Rape

Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent, such as one who is unconscious, incapacitated, or below the legal age of consent. The term is most often defined in criminal law.

Victims of rape can be severely traumatized; in addition to psychological harm resulting from the act, rape may cause physical injury, or have additional effects on the victim, such as acquiring of a sexually transmitted infection or becoming pregnant. Furthermore, following a rape, a victim may face violence or threats of thereof from the rapist, and, in some cultures, from the victim's own family and relatives.

Sustaining factors

The World Health Organization states that the principal factors that lead to the perpetration of sexual violence are:

• beliefs in family honour and sexual purity;
• ideologies of male sexual entitlement;
• weak legal sanctions for sexual violence.

 Additional symptoms of Acute Stress Disorder include:

• Depersonalization or dissociation (feeling numb and detached, like being in a daze or a dream, or feeling that the world is strange and unreal)
• Difficulty remembering important parts of the assault
• Reliving the assault through repeated thoughts, memories, or nightmares
• Avoidance of things, places, thoughts, and/or feelings that remind the victim of the assault
• Anxiety or increased alertness (difficulty sleeping, concentrating, etc.)
• Avoidance of social life or place of rape

Rape in India is one of India's most common crimes against women. Marital rape is now illegal in India but is still widespread. Rape cases in India have doubled between 1990 and 2008

Types:

• 1 Groth typology
  • 1.1 Anger rapist
  • 1.2 Power rapist
  • 1.3 Sadistic rapist
• 2 Date rape
• 3 Gang rape
• 4 Spousal rape
• 5 Rape of children
• 6 Statutory rape
• 7 Prison rape
• 8 War rape
• 9 Rape by deception
• 10 Corrective rape

 Rape by gender

• 1 Rape of females by males
• 2 Rape of males by males
• 3 Rape of males by females
  • 3.1 Non-statutory female-on-male rape
  • 3.2 Statutory female-on-male rape
• 4 Rape of females by females

Rape in India has been described by Radha Kumar as one of India's most common crimes against women. In the 1980s, women's rights groups lobbied for marital rape to be declared unlawful, as until 1983, the criminal law (amendment) act stated that "sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under fifteen years of age is not rape". Marital rape is now illegal in India but is still widespread. Official sources show that rape cases in India have doubled between 1990 and 2008.