Custodial rape: Encyclopedia - Custodial rape

Custodial rape

Custodial rape is a form of rape which takes place while the victim is "in custody" and constrained from leaving, and the rapist or rapists are an agent of the power that is keeping the victim in custody. While some definitions of custodial rape define it as taking place in a state-owned institution, and perpetrated by a state agent,[1] the term more generally refers to any situation where the power of a state agent is used to enable rape; thus, when prisoner-on-prisoner rape happens as a result of neglect by the prison authorities, it may be considered custodial rape.

Custodial rape is a endemic problem in certain nations; some police forces who have been charged with numerous instances of custodial rape have responded by instituting mandatory "virginity tests" for all female prisoners to "prove" that sexual assault has not happened during custody, despite the objection of gynecologists that virginity is not medically verifiable, and protests from human rights organizations that such tests are so invasive as to constitute sexual assault in themselves.

See also

• Prison rape
• Prison sexuality
• Prisoners' rights

Custodial rape - News

• Mother raped in prison, son born there and imprisoned till the age of 40

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Custodial rape", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki