The Sexual Rape Of The United States Through Legislation Regarding Marital Rape

“Rape is unique. No other violent crime is so fraught with controversy, so enmeshed in dispute and in the politics of gender and sexuality… And within the domain of rape, the most highly charged area of debate concerns the issue of false allegations. For centuries, it has been asserted and assumed that women “cry rape,” that a large proportion of rape allegations are maliciously concocted for purposes of revenge or other motives.”

Twenty-eight states fall under the category of “true non-consent states”, where the prosecution is not required to show that the offender used “force or threats of force against the victim”, and the defendant can be convicted of a sex offense by showing that the victim did not consent (Decker, 2011). While the majority fall under the first category, nine states can be identified as “contradictory non-consent states”, where the prosecution must prove either “the use of forcible compulsion or a victim’s incapacity to consent”; according to Decker, “requiring force or a lack of capacity to consent” completely counteracts the point of having a non-consent provision (Decker, 2011). The third category, “force states”, includes states that do not have non-consent sex offenses. Although the initial impression is that the majority of states have adopted non-consent standards, it is misleading because the number of states that are true to that definition shrinks as the statutes are examined more concisely (Decker, 2011). With that being said, in addition to defining consent and force, the concept of “rape” has also been clarified and developed.

In the United States every two minutes there is someone that is sexually assaulted. In the state of Texas, every 2 in 5 women and every 1 in 5 men have been sexually assaulted. According to TAASA.org, it is reported that “6.3 million Texans have experienced some form of sexual assault in their lifetime.” In 2011, Senate Bill 1636 was passed in Texas where it was required for rape kits to be sent to labs within 30 days. Before Senate Bill 1636, there was no law in the state of Texas that required kits to to be tested within a certain time frame. When bill 1636 was passed it was also required that there be a count on the backlog of rape kits, and it was found that there were 20,000 kits that had not been tested. After seeing that there was a

Rule 412 which is the state of Tennessee’s version of the rape shield law, is designed to protect the victims of rapes and sexual assaults. The protection offered by laws of this nature was to prevent the victims of these heinous assaults from being re-traumatized on the witness stand during cross examination from the alleged perpetrators (Brody & Acker, 2010). Although I am an avid supporter of the right to a fair trial, I feel compelled to be the voice for those who are often subjected to constant criticism from fellow peers, courts, news and now social media. Rule 412, although sound in premise behind its development, lacks concession with the changing times. There are far too many loopholes in our own rape shield law which begs the question if other state’s rape shield laws truly offer the protection that they were designed to employ. Capers (2013, p. 827) reports that the ongoing issue with rape victims today is the fear of having their past history put on trial and not the event that took place. It was because of this, that many rapes go unreported. In the early 70’s, legislatures and courts began to rethink allowing an alleged victim’s past sexual history admissible in court. This prompted questions as to whether that prior information was actually useful in a current case. The second question that arose was to whether the courts were actually trying the victim during the trial rather than the alleged perpetrator. This is how rape shield laws came about. Then,

Many individuals might wonder, what is rape culture? “Rape Culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture. Rape culture is perpetuated through the use of misogynistic language, the objectification of women’s bodies, and the glamorization of sexual violence, thereby creating a society that disregards women’s rights and safety.” Most women limit their behavior because of the existence of rape. (Marshall University)

Sexual assault policy in the United States as it stands is clearly inadequate for protecting the physical wellbeing of men and women from sexual assault. Layering of policy serves a s a Band-Aid on a social wound much too large to be contained and the rise of sexual assault as a public problem reiterates the need for greater legislation and policy to protect everyone from becoming prey to the crime of sexual assault. While eyes focus on the (disproven) rise of violence in the United States, and turn to gun control, other violent crimes are forgotten. Sexual Assault has seen several cases of policy failure that actors have tried to salvage through the act of policy layering and have not significantly resolved the problem.

Rape is one of the most widespread and ubiquitous violent crimes facing America, making laws regarding rape and the judicial processing of rape increasingly important. The judicial process itself deters both rape reports and rape convictions. Not only does the judicial processing or rape cases itself deter reports and convictions, but it also has a negative impact on the moral and mental well being of the victims who decide to pursue their cases.

Rape Shield Laws Facing with much criticism from women’s group with the legal definitions of rape and how rape cases are being processed in the legal system, the government is forced to pass a Rape Law reform in the 1970s. Rape law reform urging courts to treat rape case the same as other crimes, rape law reforms modified traditional rape laws and ratified evidentiary reforms in every state in the United States. The most common and widespread changes occurred in three areas. First, rape was redefined so that there was no longer a single crime of rape.

Crimes have been occurring throughout history since the beginning of time, criminal mishaps extend back to Cain murdering his brother Abel. However, over time new crimes more severe than murder have come about that have ripped the moral fabric of an individual’s whole being. Date rape, a topic that has been widely discussed in America has been occurring more and more frequently. Many individuals know little others know infinite amounts on the topic, yet there are still many misconceptions about the topic. In America date rape has become a growing epidemic on the rise, affecting men and women, causing physical damage, intense emotional effects, death and long-lasting effects on victims.

The acceptance of rape myths and sexual scripts are also major contributors to the thriving rape culture. Rape myths are the false but commonly-held beliefs about rape, and they are closely related to sexual scripts, the culturally established prototypes for how sexual encounters should proceed. Both of these elements support the act of rape and promote the victim blaming and normalization that rape culture entails. Key rape myths include: 1. Husbands can’t rape their wives, 2. Men must engage in sex once sexually aroused 3.Women ask to be raped 4. Rapist are different from most other men 5. Women enjoy rape 6. Women lie about being raped. These incorrect principles can be traced to the patriarchal system that accepts and fosters rape as an

A crime in America that is committed all too often is the act of forcible rape. Forcible rape is not a crime only against women. The definition was recently changed to aid in gender neutrality and to account for forcible rapes among same gender (FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, 2013). Forcible rape in now defined as, according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR) (2013), “Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.” Although the act of forcible rape is a serious crime, many incidents go unreported for one reason or another. Some reasoning of why a rape may go unreported include, being embarrassed to tell somebody that you were forcibly raped, the victim knew the criminal and is afraid that further injury may occur if they report the incident to the police, or the victim was possibly drugged and was not aware of the situation. I will describe some of the statistics and trends involved with the act of forcible rape, explain some of the reasoning behind why one feels the need to commit forcible rape on another person, how the social learning theory shaped those individuals into the criminals that they are.

As the most prominent charge to come here, rape was originally defined by Hume as: “the knowledge of the woman’s person forcibly and against her will”. Rape was then defined in the current edition of Gordon as: “the carnal knowledge of a female by a male person obtained by overcoming her will”. However, both definitions have been long replaced by the current definition set out in the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009, which differs quite significantly from Hume’s and Gordon’s definitions, to one of a more practical approach. In section one of the 2009 Act it defines the charge of rape as the penetration by an individual’s penis, of the vagina, anus or mouth without the consent of the second individual and without any knowledge that the second individual is consenting or is reckless to whether consent has taken place. Hume’s old law definition was gender specific and required force for the crime of rape to be

Women, girls, men, and boys are vulnerable victims of sexual assaults every day in our country. While females experience much higher rates of sexual assaults than males. The problem that this country faces is the lack of being able to track rapist, in addition to the victims that chose not to report their assault of being raped to the police. Issues of under reporting comes from the victims with multiple reasons that hinders them from reporting these heinous criminal acts. Thus, the sad realization is that the perpetrator is usually some one that you know, that you would of never of thought that they could and would, and do sexually assault you.

Rape is an extremely controversial issue and this notion is supported based on the fact that basic definitions and explanations of rape usually directly correlate with a state's lawful definition of rape. This proves problematic as many people's explanations and definitions of rape are quite different to that of the law. Social science theorists argue that rape is a learned action with which society plays a crucial role, Ellis (1989). Based on this theory it seems only logical to propose that there

     Webster’s Dictionary describes rape as the crime of forcing another person to submit to sex acts, especially sexual intercourse. Rape is a crime in which most women cannot defend themselves. The fear of rape plagues every woman at some point or another in her life. The traumatic effects of rape vary from mild to severe, from psychological to physical. This paper will evaluate rape, as well as the effects it has on women, the theory behind male dominance and patriarchy, and differences in demographics.