Which of these following cases is rape?

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A
A woman is drunk and a man is sober. She strongly comes on to him, initiates almost every, and after she's persistent about it, he agrees to have sex with her. The next day, she doesn't regret it at all.

B
Same situation as "A", but regrets ever sleeping with him and vows that if she were sober she wouldn't have came onto him.

C
Both the man and woman are equally drunk. The man pursues her and she agrees to have sex. The next day she has no regrets at all.

D
Same situation as "C" but she regrets ever sleeping with him.

E
A man is drunk and the woman is sober. The woman totally takes advantage of him and he enjoys it the whole time. The next day he has no regrets whatsoever.

I'm unsure about when both parties are drunk, but I know that in the eyes of the law A,B, and E would be.

Rape - the unlawful compelling of a person through physical force or duress to have sexual intercourse. Any act of sexual intercourse that is forced upon a person.

In West Virginia, a person commits sexual assault in the second degree by engaging in sexual intercourse or sexual intrusion with another person without that person's consent.

In Situation A, the woman, albeit drunk, consents to sex with the man. This isn't rape.
In Situation B, the woman, albeit drunk, consents to sex with the man. This isn't rape. She regrets it afterwards, but that doesn't change the fact there was no crime.
In Situation C, the woman, albeit drunk, consents to sex with the man. This is not rape.
In Situation D, the woman, albeit drunk, consents to sex with the man. This isn't rape. She regrets it afterwards, but that doesn't change the fact there was no crime.
In Situation E, the woman, in full control of her faculties, did willing take advantage of the man with his consent. This isn't rape.

I would rank "A" and "B" as rape because the woman is drunk and therefore unable to give consent unlike the sober man who is fully cognizant of his actions.

I would consider "C" and "D" to be a fault/fault since neither gender was capable of giving consent.

I would rank "E" as rape because it is the same situation as "A" but with the gender role reversed.

Retrospective withdrawal of consent doesn't have validity, there isn't an annulment of consent either.

If someone is drunk they can still give consent. By the same argument that some people who are not by your standards "cognizant" cannot ever consent therefore according to you not able to be sexual beings.

People get drunk in order to have encounters, and even if not it doesn't automatically imply they aren't giving it.

The law has to have a high standard because it presumes innocence, so if there is no way of determining guilt other than subjective, you can't make a law.

Of course if someone is so out of it, they cannot physically consent, then of course this is rape.

^^^ If someone is intoxicated, they cannot legally consent to sex.

This is simply not true. You don't lose your rights because you have had a few.

I personally would not consider any of those cases to be rape because they both decided to have sex. I think being drunk shouldn't matter because the person who is drunk made a conscious choice to drink in an environment with other people so he/she should own up to having made that choice.

@ak_born it is absurd to say A is rape. She is not even alleging rape. Are you saying there is a statutory rape for adults?

You are almost implying that with C and D that crimes cancel each other out. Of course it is down to the fact that no crime is brought.

CA criminal law (USA)

Relevant items:

A person is prevented from resisting if he or she is so intoxicated that he or she cannot give legal consent. In order to give legal consent, a person must be able to exercise reasonable judgment. In other words, the person must be able to understand and weigh the physical nature of the act, its moral character, and probable consequences. Legal consent is consent given freely and voluntarily by someone who knows the nature of the act involved.

Two beers? Probably not. If the person is legally intoxicated, they probably have a pretty good legal case if they pursue charges.

Last edited by MjrMajorMajor on 09 Aug 2013, 4:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I hold the view that four groups of people are unable to consent to sex. The easy way is think of the four Us

1. Under age
2. Under the infulance of drugs / drink
3. Unable to choose as a result of mental illness / disability
4. Unawake (sleeping or passed out)

So A,B, and E are all rape.

Woodpecker you are saying A or E is rape even if the person doesn't allege it?

This is from the UK Guardian:

"However, where the complainant has voluntarily consumed even substantial quantities of alcohol, but nevertheless remains capable of choosing whether or not to have intercourse, and in drink agrees to do so, this would not be rape."
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/mar/27/law.ukcrime

This is from The Telegraph: Chef accused of rape of drunken lawyer acquitted in 45 minutes.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... nutes.html

I think "levels" of drunk need to be clarified.

One gin and tonic - I'm feeling warm and fine.
Two gin and tonics - I'm feeling woozy.
Three gin and tonics - I'm feeling brave.
Four gin and tonics - That ugly girl sitting by herself in the back sure looks good to me.
Five gin and tonics - the awesome sound of breaking glass leads to me being handcuffed and carried off to jail.

A note about "regret."

Margie has sex with her husband Thomas on Tuesday night.

Wednesday, Margie complains to her girlfriend Hannah, "I'm sore but I only just wanted to make my husband happy. I shouldn't have done it. Now I'm all chafed and raw."

Margie regrets having sex with Thomas, but she doesn't call it rape because she'd consented.