| Summary: | This essay is based on a qualitative study of Swedish high school students’ discussions of rape. We have a socialconstructive perspective and use theories of gender and power. The purpose of the study is to acknowledge teenagers’ views of rape, sexual relationships and the law. The study consists of four focusgroupinterviews with eighteen year old students. We divided the students into genderequal groups, two girlsgroups and two boysgroups. The groups were asked to define rape, discuss different examples and their perception of the law. The study shows that the teenagers on a principle level can articulate what is and what is not rape. However, when it comes to discussing actual situations they express ambiguous thoughts. On one hand they claim that everything that is not concentual sex is rape. Nonetheless, at the same time, they show a reluctance to define any of our examples as rape. It is evident that their definition of rape involves violence and/or threats. Their idea of rape is based on the swedish word våldtäkt, which implies that violence is a part of the assault. Since our examples are not violent, but taken from every day situations that occur in teenagers’ lives, they will not call them rape. Although the teenagers are aware that a lot of the sexual assaults that occur happen in relationships, they still maintain the picture of a violent attack or a hostile situation. The teenagers view boys and girls differently and see men as the strong violaters and women as the week victims. It becomes apparent that the teenagers do not have all the knowledge about the new law and that they have trouble with the interpretations.
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