Legal Definitions in the EU Member States

A person who by violent action or direct menace against life or limb forces a woman to have sexual intercourse, or uses the incapacity of the woman for defence or for the manifestation of her will for sexual intercourse, commits a felony and shall be punishable with imprisonment between two to eight years.

Ireland has two legal definitions of rape:

1.A man commits rape if (a) he has unlawful sexual intercourse with a woman who at the time of the intercourse does not consent to it, and (b) at that time he knows that she does not consent to the intercourse or he is reckless as to whether she does or does not consent to it, and references to rape in this Act and any other enactment shall be construed accordingly.

2. Asexual assault that includes (a) penetration (however slight) of the anus or mouth by the penis, or (b) penetration (however slight) of the vagina by any object held or manipulated by another person.

Whoever, by force or by threat or abuse of authority, forcing another person to commit or suffer sexual acts shall be punished with imprisonment from five to ten years.

For a person who commits an act of sexual intercourse by means of violence, threats or taking advantage of the state of helplessness of a victim (rape), the applicable punishment is deprivation of liberty for a term of not less than two and not exceeding ten years, probationary supervision for a term not exceeding three years.

A person who has sexual intercourse with a person against his will by using physical violence or threatening the immediate use thereof, or by otherwise depriving of a possibility of resistance or by taking advantage of the helpless state of the victimshall be punished by imprisonment for a term of up to seven years.

Any act of sexual penetration, of whatever nature, by any means whatsoever, committed on a person who does not consent, including using violence or serious threats by ruse or artifice, or abusing a person incapable of giving consent or free to oppose resistance, constitutes rape and shall be punished by imprisonment of five to ten years.

Whosoever shall, by violence, have carnal knowledge of a person of either sex, shall, on conviction, be liable to imprisonment for a term from three to nine years, with or without solitary confinement.

He who, by force or another factuality, or by threat of violence or another factuality, compels someone to be subjected to actions consisting of or also consisting of the sexual penetration of the body, will be charged with rape and punished with imprisonment of maximum 12 years or a penalty of the fifth category.

Whoever, by force, illegal threat or deceit subjects another person to sexual intercourse shall be subject to the penalty of the deprivation of liberty for a term of between 2 and 12 years.

It is an offense to use violence, force, or serious threat, or to make a person unconscious or unable to resist, in order to have vaginal, oral or anal sexual intercourse with the victim or enabling someone else to do so, or to insert body parts or any other objects into the vagina or anus.

The sexual act, of any kind, with a person of the opposite sex or of the same sex by forcing that person or by taking advantage of his or her impossibility to defend herself/himself or to express his/her will

Rape is committed by a person who forced a woman to engage in sexual intercourse (coitus) by using violence or threat of immediate violence, or who for such an act abuses a woman’s vulnerable situation.