A brief introduction to rape and its study provides a context for subsequent chapters which examine rape from a situational-dramaturgic perspective. The situation of rape is explored in a presentation of a typology of types of situations in which rapes occur and its frequencies and distributions. The investigation shows that certain social circumstances permit rape to occur. More detailed aspects of the social situation are also examined, with a focus on the relationships and interactions within the rape situation. These include the time and place of the crime, the victim-offender relationship, and the opening and sequence of the rape. The study also deals with the initial societal reaction to rape in the work of the police and the work of police detectives, covering their interaction with the victim and their investigation of rape in the context of a bureaucratic organization. Other topics include an ethnomethodological perspective on police handling of false reports of rape and an explanation of rape in terms of the social role of men and women, as well as an appeal to alter the social consciousness regarding rape. The study proposes several ideas concerning rape, proper victim response, and effective and appropriate social reactions, many of which deviate from popular views. It asserts that women victims should always try to resist, if only for their own self-esteem. It argues that passive women cannot fend off rapists, that rapists are opportunistic men who give no thought to the harm they do to their victims, and that long-range prevention lies in the reconceptualization of rape and its victims and in the treatment of women as serious, whole human beings. Notes, tabular data, a detailed presentation of methodology, and a bibliography of approximately 82 citations are given. (Author abstract modified)