April - June 2010 - Bureau of Police Research and Development

Marital Rape : The Assasination of a Woman's Dignitysexual distress, problems establishing trustingrelationships, distorted body image, and increasednegative feelings about themselves.Research has also indicated that the psychologicaleffects are likely to be long lasting-some maritalrape survivors report flashbacks, sexualdysfunction, and emotional pain for years afterthe violence. An issue that has not receivedsignificant attention is how marital rape affectschildren. In one of the few studies to examinethis question, Campbell and Alford (1989) foundthat 5% of the women in their study indicatedthat their children had been forced by theirpartners to participate in the sexual violence and18% of the women indicated that their childrenhad witnessed an incident of marital rape at leastonce (in Mahoney & Williams, 1998). Moreresearch is needed to fully understand theimplications of marital rape for children and othermembers of the family.Marital Rape : An International ViewIn 1995 at the UN Convention on Women's Rights,a group of noble women made sure that theforthcoming official UN document declared maritalrape to be a crime against women and aconvictable offense. Marital rape was declared afundamental violation of human rights. Thedelegates at the 1995 UN Convention on Women'sRights in Beijing agreed on "strong planks thatcall for punishment of domestic violence, includingmarital rape..." According to the Center forConstitutional Rights, "Every woman has the rightto control her own body and to make decisionsabout having sex, using birth control, becomingpregnant and having children. She does not losethese rights if she marries." The Center forConstitutional Rights gives a somewhat morelengthy definition of marital rape as being sexualacts done against a wife's wishes either byphysical force, by threats of force or by makingher fear that she will come to harm if she resists.The husband may use simply psychological oremotional abuse (glaring looks and verbal rages)to make her comply. He may use coercion, verbalthreats, physical violence or weapons to forcehis wife to have sex with him. It is a completeabuse of power. It is the husband's attempt toassert control and to dominate his wife. The pointis, if she submits to sex out of fear or terror, it isrape. Taking sex by force when the wife is asleepor sick is also termed as rape.Marital rape is rampant in countries around theworld. In the Philippines congressmen declaredthat there was no such thing as marital rape, butin spite of these dense derelicts an antirape lawhas been passed in the Philippines. Canada andAustralia now have passed laws only in the pastdecade against marital rape. Namibia, Mexico,Ecuador and Honduras have also passed antimaritalrape laws. Sweden had passed such alaw way back in the 70s but it has been rarelyimplemented. Some countries have finally passedanti-rape laws but it continues to be a tremendousstruggle to get marital rape included in that law.Nepal has long back outlawed marital rape. TheSupreme Court of Nepal has declared thathusbands who force their wives to have sex cannow be charged with rape. It takes great couragefor a woman to file a case against her husbandclaiming marital rape. Turkey passed anti-maritalrape laws in 2005 and Thailand and Mauritiusonly in 2007. In Sri Lanka Marital rape isconsidered an offense only in cases of spousesliving under judicial separation. Apart from thesecountries like Argentina, Austria, Barbados, Belize,Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, the FijiIslands, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, HongKong, Ireland, Israel, Macedonia. The Netherlands,New Zealand, Norway, Poland. South Africa,Spain, Taiwan, Trinidad/Tobago, Uzbekistan, andZimbabwe also criminalize marital rape.Marital Rape: Judicial response in USAIt should be noted, that cultural norms and theperceived social stigma attached to rape oftendiscourage the reporting of marital rape, andprosecution is very rare in many countries.Until 1976, marital rape was legal in every statein the United States. Although marital rape is nowindirectly, unknowinglyand unwillingly weencourage it. Thisconservative outlook isgetting reflected in ourlegal system too,which is a matter ofconcern. In U.K. it wasthe year 1991 and inU.S. it was the year1993, which recognizedmarital rape as acriminal offencethroughout thecountry. It is high timethat the requiredamendments need tobe brought into ourlegislations so that aThe Indian Police Journal Vol. LVII-No. 2, April-June, 2010 67➢