There are many different types of Rape.
Date Rape
Sexual assault is one of the most underreported of all crimes. Victims do not report for a number of reasons, which can include, but are not limited to: *Shame
*Fear of retaliation
*Fear of being blamed
*Uncertain whether a crime has been committed
*Fear of not being believed
*Embarrassment
Marital Rape
Women who are raped by their husbands are likely to be raped many times. They experience not only vaginal rape, but also oral and anal rape. Researchers generally categorize marital rape into three types:
Force-only rape: The husband uses only the amount of force necessary to coerce their wives.
Battering rape: Husbands rape and batter their wives. The battering may happen concurrently or before or after the sexual assault.
Sadistic /obsessive rape:Husbands use torture or perverse sexual acts. Pornography is often involved.
Women are at particularly high risk for being raped by their partners under the following circumstances:
*Women married to domineering men who view them as "property"
* Women who are in physically violent relationships
* Women who are pregnant
* Women who are ill or recovering from surgery
* Women who are separated or divorced
Healing begins with having a safe place or person to talk with about the sexual assault. Since victims may not recognize the assault as "rape" and may be confused by their feelings, it is important to open a line of communication. Some questions to ask that might open this line, without making the victim feel threatened or making the victim identify the incident as a "rape" are: *Has your partner ever made you have sex when you didn’t want to?
*Have you ever been uncomfortable with a sexual request from your partner, but did it anyway?
*Have you ever had sex with your partner because you were afraid to say "no"?
*Have you ever given into sex because your partner would not stop harassing you about it?
(sited form http://www.star.ak.org/Library/files/maritalrape)
A BRIEF LEGAL HISTORY OF MARITAL RAPE: (found at The Fight Against Marital Rape) Much of the scholarly attention that has been given to marital rape has emerged from the legal community. This has occurred because throughout the history of most societies, it has been acceptable for men to force their wives to have sex against their will. The traditional definition of rape in the United States most commonly was, “sexual intercourse with a female not his wife without her consent” (Barshis, 1983, p. 383). As Finkelhor and Yllo (1985) have argued, this provided husbandswith an exemption from prosecution for raping their wives—a “license to rape” (See Drucker, 1979; Eskow, 1996; and Sitton, 1993, for a discussion of the marital exemption). The foundation of this exemption can be traced back to statements made by Sir Matthew Hale, Chief Justice in 17th century England. Hale wrote, “The husband cannot be guilty of a rape committed by himself upon his lawful wife, for by their mutual matrimonial consent and contract, the wife hath given herself in kind unto the husband which she cannot retract” (quoted in Russell, 1990, p.17). This established the notion that once married, a woman does not have the right to refuse sex with her husband. This rationale remained largely unchallenged until the 1970’s when some members of the women’s movement argued for the elimination of the spousal exemption because it failed to provide equal protection from rape to all women (Bidwell & White, 1986; Finkelhor & Yllo, 1985). On July 5, 1993, marital rape became a crime in all 50 states, under at least one section of the sexual offense codes. In 17 states and the District of Columbia, there are no exemptions from rape prosecution granted to husbands. However, in 33 states, there are still some exemptions given to husbands from rape prosecution. When his wife is most vulnerable (e.g., she is mentally or physically impaired, unconscious, asleep, etc.) and is legally unable to consent, a husband is exempt from prosecution in many of these 33 states (Bergen, 1996; Russell, 1990). Table 1, based on the findings of the National Clearinghouse on Marital and Date Rape (1998), is a state law chart that indicates which states have some exemptions from prosecuting husbands for rape. The existence of some spousal exemptions in the majority of states indicates that rape in marriage is still treated as a lesser crime than other forms of rape. This perpetuates marital rape by conveying the message that such acts of aggression are somehow less reprehensible than other types of rape. Importantly, the existence of any spousal exemption indicates an acceptance of the archaic understanding that wives are the property of their husbands and the marriage contract is an entitlement to sex (Russell, 1990).