RCC's have developed, especially in the U.S. and Canada, in the period since 1972, when the feminist movement focused particular attention on the sociopolitical implications of rape and the fate of victims after the crime. Local stucies and general research supported feminists' efforts for improved victim assistance. Research also showed that rape was not exclusively and act of pathological offenders but a means used by males to reinforce sterotype views on the sexes and on the nature of relationships between the sexes. Rape became a soiopolitical problem that affected everyone, and the RCC's intended to provide the services so long denied victims, e.g., crisis intervention, housing, and protection. From the original telephone hot lines, RCC's have expanded their goals to include legal reform and modification of institutional structures conducive to rape. Some centers have evolved into general shelter and assistance centers for women. They explode the myths about male-female relationships which encourage rape and establish sexual norms. Such centers presume that by changing the subordinate role of women they will eliminate the problem of rape. By transforming victim rage into social action, they hope to help victims while altering the social situation and correcting the misconceptions which lead to the traumatic secondary effects of rape. American RCC's in particular are feminist-inspired organizations, with connections to the counterculture and the New Left. The self-help movements with their antiestablishment ideology of deprofessionalization has its roots in criticism of official agencies for assistance. The action philosophy comes from the civil rights movement; client participation is encouraged. Such centers are thus of radical origin but also stress the classical values of humanism, idealism, altruism, a sense of community, and political morals. Notes and a bibliography of approximately 150 entries are supplied.