Rape, Date and Marital

Forced sexual intercourse is as old as human history. However, it has not always been viewed as a crime against the victim. Early in history, the institution of marriage was clearly supported by attitudes that defined the man as the authoritarian figure responsible for controlling and dominating the woman. Prior to marriage, a woman was the property of her father or male guardian; this ownership was transferred to the husband when she married. A woman's role in society was defined by her ability to function in a subservient position and to procreate. These attitudes facilitated the perception of rape as a property crime rather than a crime of personal violence.

Forced sexual intercourse in a marital relationship only recently became a crime. The difficulty of making the rape of a wife by her husband a crime was directly related to the view that the submission of a wife to her husband's sexual urges was dictated by the marriage certificate. The marital relationship negated the issue of consent that is so important in other types of rape. Consent was not an issue; marriage vows gave husbands the right to engage in sexual intercourse with their wives, with or without their consent. In comparison to theoretical and empirical research on date rape, research on marital rape is somewhat limited. It is important to note, however, that marital rape does occur and that victims of both marital and date rape are victims regardless of their relationship to the perpetrator.