Rape can be categorized in different ways: for example, by reference to the situation in which it occurs, by the identity or characteristics of the victim, and/or by the identity or characteristics of the perpetrator. These categories are referred to as types of rape.
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Nicholas Groth has described several different types of rape.[1]
The aim of this rapist is to humiliate, debase and hurt their victim; they express their contempt for their victim through physical violence and profane language. For these rapists, sex is a weapon to defile and degrade the victim, rape constitutes the ultimate expression of their anger. This rapist considers rape the ultimate offense they can commit against the victim.
Anger rape is characterized by physical brutality, much more physical force is used during the assault than would be necessary if the intent were simply to overpower the victim and achieve penetration. This type of offender attacks their victim by grabbing, striking and knocking the victim to the ground, beating them, tearing their clothes, and raping them.
The experience for the offender is one that is of conscious anger and rage.[1]
For these rapists, rape becomes a way to compensate for their underlying feelings of inadequacy and feeds their issues of mastery, control, strength, authority and capability. The intent of the power rapist is to assert their competency. The power rapist relies upon verbal threats, intimidation with a weapon, and only uses the amount of force necessary to subdue his victim.
The power rapists tends to have fantasies about sexual conquests and rape. They may believe that even though the victim initially resists them, that once they overpower their victim, the victim will eventually enjoy the rape. The rapist needs to believe that the victim enjoyed what was done to them, and they may even ask the victim to meet them for a date later.
Because this is only a fantasy, the rapist does not feel reassured for long by either their own performance or the victim's response. The rapist feels that they must find another victim, convinced that this victim will be "the right one".
Hence, their offenses may become repetitive and compulsive. They may commit a series of rapes over a short period of time. This is the most common type of rapist in the United States.[2]
For these rapists, they have a sexual association with anger and power so that aggression and the infliction of pain itself is eroticized. For this rapist, sexual excitement is associated with the inflicting of pain upon his victim. The offender finds the intentional maltreatment of his victim intensely gratifying and takes pleasure in the victim's torment, anguish, distress, helplessness, and suffering;[3] he/she finds the victim's struggling with him/her to be an erotic experience.
Sadistic rape usually involves extensive, prolonged torture and restraint. Sometimes, it can take on ritualistic or other bizarre qualities. The rapist may use some type of instrument or foreign object to penetrate his/her victim. Sexual areas of the victim's body become a specific focus of injury or abuse.
The sadistic rapist's assaults are deliberate, calculated and preplanned. They will often wear a disguise or will blindfold their victims.[3] Prostitutes or other people whom they perceive to be "promiscuous" are often the sadistic rapist's targets. The victims of a sadistic rapist may not survive the attack. For some offenders, the ultimate satisfaction is gained from murdering the victim.[1]
Date rape is a non-domestic rape committed by someone who knows the victim.[4] This constitutes the vast majority of rapes reported. It can occur between two people who know one another usually in social situations, between people who are dating as a couple and have had consensual sex in the past, between two people who are starting to date, between people who are just friends, and between acquaintances. They include rapes of co-workers, schoolmates, friends, and other acquaintances, providing they are dating.[5] Date rape is considered the most unreported crime on college campuses.[6] The term date rape is often referred to as ‘acquaintance rape’ or ‘hidden rape’ and has been identified as a growing problem in western society.[7] College and University campuses are prime locations for date rape to occur due to the high volume of students interested in sexual relationships. A college survey conducted by the United States' National Victim Center reported that one in four college women have been raped or experienced attempted rape.[8] This report indicates that young women are at considerable risk of becoming a victim of date rape while in college.
Gang rape occurs when a group of people participate in the rape of a single victim. Rape involving at least two or more violators (usually at least three[9]) is widely reported to occur in many parts of the world. Systematic information on the extent of the problem, however, is scant.
One study showed that offenders and victims in gang rape incidents were younger with a higher possibility of being unemployed. Gang rapes involved more alcohol and other drug use, night attacks and severe sexual assault outcomes and less victim resistance and fewer weapons than individual rapes.[10] Another study found that group sexual assaults were more violent and had greater resistance from the victim than individual sexual assaults and that victims of group sexual assaults were more likely to seek crisis and police services, to contemplate suicide and seek therapy than those involved in individual assaults. The two groups were about the same in the amount of drinking and other drug use during the assault. [11]
Also known as spouse, marital rape, wife rape, husband rape, partner rape or intimate partner sexual assault (IPSA), is rape between a married or de facto couple. Research reveals that victims of marital/partner rape suffer longer lasting trauma than victims of stranger rape.[12]
Rape of a child is a form of child sexual abuse. When committed by another child (usually older or stronger), it is a form of child-on-child sexual abuse. When committed by a parent or other close relatives such as grandparents, aunts and uncles, it is also incest and can result in serious and long-term psychological trauma.[13] When a child is raped by an adult who is not a family member but is a caregiver or in a position of authority over the child, such as school teachers, religious authorities, or therapists, to name a few, on whom the child is dependent, the effects can be similar to incestual rape.
National and/or regional governments, citing an interest in protecting "young people" (variously defined but sometimes synonymous with minors), treat any sexual contact with such a person as an offense (not always categorized as "rape"), even if he or she agrees to or initiates the sexual activity.
The offense is often based on a presumption that people under a certain age do not have the capacity to give informed consent. The age at which individuals are considered competent to give consent, called the age of consent, varies in different countries and regions; in the US, the age ranges from 16 to 18. Sexual activity that violates age-of-consent law, but is neither violent nor physically coerced, is sometimes described as "statutory rape," a legally-recognized category in the United States. Most states, however, allow persons younger than the age of consent to engage in sexual activity if the age difference between the partners is small; these are called close in age exemptions or a Romeo and Juliet exemption.
Rates of prison rape have been reported as affecting between 3% and 12% of prison inmates.[14] Although prison rapes are more commonly same-sex crimes (since prisons are usually separated by sex), the attacker usually does not identify as homosexual.[15]
The attacker is most commonly another inmate, but prison guards may also be involved.[16]
During war, rape is often used as means of psychological warfare in order to humiliate the enemy and undermine their morale. Rapes in war are often systematic and thorough, and military leaders may actually encourage their soldiers to rape civilians. Likewise, systematic rapes are often employed as a form of ethnic cleansing. For an example, see the Rape of Nanking.
War rape has only been considered a war crime since 1949. Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly prohibits wartime rape and enforced prostitution. These prohibitions were reinforced by the 1977 Additional Protocols to the 1949 Geneva Conventions.[17] Therefore during the post-war Nuremberg Trials and Tokyo Trials mass war rape was not prosecuted as a war crime.
In 1998, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda established by the United Nations made landmark decisions that rape is a crime of genocide under international law. In one judgement Navanethem Pillay said: "From time immemorial, rape has been regarded as spoils of war. Now it will be considered a war crime. We want to send out a strong message that rape is no longer a trophy of war."[18]
Rape by deception occurs when the perpetrator gains the victim's consent through fraud.
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