Recent History of Rape Laws
In order to understand the evolution of rape laws, one must first understand what constitutes rape today. Rape is defined as "sexual intercourse against another person's will." The reasons behind rape have been scrutinized time and time again, however, overwhelmingly it is clear that rape is an act of violence and domination rather than a sexual encounter.
In the late 1960s, American rape laws underwent reform. The notion of a notorious black rapist was discarded as well as the architecture of the English common laws. Beginning with Massachusetts in 1968 and Tennessee in 1971, women no longer had to present physical evidence of rape to convict a man. Also, rape shield laws strictly limited the ways in which defense attorneys could question a woman's past sexual conduct in front of a jury. Rape laws had been reformed to protect the victim, as opposed to the attacker.
Currently, rape is an offense punishable by law in the United States aimed towards protection of the victim. Past sexual conduct does not play any role in rape trials and there is nothing protecting a husband from raping his wife. In fact, marital rape cases have shown the most drastic increase. Furthermore, a 1977 decision of the United States Supreme Court ruled capital punishment an unconstitutional penalty for rape. There are now four degrees of rape: forcible rape, acquaintance rape, marital rape, and statutory rape, which are all punishable by federal impoundment. Rape of men is a currently progressing field that had not previously been dealt with. A man can levy charges against another man or woman for rape, just as a woman might. Present rape laws are more thorough, protecting the rights of the victim, and recognizing that a man or woman of any race can rape.
Current Rape and Sexual Assault Law
Laws passed by Congress in the 1980s and 1990s
Fifty-three rape-related bills were introduced in Congress through the 1980s and 1990s, and several pieces of significant legislation passed.
- The Victims of Crime Act of 1984, had the effect of creating a major funding resource for rape crisis centers though the act did not focus only on rape. The VOCA, administered by the Department of Justice, receives money from fines levied against violent offenders. The money is then allocated to states that then distribute funding to nonprofit victim-service providers. The act designates as high funding priority those organizations and programs that provide services to victims of sexual assault, spousal abuse and child abuse.
- In 1986, the Sexual Abuse Act served the purpose of amending federal law to catch up with several states in revising rape laws. This act divided the crime into different categories: aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse, sexual abuse of a minor or ward, and abusive sexual contact. It defined circumstances that distinguish each one from the other, and defined possible penalties depending on the category under which the crime falls.
- Congress passed arguable the most significant federal policy on sexual assault in 1994 -- the Violence Against Women Act. Called the greatest accomplishment of the anti-rape movement, the VAWA specifies a policy to provide grants like those from the Department of Transportation for local parks and transportation systems to reduce crime. And, it authorizes grants for rape prevention and education, to improve the handling of rape investigations, to train and educate of judges in state and federal courts, and to studying the problem of rape on college campuses. By authorizing federal grants to states, VAWA allows the federal government to make some funding of state agencies (which distribute monies to rape crisis centers and other anti-rape groups) contingent upon compliance with certain policies.
- The Drug-Induced Rape Prevention and Control Act passed in 1995. Nicknamed the Rohypnal Act after the illegal date-rape drug, the act amended the U.S. Code to provide for stiffer penalties for violent crimes committed in conjunction with the distribution of illegal drugs to the victim without her knowledge.
Activism in the 1980s
In the 1980s, rape crisis centers and anti-rape coalitions saw rapid growth and also consolidation among the groups in the United States. The National Coalition on Sexual Assault, a coalition of rape crisis centers, grew to encompass nearly half of all such centers in the country. With activism of these groups, the public discourse and understanding of rape evolved to recognize the differences between types of rape: "'Rape' unmodified increasingly came to be replaced by 'acquaintance rape,' 'date rape,' and 'spousal (or 'marital' or 'wife') rape.'" As Bevacqua explains, by giving women the language to explain their experience, the seriousness of the issue came to the forefront of the public consciousness and also lent legitimacy to the problems.
Read about some common misconceptions about rape.