When intimate partner sexual violence intersects with faith traditions and practices

In the 1990s, an article appeared describing a court case where a convicted wife abuser attempted to use the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as his defense against a charge of marital rape of his wife. He argued that the Roman Catholic Church had taught him that he had the right to have sex with his wife at any time because their marriage vows signaled her permanent consent to sexual activity. He sought to justify breaking into her locked room, slapping her, and ripping her clothing as legitimate foreplay justified by the Church and protected by the First Amendment free exercise of religious beliefs (Abrahamson, 1996). The court was not impressed and he was convicted.