The notion that rape is an act of violence rather than sex is a central tenet in rape crisis support and education. A therapeutic benefit of this conceptualisation of rape is that it counters shame and guilt by affirming that the victim was not a complicit partner in an act of sex. However, this conceptualisation has recently been criticised for not capturing what makes rape an especially serious kind of wrong. This raises an apparent dilemma for rape crisis support. Recent work in analytic moral philosophy on the nature of rape offers a way to resolve this dilemma. It is argued that rape is not sex, but is nonetheless sexual. This distinction allows for a charitable reformulation of the central tenet in rape crisis support, which can facilitate the dual therapeutic aims of countering the sense of shame and of recognising the especially serious kind of the harm suffered by the victim.

强奸是暴力行为而非性行为的观念是强奸危机支持和教育的中心宗旨。这种强奸概念的治疗益处是，通过确认受害人不是性行为中的同谋伴侣，可以抵制羞愧和内。但是，这种概念化最近因没有抓住使强奸成为一种特别严重的错误的原因而受到批评。这给强奸危机的支持带来了明显的困境。关于强奸罪性质的分析性道德哲学的最新工作为解决这一难题提供了一种途径。有人认为，强奸不是性，而是性。这种区别允许在强奸危机支持中对慈善宗旨的慈善重新表述，