A person generally commits the criminal offense of rape by using force, threats of force, coercion, or fraud to have non-consensual sexual intercourse with another person. In some states this criminal offense is called sexual assault. Rape is a felony offense with significant jail or prison time as potential punishment.

Laws vary from state to state and some state laws also include in the definition of rape sexual intercourse with a person who is intoxicated by drugs or alcohol, unconscious, or mentally disabled and unable to consent to the sexual intercourse. And some states have a broad definition of the lack of consent to sexual contact constituting rape and include sexual contact with public servants (police officers, etc.), members of the clergy, mental health service providers, and employees of assisted living centers or nursing homes as lacking consent under some circumstances.

In some states it is rape or sexual assault for a health care services provider performing an assisted reproduction procedure to use human reproductive material from a donor other than the patient’s intended donor.

Rape or sexual assault laws are generally located in a state’s statutes—often in the penal or criminal code.

In California, rape is defined under Penal Code Section 261 as an act of sexual intercourse accomplished with a person not the spouse of the perpetrator, under certain conditions including force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury on the person or another. Additionally, California law considers it rape if the victim is incapable of giving legal consent due to a mental disorder or developmental or physical disability, and this is known or reasonably should be known to the person committing the act. Intoxication of the victim, where the victim is unable to resist, is also grounds for rape. Furthermore, California recognizes that sexual intercourse with a person who is unconscious or asleep, or where fraud is used to obtain the victim's consent, is rape. The state also has specific laws regarding sexual battery and sexual assault on incapacitated individuals, including those in custodial situations, such as with law enforcement officers, clergy members, mental health service providers, and employees of assisted living or nursing homes. The crime of rape in California is a felony and carries severe penalties, including imprisonment. California does not have a specific statute addressing the misuse of human reproductive material by health care providers in assisted reproduction, but such actions could potentially be prosecuted under existing sexual assault or fraud statutes.