A brief legal history of marital rape is offered, followed by a discussion of the occurrence of marital rape, including the social characteristics of survivors, the types of marital rape, and the risk factors for marital rape. The effects of marital rape are examined and practitioners’ interventions with marital rape survivors are reviewed. While rape in marriage is a serious and prevalent form of violence against women, until recently it was not considered a crime by a large segment of society. Even today, 50 percent of male college students do not believe that a man can rape his wife. Marital rape became a crime in all 50 States on July 5, 1993 and as of May 2005 there are no exemptions from rape prosecution for husbands in 20 States and in the District of Columbia. While marital rape has been found to occur across all ages, races, social classes, and geographic locations, research has indicated that nearly two-thirds of marital rape survivors were first raped by their husbands when they were under the age of 25 years. Risk factors for marital rape include a history of being battered by the husband, pregnancy, and attempting to leave the violent relationship. Research on the effects of marital rape has indicated that the experience often has severe and long-lasting physical and psychological consequences for women. Long-term effects include disordered eating, sleep problems, depression, and sexual distress. Interventions with marital rape survivors range from the responses of police and the criminal justice system to health care providers, religious advisors, advocates and counselors, and battered women’s programs. Future research should comprehensively examine how health care providers and police respond to the problem of marital rape. References, resources