Marital Rape Laws

Paper Summary:

This paper provides a review of relevant scholarly books, government documents and statistics to determine the evolution of marital rape laws. It discusses why they are of importance and how the victim currently suffers and may continue to suffer through the criminal justice system. It then suggests what punishment can reasonably be expected to be meted out to marital rape offenders. The paper concludes with salient recommendations concerning improvements that should be made to already existing laws.

Table of Contents:
Review and Discussion
Background and Overview
Incidence and Types of Marital Rape Today
Current and Future Trends
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"As noted above, some states have already done away with the marital rape exemption and continuing developments in American law have diminished the concepts on which the common law rule was based. These trends have also raised the issue of whether the marital rape exemption retains any validity in the 21st century. Unfortunately, Friedelbaum emphasizes that a number of courts and legal observers have advanced justifications for retaining the marital rape exemption. According to this author, "These justifications have been based on concerns that the abolition of a husband's immunity would lead to serious abuses of the law, would cause insurmountable evidentiary problems, would lead to fabricated charges, would encourage vindictive wives to use rape charges for revenge, and would thwart the reconciliation of estranged couples" (Friedelbaum 51)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Andrews, Bernice and Chris R. Brewin. (1990). "Attributions of Blame for Marital Violence: A Study of Antecedents and Consequences. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 52:757- 67.
• Berger, Ronald J. and Patricia Searles. Rape and Society: Readings on the Problem of Sexual Assault. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995.
• Black's Law Dictionary. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Co., 1990.
• Burgess-Jackson, Keith. A Most Detestable Crime: New Philosophical Essays on Rape. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
• Caetano, Raul and Suhasini Ramisetty-Mikler. (2005). "Alcohol Use and Intimate Partner Violence as Predictors of Separation among U.S. Couples: A Longitudinal Model." Journal of Studies on Alcohol 66(2):205.

More papers on Marital Rape Laws:

• Essay # 12843 : "Marital Rape"
• Essay # 68354 : "Enforcing Statutory Rape Laws"

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