What is rape?

Rape is any form of unwanted sexual behaviour that is imposed on someone. Our definition of rape is broader than most conventional or legal definitions. We place rape within a continuum of sexual violence that can take many different forms, including sexual harassment, verbal abuse, leering, threats, exposure, being forced to watch pornography, unwanted touching, incest, penetration, mutilation, and ritual abuse.

Rape is more about the abuse of power than about sexual attraction or the desire for sexual gratification.

Rape is when someone uses their power, manipulation or force to intimidate, humiliate, exploit, degrade or control another. Rape has been used as a weapon in war, in racial violence and in everyday life. Rape diminishes a person's dignity and their human rights to safety, choice and consent.

Rape is a crime.

Our definition takes into account that a person may feel as if they have been raped in circumstances that are not legally defined as constituting rape. Rape may not involve actual physical injury. It is an act that may be experienced as a violation of the physical body, and/or on emotional, intellectual, and spiritual levels.

Rape may also be defined as a process by which people feel that they do not have the right to say no and have their rights respected.

Some examples of rape include:

• An adult relative uses trickery and bribes to make a child participate in a sexual activity.

• A husband/partner manipulates his wife into having sex in order to 'keep the peace' or to 'show that she loves him' or that it is 'her duty' or 'his entitlement'.

• A boy/man pressures a girl/woman into having sex when she is not ready.

• A man expects a woman to have sex after buying her a drink or dinner.

• A man has sex with a woman when she is too drunk or drugged to give or refuse consent.

• A general practitioner convinces a woman to undertake an intimate examination when it is unnecessary or inappropriate.

We do not believe there are any excuses for rape.

Rape is a crime and always the responsibility of those who commit it.

Sexual violence and rape will be used interchangebly throughout this booklet. A legal definition of rape can be found in the legal section of this booklet.

Myths and realities