Understanding perpetrators and victims of rape

What is rape?

Rape is commonly understood to describe a situation where one person uses force to sexually assault another person. What this means is that the victim did not have any consent regarding the sexual activity and that the perpetrator had physical power over the victim. In places such as New Mexico, the concept of rape has been expanded to include those situations in which the position of authority can be used to exploit a person sexually (Groth, N, 2001). The implication here is that an authoritative figure like an educator, for instance, could still be convicted of rape, even if the “victim” was of the legal age of consent and no physical force was used. The concept of rape, therefore, slightly varies between countries.