State contexts and the criminalization of marital rape across the United States

• An event history analysis assesses the likelihood of marital rape criminalization.
• Marital rape criminalization varies across US states between 1978 and 2007.
• Marital rape criminalization depends on the expected marginal benefit of reform.
• Marital rape criminalization is more likely when women’s resources are greater.
• Marital rape criminalization is complicated by racial heterogeneity.

Spousal exemptions from rape prosecution persist in many US states’ criminal codes thereby compromising women’s rights to bodily self-control and personhood. Power resources theory—which emphasizes that given limited resources, groups act strategically to achieve goals—and gender stratification perspectives guided an event history analysis of the likelihood of marital rape criminalization in US states between 1978 and 2007. Findings suggest criminalization is influenced by the expected marginal benefit of law reform, women’s relative socioeconomic resources, and racial heterogeneity. This research highlights the importance of considering how existing laws, group resources, and intersecting social cleavages influence the expansion of women’s rights.