Types of rape

Rape of children by parents, elder relatives, and other responsible elders

This form of rape is Incest when committed by the teen's parents or close relatives such as grandparents, aunts and uncles. It is considered incestuous in nature but not in form when committed by other elders, such as priests, nuns or other religious authorities, school teachers, or therapists, to name a few, on whom the child is dependent. Psychologists estimate that 40 million adults, 15 million of those being men (Adams 1991), in the United States were sexually abused in childhood often by parents, close relatives and other elders — of both genders — on whom they were dependent.

Children, including but not limited to adolescents, raped by their parents and other close elders are often called 'secret survivors' by psychologists, as they often are unable or unwilling to tell anyone about these rapes due to implicit or explicit threats by the adult rapist, fear of abandonment by the rapist, and/or overwhelming shame. Since the signs of these insidious rapes are usually invisible except to trained professionals these children often suffer ongoing offenses in silence until independence from the adult rapist is attained. By that time, the statute of limitations is often long-expired, the adult victim's repressed memories are often considered inadmissible as evidence and the teen-rapist is able to escape justice. (It should be noted that repressed memories are a hotly debated topic in the psychological community, and many psychologists do not believe in their existence. For more information, see the "repressed memories" article.) In addition, rapists who rape their own children are considered less culpable, legally, than other rapists in most US states.

Statutory rape

National and/or regional governments, citing an interest in protecting "young people" (variously defined but sometimes synonymous with minors), treat any sexual contact with such a person as an offense (not always categorised as "rape"), even if he or she agrees to the sexual activity. The offense is often based on a presumption that people under a certain age do not have the capacity to give informed consent. The age at which individuals are considered competent to give consent is called the age of consent. This varies in different countries and regions, and in the US ranges from 12 to 21. Sex which violates age-of-consent law, but is neither violent nor physically coerced, is sometimes described as "statutory rape", a legally-recognized category in the United States.

Acquaintance ("date") rape

The term, "acquaintance rape" (or "date rape") refers to rape or non-consensual sexual activity between people who are already acquainted, or who know each other socially — friends, acquaintances, people on a date, or even people in an existing romantic relationship where it is alleged that consent for sexual activity was not given, or was given under duress. The vast majority of rapes are committed by people who already know the victim. [http://www.aaets.org/arts/art13.htm] Different countries have different rape laws. In many countries it is not possible to commit the crime of rape against one's own wife. If two people are regularly sexually intimate, in many countries it is not a crime for one partner to have sex with their sleeping or drunk partner even though that partner did not give express consent. In fact, rape laws vary greatly from country to country.

Spousal Rape see also: partner rape

Also known as marital rape, wife rape, partner rape or intimate partner sexual assault (IPSA), is rape between a married or de facto couple.

It is often assumed that spousal rape is less traumatic that from a stranger. However, research reveals that victims of marital/partner rape suffer longer lasting trauma than victims of stranger rapeFinkelhor and Yllo (1985) and Bergen (1996), possibly because of a lack of social validation that prevents a victim from getting access to support; a problem that Domestic violence services combat.

Gang rape

Group rape (also known as "gang" or "pack" rape) occurs when a group of people participate in the rape of a single victim. 10% to 20% involve more than one attacker. It is far more damaging to the victim, and in some jurisdictions, is punished more severely than rape by a single person. The term \"gang bang\"] was a synonym for gang rape when public discussion of sexual activity in general was taboo; however in the advent of the porn industry and relaxed sexual tensions, it is now often used as a slang term for consensual [group sex]. The term "group rape" is now often preferred to "gang rape", as the word "gang" can have racial connotations when used against minority defendants.

According to sexual crime profiler Roy Hazelwood, gang rape "involves three or more offenders and you always have a leader and a reluctant participant. Those are extremely violent, and what you find is that they're playing for each other's approval. It gets into a pack mentality and can be horrendous."

Rape as means of warfare

Armies have throughout the ages consisted overwhelmingly of males, and rapes have served a purpose. The rape is used as means of [psychological warfare] - humiliating the enemy soldiers and undermining their morale as giving them signal of being unable to protect what is valuable to them.

Rapes in war are often systematic and thorough, and military leaders may actually encourage the soldiers to ravage the enemy women. Ilya Ehrenburg indoctrinated the Soviet Army in World War Two to systematically rape the German and East European women to break their racial self-esteem and will to fight and as just retaliation for the German atrocities. Likewise, systematic rapes were also means of war in the Yugoslavian Civil War, where women of opposite nationality were hoarded in camps, and raped on daily basis until pregnancy was result.

German women raped by Soviet soldiers in WWII were invariably denied abortion to further humiliate them as to carry an unwanted child. As result, according the book "Berlin: The Downfall, 1945" by Antony Beevor, some 90% of Berlin women in 1945 had venereal diseases as results of consequential rapes and 3.7% of all children born in Germany 1945-1946 had Russian fathers. The rapes of the German women by the Soviets were a taboo until 1992.

Drug facilitated rape

Various drugs are used by rapists to render their victims unconscious, some also cause memory loss. Date rape drugs are substances added to a drink to render a victim unconscious or compliant and able to be easily raped or sexually assaulted, perhaps adding to the effect of an alcoholic drink, generally unknown to the person drinking it. The drug may also be used to allow a victim to be robbed.

In cases of sexual assault, in most jurisdictions, the victim's inability to consent to sex may legally corroborate rape.

Some commonly known date rape drugs are GHB, ketamine and flunitrazepam (Rohypnol). Despite widespread media hysteria, these drugs are only used in a small minority of rapes as alcohol remains the drug most frequently implicated with substance-assisted sexual assault.1

Hypnotic agents such as flunitrazepam (Rohypnol) and gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) have been used by rapists to render their victims unconscious before raping them. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration:

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse:

The sedative effects of Rohypnol begin to appear approximately 15–20 minutes after the drug is ingested. The effects typically last from four to six hours after administration of the drug, but some cases have been reported in which the effects were experienced 12 or more hours after administration. In recent news it has been discovered that scientists can now detect flunitrazepam and related compounds in urine at least up to 5 days after administration of a single dose of Rohypnol and up to a month in hair.

These drugs are extremely dangerous, and may kill or render the victim comatose. It is imperative that any investigation into the suspected use of date rape drugs involve the immediate carrying out of a blood test, as waiting too long to test for the presence of drugs may cause false negatives.

However, trying to deduce whether date rape drugs have been used from the symptoms is an approach that can cause false positives. In 2003, when the media were reporting a drink-spiking epidemic in Perth, Western Australia, 44 women had their blood tested because they believed they had been the victims of drink-spiking. The West Australian Chemistry Centre tested the blood samples and in these 44 cases, the only substance found in the victim's system was excessive alcohol. Police said that the blood-alcohol level of most of the subjects was significantly higher than what the women had themselves expected. This is irrelevant to the issue of whether an assault is rape or not. The legal definition of rape in countries such as the United States, also covers a lack of consent when the victim is unable to say "no" to intercourse, due to the effects of drugs or alcohol.5 In large amounts, alcohol has the same effects as date rape drugs, and causes unconsciousness and memory loss.

Testing kits that claim to detect GHB, Ketamine, and benzodiazepines such as Rohypnol in seconds are commercially available under names such as "The Drink Detective."

Companies around the world are making or trying to make paper coasters or drink stirries that change color when dabbed with a drink doctored with a date rape drug. These colorless and odorless tranquillisers can lull victims into a semi-comatose state, leaving them unable to remember what happened to them.

See also: sexual harassment

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