lation addressing violence between adult partners.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines forcible rape as the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will. The act of rape has not, however, always been so defined. The rape of a woman did not even begin to be considered as a crime against the person until the twelfth century. Prior to that time, rape was considered only in the context of an abuse, misuse or damage to the property of another man. The concept of rape as a property crime persisted in most jurisdictions well after the twelfth century. Medieval cannon law was revised in the twelfth century, however, to define rape as an assault involving abduction, coitus, violence, and a lack of free consent on the part of the woman.
Rape came to be defined in English common law as carnal knowledge by a man of a woman not his wife; by force or threat of force; against her will and without her consent (Estrich, 1987, p.9). Reform of rape laws initiated by most American s
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