Rape involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person

without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of
authority, or against a person who is incapable of giving valid consent, such as one who is
unconscious, incapacitated, has an intellectual disability or is below the legal age of consent.

The rate of reporting, prosecuting and convicting for rape varies between jurisdictions.

Etymology
The term rape originates from the Latin rapere (supine stem raptum), "to snatch, to grab, to carry
off".[14][15] Since the 14th century, the term has come to mean "to seize and take away by force".[16] In
Roman law, the carrying off of a woman by force, with or without intercourse, constituted "raptus".
[15]
 In Medieval English law the same term could refer to either kidnapping or rape in the modern
sense of "sexual violation".[14] The original meaning of "carry off by force" is still found in some
phrases, such as "rape and pillage", or in titles, such as the stories of the Rape of the Sabine
Women and The Rape of Europa or the poem The Rape of the Lock, which is about the theft of a
lock of hair.

Scope
Victims of rape or sexual assault come from a wide range of genders, ages, sexual orientations,
ethnicitities, geographical locations, cultures and degrees of impairment or disability. Incidences of
rape are classified into a number of categories, and they may describe the relationship of the
perpetrator to the victim and the context of the sexual assault. These include date rape, gang
rape, marital rape, incestual rape, child sexual abuse, prison rape, acquaintance rape, war
rape and statutory rape. Forced sexual activity can be committed over a long period of time with little
to no physical injury