Court Opinion

ID: 9652507
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:24:54.109435+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:51.939163
License: Public Domain

concurring and dissenting.
The majority in its opinion correctly states that the crime of rape, as set forth in 18 Pa.C.S. § 3121, is the forcible penetration of any of the three defined orifices of a female by a male.1 This interpretation follows the traditional concept of rape in the sense that rape is a male crime. See, *255e.g., Wharton’s Criminal Law § 286 (14th ed. 1979).2 Furthermore, this interpretation appears to follow the intention of the drafters of the Model Penal Code, from which the language of our statute was derived. The drafters of the Model Penal Code clearly stated that the law of rape was intended to punish male aggression against females. See, Model Penal Code § 213.1 comment 8 (Proposed Official Draft 1962). It is the limitation of rape to a male crime which creates the necessity for other offenses covering male intrusions by parts of the body other than the penis or intrusions by females.
Additionally, I agree with the majority that the offense of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, 18 Pa.C.S. § 3123,3 is gender neutral. According to the drafters of the Model Penal Code, this statute was drafted in gender-neutral terms, despite the continued use of the word “he”, and applies to sexual imposition by one male upon another or by one female upon another. Involuntary deviate sexual intercourse encompasses situations concerning homosexual assaults and assaults with bodily parts other than a penis, ie., tongue and appendages. The offense also applies to heterosexual assaults per os or per anus with a penis or other bodily part. It does not include vaginal penetration by the male penis as does rape. This distinction is the basis for characterizing the conduct as deviate intercourse under 18 Pa.C.S. § 3123 and § 3214 (voluntary deviate sexual intercourse).
*256However, I cannot concur with the majority’s statement, “This provision [involuntary deviate sexual intercourse] is equally clear, the gravamen is the same as the crime of rape, i.e., forcible sexual penetration of a person by another, the difference is that the crime is not confined to gender or to human beings.” At 1161. Involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, while containing essentially the same elements of rape, does not punish the same societal concerns as rape. The present definitions perpetuate the traditional distinction between sodomy and rape. Rape seeks to punish the violent and non-consensual element of an act of sexual intercourse. In contrast, the deviate sexual intercourse statutes, as was the case in the common law crime of sodomy, are directed to punish those sexual acts which society finds repugnant. Therefore, an assailant may be charged with rape, for the assaultive nature of the offense, and with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, for the nature of the act itself. The nonconsensual element of deviate sexual intercourse merely exacerbates the offense. 18 Pa.C.S. § 3123. Under my view there would be no merger of these offenses.' However, I find it difficult to understand how the majority could reach the position of no merger and embrace the premise that involuntary deviate sexual intercourse possesses the same gravamen as the crime of rape.
Moreover, the resolution of the issue of merger appears to have been unnecessary considering the fact that neither party sought review of that issue. The allocatur was granted for the limited purpose of resolving the split of the lower courts on the meaning of “sexual intercourse” as it is described in 18 Pa.C.S. § 3121.
Therefore, I concur in the majority’s affirmance of the convictions of rape and statutory rape, but dissent on the remand for resentencing.
ZAPPALA, J., joins in this concurring and dissenting opinion.
*257ZAPPALA, Justice,

. This offense is limited to the assault by the insertion of the male penis.

. But, see, Commonwealth v. Henninger, 25 D & C 3d 625 (1981) (woman charged with statutory rape); also, see, Soifer, Revision of the Law of Sex Crimes in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 78 Dick.L.Rev. 73, 77-78 (1973).

. § 3123. Involuntary deviate sexual intercourse
A person commits a felony of the first degree when he engages in deviate sexual intercourse with another person:
(1) by forcible compulsion;
(2) by threat of forcible compulsion that would prevent resistance by a person of reasonable resolution;
(3) who is unconscious;
(4) who is so mentally deranged or deficient that such person is incapable of consent; or
(5) who is less than 16 years of age.