The recent past has seen an increase in the number of rape cases around the world, although some countries are unlikely to have witnessed an increase of rape cases; in some countries there has been a very drastic increase, which is causing fear and unrest in societies; faced mostly by the female part of society. Most people believe that in a rape case the rapist and the victim did not share a sexual relationship, let alone that they might be quite close to each other, however this is often not the case; sexual violence also exists in marriages. Different countries and therefore different constitutions view marital rape in different ways; with the result that they punish the crime(s) differently; comparing this to non-marital rapes might produce an interesting pattern. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The rise in rape cases has skyrocketed and is rising to epidemic levels; “one in ten women” (Abraham, 2017) has suffered sexual abuse at least once in their life, it is important to find out why men rape women. Men guilty of rape often act under pressure to have sex, the situation could be aggravated if the person is an alcoholic or enjoys watching rape porn, it is also interesting to see that empathetic people do not tend to attempt sexual violence (Murphy, 2017) . An increase in sexual imbalance is another cause that leads to increased rape rates (Dang, Kulkarni, & Gaiha, 2017). The physical and mental effects of rape can be horrific and often traumatic; however, the mental toll that rape has on women far outweighs the physical effects: it is PTSD, depression which can then lead to suicidal thoughts and can even lead to suicide attempts. A rape victim may feel disorganised, lost and often has problems trusting other people, this can lead to drug and alcohol abuse which can make the victim's situation even worse (effects of sexual assault and rape). So an increase in levels of rape can lead to a large portion of the population having such problems; this can prove disastrous for a country's stable growth both economically and socially, so rapid actions are needed to control this epidemic. Most First World countries have strong and fair laws that punish marital or spousal rape quite severely, but unfortunately women in some countries do not share the same fate. There are 36 countries around the world that legalize spousal rape, these countries include: India, Ghana, Indonesia, Jordan, Lesotho, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Tanzania, etc. The most disturbing fact among these is that in 4 of these countries it is legal to rape your spouse even if she is still a child. For example, the Constitution of Ghana states that: “consent given by the husband or wife to marriage, for the purposes of marriage, cannot be revoked” (Shugerman, 2017). Let's use the example of India, the Indian constitution considers sexual violence as an act of domestic violence and therefore it is punished under the Domestic Violent Act, 2005, and the rapist is punished only if the sexual act is very painful or in case where his life is in danger (Rath, 2007). Furthermore, India is one of the few countries that punishes sexual (non-marital) violence with the death penalty, so the bitter truth is that marital rape is not punished as severely as non-marital rape in countries like India., 2017).