Consent, Rape, and the Criminal Law

This article explores the impact of rape law reform, both within and beyond the criminal law. The story of U.S. criminal rape law reform tends to be told as one of remarkable feminist success followed by widespread stagnation. Despite comprehensive changes in the law, reporting rates, prosecution rates, and conviction rates for rape increased only slightly. This article resists that binary account of success and failure by offering a more nuanced assessment. It argues that, by changing rape’s definition to an inquiry focused on whether the victim consented, the law has facilitated a shift in cultural and institutional norms governing unwanted sex. It is naïve to think that a change in law would, on its own, end rape culture, but there is ample evidence to support the conclusion that rape law reform has played a central role in reducing society’s tolerance of the rape prerogatives that have held sway for millennia.