sexual-offences
Can having sex with a partner ever be considered a rape?
<p>Does a partner must seek permission each time he/she wants to have sex?</p>
<p>Is there any act of husband or wife which can be considered as rape?</p>

<p><a href="/questions/tagged/germany" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;germany&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;germany&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="tag-germany-tooltip-container">germany</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Is there any act of husband or wife which can be considered as rape?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The paragraph for sexual offences is <a href="https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/stgb/__177.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">§177 StGb</a>. Obviously there are nuances between those offences, not everything is &quot;rape&quot;, but all of it is illegal.</p>
<p>To answer your question, yes, the same acts that are considered rape when they are not husband and wife. While marriage had been an exception, this was considered archaic by many and this exception was removed in 1997:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Vergewaltigung in der Ehe ist seit Juli 1997 strafbar. Mit dem 33. Strafrechtsänderungsgesetz wurde das Merkmal außerehelich aus dem Tatbestand der Vergewaltigung, § 177 StGB, gestrichen, sodass seitdem auch die eheliche Vergewaltigung als ein Verbrechen geahndet wird.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Translation:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Marital rape has been punishable since July 1997. With the 33rd Criminal Law Amendment Act, the characteristic &quot;extramarital&quot; was removed from the definition of rape, § Section 177 of the Criminal Code, so that since then marital rape has also been punished as a crime.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is no mention of how consent is to be expressed or even that it needs to be expressed explicitely.</p>

<p><a href="/questions/tagged/switzerland" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;switzerland&#39;" aria-label="show questions tagged &#39;switzerland&#39;" rel="tag" aria-labelledby="tag-switzerland-tooltip-container">switzerland</a></p>
<p>There's just a large political debate going on about an update of the relevant article 190 of the Swiss criminal code. The debate is mainly about the destinction between &quot;only yes means yes&quot; and &quot;no means no&quot;. I think it's mostly a philosophic question, but in the core it's about whether permission must be <em>explicitly</em> given or if an explicit no of a partner is required to refuse sex. (<a href="https://action.amnesty.ch/de/nur-ja-heisst-ja/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Article on the debate here</a> - note that the comment there might be biased)</p>
<p>Additionaly (and as far as I know mostly undisputed) a change will be made that allows a rape investigation against all sexes. So far, in Switzerland, only men could be convicted for rape.</p>
