married couples. The 1962 Model Penal Code repeated the marital rape exemption, stating: A male who has sexual intercourse with a female not his wife is guilty of rape if: .... Reforms of marital rape laws in the United States began in the mid-1970s with the criminalization of marital rape. The earlier laws of the 1970s often required the husband and wife to no longer be living together for marital rape charges to be brought. The case in the United States that first challenged this cohabitation clause was Oregon v. Rideout in 1978. Although the husband was acquitted of raping his wife, it spurred the movement towards reform. By 1993 marital rape was a crime in all 50 states. Still, in the 1990s, most states continued to differentiate between the way marital rape and non-marital rape was viewed and treated. The laws have continued to change and evolve, with most states reforming their laws in the 21st century. But there are still states, like South Carolina, where marital and non-marital rape are treated quite differently under the law. In the 1990s, most states differentiated between the way marital rape and non-marital rape were treated. These differences were visible through shorter penalties, taking into account whether or not violence was used, and allowing for shorter reporting periods. (Bergen, 1996; Russell, 1990). The laws have continued to change and evolve, with most states reforming their legislation in the 21st century, in order to bring marital rape laws in line with non-marital rape, but even today there remain differences in some states. With the removal, in 2005, of the requirement of a higher level of violence from the law of Tennessee, which now allows for marital rape in Tennessee to be treated like any other type of rape, South Carolina remains the only US state with a law requiring excessive force/violence (the force or violence used or threatened must be of a "high and aggravated nature"). In most states the criminalization has occurred by the removal of the exemptions from the general rape law by legislation, or by courts striking down such exemptions as unconstitutional. Some states have created a distinct crime of spousal rape. California, for example, has separate criminal offenses for rape (Article 261) and for spousal rape (Article 262). England and Wales Background Although the issue of marital rape was highlighted by feminists in the 19th century, and was also