“Until the late 1970’s, most states did not consider spousal rape a crime. Typically, spouses were exempted from the sexual assault laws. For example, until 1993 North Carolina law stated that “a person may not be prosecuted under this article if the victim is the person’s legal spouse at the time of the commission of the alleged rape or sexual offense unless the parties are living separate and apart.” These laws are traceable to a pronouncement by Michael Hale, who was Chief Justice in England in the 17th century, that a husband cannot be guilty of rape of his wife “for by their mutual matrimonial consent and contract the wife hath given up herself in this kind unto the husband which she cannot retract.” In the late 1970’s, feminists began efforts to change these laws. Currently, rape of a spouse is a crime in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: When was the spousal rape law passed? Answer: According to the National Center for Victims of Crime, in an article titled “Spousal Rape Laws: 20 Years Later“: “Until the late 1970’s, most states did not consider spousal rape a crime. Typically, spouses were exempted from the sexual assault laws. For example, until 1993 North…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[165,310,163,166],"class_list":["post-1454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-feminism","tag-government","tag-rape","tag-spousal-rape"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1929,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-rape-within-a-marriage-lead-to-divorce\/","url_meta":{"origin":1454,"position":0},"title":"Does rape within a marriage lead to divorce?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 18, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does rape within a marriage lead to the marriage ending in divorce? Answer: Spousal Rape If by \"rape within a marriage\" you are referring to the recent concept of spousal rape, then I must object to the terminology. By the definition of the word \"rape,\" it cannot take place\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2812,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/you-dont-know-what-rape-is\/","url_meta":{"origin":1454,"position":1},"title":"You don’t know what rape is","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been looking for scriptural advice when I came across your article on \u201cSpousal Rape\u201d.\u00a0 It is plain to see you don\u2019t know what rape is.\u00a0 My daughter married, with our joyful blessing, a young man who asked to court her, obeyed all our requests, and honored our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1446,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-rape-when-a-husband-is-influenced-by-alcohol-drugs-or-pornography\/","url_meta":{"origin":1454,"position":2},"title":"Is it rape when a husband is influenced by alcohol, drugs, or pornography?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 25, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I strongly disagree with you about a husband raping a wife. If the husband is not a Christian and is under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or pornography, what he is doing is not respectful to his wife and not considered in agreement with Scripture that refers to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":772,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-spousal-rape-constitute-fornication\/","url_meta":{"origin":1454,"position":3},"title":"Does spousal rape constitute fornication?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does spousal rape constitute fornication, or sexual immorality, thus giving grounds for divorce and remarriage? Answer: Some questions are difficult - not because we cannot clearly state the truth, but because the way the questions are worded cause you to make assumptions that may not be true. A classic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1450,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-spousal-rape-grounds-for-divorce\/","url_meta":{"origin":1454,"position":4},"title":"Is spousal rape grounds for divorce?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does spousal rape constitute fornication, or sexual immorality, thus giving grounds for divorce and remarriage? Answer: Some questions are difficult - not because we cannot clearly state the truth, but because the way the questions are worded cause you to make assumptions that may not be true. A classic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18462,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/to-say-rape-cant-happen-in-a-marriage-is-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":1454,"position":5},"title":"To say rape can’t happen in a marriage is wrong!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was surfing the Internet when I found your site. I am a Christian, a woman and having read Chapter 11, take this opportunity to express my belief that the final sentence of the final paragraph of this page, appears to draw a conclusion that\u00a0is not scriptural and simply\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}