April 23, 2026
Rape in the Past

The concept of rape has also changed with modern Western civilization. In fact, we believe that a woman can choose her husband or partner, but in the past marriage was decided by the family. Therefore, a woman had the duty to have sex with her husband, and indeed, if she did not want to, she was considered abnormal, because it was believed that by nature women want to make love and want to have children.
Rape therefore meant taking a woman who was not one’s own: for this reason, in Italian law—now rightly changed—rape was considered a crime against morality rather than against the person.