The American Law Institute initiated a major structural shift in 1955 with the development of the Model Penal Code. Legal scholars argued that penal statutes should deter tangible societal harm and protect physical bodily autonomy rather than enforce private sectarian morality. The Model Penal Code recommended that state legislatures abolish criminal penalties for consensual adult activity conducted in private.
At the same time, the framework urged states to replace archaic euphemisms with explicit, gender-neutral descriptions of non-consensual sexual offenses. Instead of grouping all non-coital acts into a single moralistic bin, the code classified acts based on coercion, age disparities, and incapacitation.
Illinois became the first jurisdiction to adopt these principles, decriminalizing consensual private sodomy in 1961. Other states followed over subsequent decades, rewriting their statutes to create categories such as "criminal sexual assault," "deviate sexual intercourse," or "sexual battery." The Model Penal Code established that the defining element of criminal conduct must be the absence of consent, transforming the core function of American sexual assault jurisprudence.
