Reasons advanced to explain the increase in rape include the increasing violence and promiscuity in society, women's greater willingness to acknowledge and report rape, and increasing acknowledgement and reporting of sexual assaults against children. Rhode Island experienced a 503-percent increase in rapes from 1970 to 1984. The numbers of arrests dropped during the 1980's. Arrests generally involved males aged 22 or over. Rapes were most common in cities, especially Providence, where the rate is higher than in 18 of 36 other metropolitan areas of similar size. Rhode Island has a higher rate of rape than much of New England, but a lower rate than most of the rest of the United States. Victims and offenders knew one another or were related in about half the cases in which the relationship was reported. Almost 60 percent of the victims were between ages 13 and 18. Seventy-one percent of the rapes reported to police between 1980 and 1985 were forcible. Gang rapes and incest rapes increased substantially between 1983 and 1984. Text of Rhode Island laws defining sexual assault is included.