Custodial rape is a form of rape which takes place while the victim is "in custody" and constrained from leaving, and the rapist(s) 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 encompasses 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 particularly 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 strong scientific opinion in the gynecological community that virginity is not medically verifiable, and protests from human rights organizations that such tests are so invasive as to constitute sexual assault in and of themselves.

External Links

Stop Prison Rape

See also