The legal aspect of rape differ between legal systems. Some judicial systems it is virtually not recognized as a crime. Some systems require penetration and some force. Many countries are defining rape as sexual intercourse against the will of the victim whether by force or not. Intercourse with a sleeping, drunk or drugged woman is considered rape, as is intercourse which is consensual where such consent was induced by fraud; such as impersonating her husband or deceiving the victim as to the nature or quality of the act. Because stereotypes of women, women's role in the sex act and women's behaviour during rape, women have difficulty proving an act of rape in nearly all legal systems.

Generally the law distinguishes between rape and sexual assault. Rape involves penetration, however, slight. Sexual assault is any touching of sexual or other intimate parts of the person for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification. A man does not suddenly lose control and commit a rape. His anger, hatred, inadequacy, violence or anti-social behaviour is already manifest; by the time a man is convicted for sexual assault he will already have committed several previous offences.

From the perspective of the victim, their bodies have been assaulted, their integrity, dignity and self-determination has been violated. Rape victims sometimes become pregnant or infected by veneral disease. Many experience depression, guilt, diminished interest in sex, breakup of relationships, obsessive concern for safety, and loss of trust. Another aspect of rape are the social beliefs surrounding it. The false but widely held myths about rape include: women enjoy rape; you can't rape your wife; rapists are insane; only bad women get raped; rapists have an uncontrollable sex drive; women use the charge of rape to get at innocent men; women ask for rape by the way the dress and act; and it is not rape if the woman does not defend herself.

Studies show that divorces and suicide attempts are fairly common after rape. Many times the men in a victim's life, partners, relatives and work-mates have problems coping with the attack; problems which affect the woman's own recovery. American studies have shown that a rape tends to end an existing relationship. Rape may create additional problems, especially in tribal cultures. If it is a young girl who has been raped, nobody may want or be socially able to marry her. If she is married, then her husband may leave her and the other women may refuse to talk to her.

Crime, on the increase throughout the world, includes both personal attacks (assaults, theft, muggings) and transnational offenses (diplomat kidnappings, airplane hijackings, drug trafficking), leading to a pervasive uneasiness amongst ordinary citizens who are increasingly resorting to active as well as passive self-protection measures. In addition to criminal offenses often associated with low socio-economic groups (such as murder, burglary, rape, arson, manslaughter, and theft), there is now an acceleration in the dimensions of white collar crimes such as consumer fraud, illegal price fixing, tax evasion and contravention of anti-trust or anti-monopoly laws and labour legislation. Convictions of criminals by courts reflect biases inherent in police practice, as many criminal acts escape notice or their perpetrators cannot be identified. Organized crime, often impervious to police intensifications and court actions, is taken for granted as an aspect of modern industrial life in various countries, often putting legitimate businesses into bankruptcy as a result of unequal competition. Corrupt practices within official bureaucracies may divert funds intended for national development. Transnational crimes in their new political forms challenge social defence while disrupting world order and security.

Recorded crime in industrial societies has increased every year since the mid-1950s, for complex reasons not wholly understood, and now the rate of increase exceeds any in previous history. While studies show that in most countries urban areas have higher crime rates than the surrounding rural areas (due to unemployment, poverty, hopelessness of self-improvement, anonymity and overcrowding being more prevalent in cities), the corresponding economic strain has forced many countries to curtail their rehabilitative crime prevention programmes in favour of less effective short-term repressive policies. The overall general decline of family structure has led both to a mistrust of and intolerance of the older and more established methods of prevention and control, and to impatience with the value systems upon which they have been based. As education spreads, higher expectations, if unfulfilled, appear to increase the vulnerability of young people to the temptation of illegal short cuts to wealth, power, and status. In any case, crime is predominantly an activity of young male members of society.