Rape
From wikilawschool.net. Wiki Law School does not provide legal advice. For educational purposes only.
Rape is a criminal and civil wrong in the United States. Although, rape is a crime in virtually all countries, the standards for conviction may be quite different depending on the jurisdiction. For example, marital rape is not recognized in traditional common law.
The Model Penal Code
In the United States, 4 criteria are used to proved rape under the Model Penal Code:
- One, the man compels the woman by force or threatens imminent death, serious bodily injury, pain, or kidnapping to be inflicted on anyone;
- Two, the man has substantially impaired the woman’s ability to control the woman’s conduct by unknowingly giving the woman drugs or intoxicants in order to prevent resistance;
- Three, the woman is unconscious;
- Four, the woman is under 10 years old. If the rape charge is based on a victim being under 10, strict liability applies, meaning that the defendant can't argue that he didn't know the victim was under 10 or that he reasonably believed the victim to be older than that.
