- The Oxford Handbooks in Criminology and Criminal Justice
- The Oxford Handbook of Sex Offences and Sex Offenders
- Dedication
- Preface
- List of Contributors
- What is sex crime?
- Exploring the methods behind sexual violence estimates: The Composition and Findings from National and International Surveys
- The explanation of sexual offending
- Sexual offenders and human rights: Protecting Victims
- Rape and domestic sexual assault
- Sexual homicide and violent offenders
- Child sexual abuse
- Alcohol and drugs in relation to sexual offending
- Commercial sexual exploitation of children
- Victim–offender overlap among sex offenders
- Female sex offenders
- The juvenile sex offender: Criminal Careers and Recidivism Risk
- A developmental life-course perspective of juvenile and adult sexual offending
- Victimization and revictimization
- The role of policy in preventing sexual violence
- The policing of sexual activity
- Sentencing high-risk sex offenders: Policy and Legislation
- The aftermath of sex offender registration and other controls
- Risk assessment of sex offenders
- Treatment of sex offenders: Concepts and Empirical Evaluations
- Informal social control of sex offenders: The Family and Other Forms of Support
- Restorative justice and sex offending
- Public perceptions of sex crimes and sex offenders
- The media response to sex crimes
- The paedophile in popular culture: Fictional Representations of Sex Crime
- Social media, cyberspace, and sex crime: Deviant and Democratizing Spaces
- The criminalization of sexuality
- Prostitution and sex work
- Pornography
- Sex trafficking and control
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
The way in which we define rape and domestic sexual assault, the rates at which it occurs, the motives for offending, and the legislative and criminal justice responses have varied across and within nation-states over time. This essay covers the historical context of rape laws, legal definitions of rape over time, how definitions of rape vary across nations, and the inclusion of domestic sexual assault in rape definitions. It reviews the rates of rape over time across nations using official and victimization data. It discusses the motives offered to explain, rationalize, or justify forced sexual assault and analyses the legislative and criminal justice responses to rape across countries over time. The essay concludes with a discussion of how rape definitions, laws, and criminal justice responses may continue to evolve.
Keywords: criminal justice, domestic sexual assault, historical context, legal definitions, rape
Lisa L. Sample is Reynolds Professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Emily C. Rader is a PhD student at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
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- The Oxford Handbooks in Criminology and Criminal Justice
- The Oxford Handbook of Sex Offences and Sex Offenders
- Dedication
- Preface
- List of Contributors
- What is sex crime?
- Exploring the methods behind sexual violence estimates: The Composition and Findings from National and International Surveys
- The explanation of sexual offending
- Sexual offenders and human rights: Protecting Victims
- Rape and domestic sexual assault
- Sexual homicide and violent offenders
- Child sexual abuse
- Alcohol and drugs in relation to sexual offending
- Commercial sexual exploitation of children
- Victim–offender overlap among sex offenders
- Female sex offenders
- The juvenile sex offender: Criminal Careers and Recidivism Risk
- A developmental life-course perspective of juvenile and adult sexual offending
- Victimization and revictimization
- The role of policy in preventing sexual violence
- The policing of sexual activity
- Sentencing high-risk sex offenders: Policy and Legislation
- The aftermath of sex offender registration and other controls
- Risk assessment of sex offenders
- Treatment of sex offenders: Concepts and Empirical Evaluations
- Informal social control of sex offenders: The Family and Other Forms of Support
- Restorative justice and sex offending
- Public perceptions of sex crimes and sex offenders
- The media response to sex crimes
- The paedophile in popular culture: Fictional Representations of Sex Crime
- Social media, cyberspace, and sex crime: Deviant and Democratizing Spaces
- The criminalization of sexuality
- Prostitution and sex work
- Pornography
- Sex trafficking and control
- Index
