Rape violates a woman's bodily integrity, freedom, and self-determination; the harm is not mitigated because the rape occurred in her marriage. In common law, the unwritten laws are based on the courts' legal precedents. It partakes the decision-making process, especially in unusual instances where the result cannot be determined based on existing statutes. Dating back to the origin of common law, it is essential to note that writs were not sufficient to cover all situations, courts of equity were ultimately established to hear complaints and devise appropriate remedies based on equitable principles taken from many sources of authority. In this case, the common law makes it hard for a woman to report her husband of a rape case. All the decisions collected and published become possible for courts to look up precedential opinions and apply them to the case on the table. Marital rape happens when one's spouse initiates sexual intercourse without the spouse's consent. Even though marital rape is seen as a form of domestic violence or sexual abuse, it is unfortunate that women who undergo such a scenario will find it hard to get justice because of the common law. Men do not get charged because many common law countries, however, still sustain the misbelief that a husband is incapable of raping his wife due to the presumption of a wife's absolute, irrevocable consent any sexual acts during the marriage (Keeper,2019). Therefore, the laws provide a husband with immunity from prosecution for marital rape simply because of his husband's status. Also, a man could not be charged for marital rape due to the overwhelming social custom and religious attitudes. Thus, the act of a husband having forcible sex with his wife was not viewed as a crime of rape in any nation-until now. If at all the reports are made, the absence of evidence often supports the notion that accusations of marital rape are made by women who are vengeful, seeking to gain financially during a divorce. Conversely, some women do not even realize that it is legally possible for a husband to rape. Some go for fear of being victimized by their respective families and those they disclose to. Therefore, all these instances the men and protect them from facing the law. Most modern statutes permit such a charge because of the disbelief of the wife's side of the equation and promotion of the husband's side over hers. In that sense, the modern justifications for a marital rape exception sound a lot like the historical justifications and are equally flawed. They gave fewer legal protections to women married to their assailants than to women who strangers raped for no concrete reason. Modern statutes believe that the lack of a wife's consent is too hard to prove because the spouses would have had consensual sex numerous times (Keeper,2019). A husband should have sex with his wife without fear of prosecution, and that a wife should protect the husband from false accusations of rape, for example, during divorce proceedings. Therefore, marital rape is a serious crime and a severe social problem. Rape within marriage is infrequent, and many injuries result from marital rapes, both physical and emotional. They are more stringent than those resulting from stranger rape. Yet more than thirty states continue to restrict the application of rape laws when parties involved are husband and wife.
References
Kerper, H. B. (2019). Introduction to the criminal justice system. West Publishing Company.
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