Over time, there has been major changes in what kind of harm rape has been considered to produce, and thus in the legal definition of rape and the justification for its punishment. Shifts in social norms, among other things resulting from feminist activism, have entailed discussions over legislation, investigation and prosecution of rape. In the Nordic countries, there are currently ongoing debates about the relationship between the social and legal definition of rape and between the seriousness of the crime and society’s capacity to prosecute it. Change in legislation is typically discussed as a means to align social and legal norms and ameliorate identified problems in the prosecution of rape. This paper presents these discussions and the assumed relationship between rape as a social, legislative and judicial problem in them.