ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the legal development of the crime of rape and explores a number of bio-psycho-social theories that help to explain why people commit the crime. It explains how alcohol and other drugs contribute to sexual assault victimization. The chapter discusses how child molestation laws are a distinct form of the crime of rape. When many, but not all, US state legislatures revised their rape laws, they placed primary emphasis on the assaultive nature of the crime. In fact, many states abandoned the term 'rape' and instead adopted laws against sexual assault or sexual battery. Bias crimes are typically thought of as criminal offenses that are committed against victims because of their race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or disability. Since then, the media, Congress, and the military itself have focused on the fact that the military presents a unique environment for both the commission of sexual assaults and responding to them.
