Also known as: unlawful sexual intercourses · statutory rape · rape
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Sexual intercourse engaged in without the victim's effective consent under circumstances that the law treats as rendering consent ineffective. Common law and statutory formulations treat consent as ineffective when obtained by force, threat of immediate harm, fraud as to the nature of the act, or when the victim lacks capacity due to unconsciousness or intoxication.
Uriel Urban enters a convenience store, demands money at gunpoint, and then forces the clerk into a back room where he engages in unlawful sexual intercourse with her. When the clerk suffers a fatal heart attack during the assault, prosecutors rely on the unlawful sexual intercourse to establish the required mental state for murder liability.
Ulysses Usher is convicted after forcing unlawful sexual intercourse on an adult woman in her apartment. The trial court declines to impose the death penalty, ruling that capital punishment would be disproportionate because the victim survived the offense.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Umar Underwood slips a sedative into a colleague's drink at an office party without her knowledge. Once she becomes substantially impaired, he engages in unlawful sexual intercourse with her in an empty conference room. The impairment prevents her from appraising or controlling her conduct, satisfying the statutory elements.
Urban Utley is convicted of unlawful sexual intercourse with a twelve-year-old victim. The sentencing court refuses to impose the death penalty because the offense was neither intended to nor did result in the child's death.
Ulf Ulfsson is charged with unlawful sexual intercourse after engaging in private consensual conduct with another adult in his home. The court upholds the conviction, finding no constitutional bar to criminalizing the conduct.
Uri Underwood faces prosecution for unlawful sexual intercourse after engaging in private consensual conduct with another adult in his apartment. The court dismisses the charges, holding that the statute violates constitutional protections for personal liberty.
No. Intercourse accomplished by placing the victim in fear of great and immediate bodily harm constitutes rape even if the victim does not resist to the utmost, so long as the threats prevent resistance.
A male commits rape if he substantially impairs the female's power to appraise or control her conduct by administering intoxicants without her knowledge for the purpose of preventing resistance.
No. At common law a woman cannot be convicted of rape as a principal, though she may be convicted as an accomplice.
Yes. If the defendant through fraud causes the victim to believe that the act is not sexual intercourse, the resulting intercourse constitutes rape.
…physical deformity or mental deficiency," or that a pregnancy "resulting from legally established statutory or forcible rape or incest may constitute a threat to the mental or physical health of the patient," two other physicians "chosen because of their recognized professional competence have examined the…