Anti-rape device
any device designed to prevent, punish, or deter rape; but in particular prototypes that received wide press coverage
An anti-rape device is one of a variety of devices invented for the purpose of preventing or deterring rape. The first such devices were the chastity belts of the 15th century. Although a number of devices have been proposed, none of them are in commercial production as of 2017.
Statistics
Some of the most well-known anti-rape devices were proposed in South Africa, a country with a high incidence of rape and a low rate of successful convictions. South African activists argue that the legal system has not been effective in preventing or reducing rape and other violent acts against women.
According to a 2001 World Health Organization study, 20% of women worldwide had been victims of rape or attempted rape at least once in their lives. According to figures from a 2011 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in five women in America are victims of sexual assault. More than 40% of these reported that they were first raped before they were 18 years old.
Types of devices
Physical deterrents
A number of concepts have been proposed for physical deterrents to rape, and although they attracted media attention, none of them have gone into production.
Jaap Haumann
An early prototypical anti-rape female tampon was invented in late 2000 by Jaap Haumann, a South African man, for the purpose of preventing rape.
“Anti-rape device” enters the record as any device designed to prevent, punish, or deter rape; but in particular prototypes that received wide press coverage. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Anti-rape, device and designed can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q570849. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2017, 2001, 2011 and 2000.
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This entry incorporates text from “Anti-rape device” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.