Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse , or other forms of sexual penetration , carried out against a person without their consent.
The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion , abuse of authority , or against a person who is incapable of giving valid consent, such as one who is unconscious , incapacitated, has an intellectual disability , or is below the legal age of consent statutory rape. The rate of reporting, prosecuting and convicting for rape varies between jurisdictions.
Internationally, the incidence of rapes recorded by the police during ranged, per , people, from 0. Widespread and systematic rape e. These practices are crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Rape is also recognized as an element of the crime of genocide when committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a targeted ethnic group. People who have been raped can be traumatized and develop post-traumatic stress disorder. A person may face violence or threats from the rapist, and, sometimes, from the victim's family and relatives.
The term rape originates from the Latin rapere supine stem raptum , "to snatch, to grab, to carry off". Rape is defined in most jurisdictions as sexual intercourse , or other forms of sexual penetration , committed by a perpetrator against a victim without their consent. In Roman law , it or raptus was classified as a form of crimen vis , "crime of assault". Other definitions of rape have changed over time. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia considered rape as a crime that required coercion or force or threat of force against the victim or a third person.
