law, many improvements have been made. Cases are no longer decided based on the sexual history of the victim. Many jurisdictions have passed rape law reform statutes. Provisions in these bills provide for a gender-neutral view of rape. Michigan, hailed as the model feminist reform statute, punishes criminal sexual conduct; it is addressed not to men and women but to actors and victims. (Estrich 81) Over half of the jurisdictions have now adopted this gender-neutral approach to rape. Although this change in wording expands the definition of rape in certain respects, it narrows it in others. The term criminal sexual conduct has created a new set of problems. There is some debate as to whether rape is a sexual crime or a violent crime. The new terminology suggests that rape is more of a violent crime. The trouble is that a man can force sex upon a woman without resorting to violence. Therefore, the simple rape once again becomes no rape at all. The rape as violence approach may strengthen the case for punishing violent sex, but it may do so at the cost of obscuring the case for punishing forced sex in the absence of conventional violence, the usual pattern in the simple rape.(Estrich 83) The second problem with the new wording pertains to the specifics of what counts as sexual conduct. To combat this, some states have redefined intercourse to include not only oral and anal penetration but also any other intrusion, however slight, of any part of a persons body or of any object into the genital or anal openings of another persons body. Many reform statutes have also redefined sexual contact as any touching that can be reasonably construed as being for sexual purposes. These redefinitions are important because they break away from the male perspective of what intercourse is and approach exactly what makes a woman feel violated.Michigan, like other states, have also attempted to define rape in terms of the wrongdoings of the m...
