The FBI's definition for example excludes all rapes except forcible rapes of adult females by males), because a significant number of rapes go unreported even when they are included as reportable rapes, and also because a significant number of rapes reported to the police cannot be verified and possibly did not occur.

In the United States, the adjusted per-capita victimization rate of rape has declined from about 2.4 per 1000 people (age 12 and above) in 1980 to about 0.4 per 1000 people, a decline of about 85%. This decline in rape can be attributed to increased awareness of the effects of rape, further development of women's rights, and improved police tactics such as the use of DNA, which makes apprehending rapists easier, thereby removing the threat to society.

Current topics being debated are the peripheralized victims of rape — male rape victims of both male and female rapists, female-female rape and parental-rape incest victims, LGBT domestic violence and rape victims, marital rape victims and child sexual abuse victims. Other emerging issues are the concept of victim blame and its causes, male rape survivors, male-male rape, female sexual aggression, new theories of rape and gender, date rape drugs and their effects as well as the psychological effects of rape trauma syndrome. In addition, rape by women is a barely understood phenomenon that is widely denied in most societies and one that usually causes surprise, shock, or utter revulsion.

Further reading

• Smith, M. D. (2004). Encyclopedia of Rape. USA: Greenwood Press.
• Leonard, Arthur S. (1993). Sexuality and the law : an encyclopedia of major legal cases. New York : Garland Pub
• Kittleson, M., Harper, J., & Hilgenkamp, K. (2005). The Truth About Rape. USA: Facts on File
• Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture (2004) Rape as a Method of Torture Edited by Dr Michael Peel
• Madigan, L. and Gamble, N. (1991). The Second Rape: Society's Continued Betrayal of the Victim. New York: Lexington Books.
• Frese, B., Moya, M., & Megius, J. L. (2004). Social Perception of Rape: How Rape Myth Acceptance Modulates the Influence of Situational Factors. Journal-of-Interpersonal-Violence, 19(2), 143-161.
• Tangney, June Price and Dearing, Ronda L., Shame and Guilt, The Guilford Press, 2002
• Frazier, Patricia A.; Mortensen, Heather; Steward, Jason. (2005). Coping Strategies as Mediators of the Relations Among Perceived Control and Distress in Sexual Assault Survivors. Journal of Counseling Psychology, Jul2005, Vol. 52 Issue 3, p267-278
• Sarkar, N. N.; Sarkar, Rina, (2005). Sexual Assault on a Woman: Its Impact on Her Life and Living in Society. Sexual & Relationship Therapy. 20 (4), 407-419
• Parillo, K., Robert C. Freeman, & Paul Young. (2003) Association Between Child Sexual Abuse and Sexual Revictimization in Adulthood Among Women Sex Partners of Injection Drug Users. Violence and Victims. 18(4): 473-484.
• Mezey, Gillian, and King, Michael, Male Victims of Sexual Assault, Oxford, 2000.
• Harris, Grant, et al, The Causes of Rape: Understanding Individual Differences in Male Propensity for Sexual Aggression, American Psychological Association, 2005.
• Gavey, Nicola, Just Sex: The Cultural Scaffolding of Rape, Routledge, 2005.
• Cothran, Helen, Sexual Violence: Opposing Viewpoints, Thompson Gale, 2003.
• Holmes, Ronald and Steven, Current Perspectives on Sex Crimes, Sage, 2002.

External links

• Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network (RAINN)
• Rape Crisis Information Pathfinder Research
• An Abuse, Rape and Domestic Violence Aid and Resource Collection
• Speaking Out About Rape
• Pandora's Aquarium, a message board for rape and sexual abuse survivors
• After Silence, Non-Profit Online Community for Rape Survivors
• The Awareness Center, Inc. (Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault)
• Men Can Stop Rape
• Rape Victim Advocates
• When It Happens To Men
• Rape of Tamil Women: Sri Lanka's Weapon of War
• Sexual Assault Care Centre Scarborough, An extensive resource for victims/survivors of rape/sexual assault.
• The History of Rape: A Bibliography

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