Prohibited Sexual Behavior and Sexual Violence

Sexual Violence: Rape

In the past, rape was often very narrowly defined as “forcible sexual intercourse”, and “intercourse” was defined as vaginal intercourse, i.e. coitus. As a result, many violent sexual acts were not considered rape and were not prosecuted as such, for example the forcible manual, oral and anal intercourse with women and men. Such behavior may have been punished as sexual assault, but never as severely as rape. Moreover, in many criminal codes there was no law against husbands raping their wives or against a customer raping a prostitute.
In the meantime, thanks largely to the educational efforts of the women’s movement, many legislatures have reformed their respective laws. They now recognize two facts:

- rape is not so much a sexual crime as a crime of violence, and
- rape is by no means restricted to a single type of sexual activity.

It is now also well understood that both women and men can be victims, and that raping a spouse or a prostitute is just as criminal as any other rape.
Before discussing the present situation, however, it may be useful to take a brief look back at the history of rape.