Denmark takes the crime of rape very seriously and has traditionally handed out severe punishment for sexual offenders. However, the goal of the criminal justice system should be to prevent the crime of rape from occurring in the first place, rather than just punishing offenders after the fact. In an effort to move toward the prevention of rape, the current study explored risk factors specific to rape by comparing a group of boys born in Denmark in 1966 who had been convicted of rape (N=96) between the ages of 15 to 27 years with a sample of Denmark boys born in 1966 who had not been convicted of rape (N=43,307). Potential risk factors were derived from Danish population-based registers and included factors such as health, family, education, and employment. Risk factors for rape were also compared to risk factors for violence among the 1,936 males in the sample that had been convicted of a violent crime. Results of statistical analyses indicated similarities between the young men convicted of rape and the young men convicted of other violent crimes. The findings support the notion of an anti-social personality but identifying the particular risk factors for rape remains exceedingly difficult. In terms of prevention, the findings suggest that prevention programs can be designed for those more at risk of being violent, but identifying the future rapists within the group is an unlikely proposition. Footnotes, tables, references, appendixes