[stsjvwor] Coase Theorem and sex

Rape, as an abstract economic problem, is about where a property line should be drawn.  Should the victim have the right to decide with whom to have sex?  Or should a perpetrator have the right to have sex with anyone?  Whose property are "your" sex organs?

Apply the Coase Theorem -- the property line does not matter so long as there is one -- and the result at first is absolutely mind boggling: we should be indifferent as to whether society should have a free-for-all permitting rape, or that rape should be punished by the justice system as an encroachment onto the victim's personal body.  But there's a catch.

The Coase Theorem assumes there are no transaction costs.  However, in the case of sex, contracts to move the property line are forbidden because of the ban on prostitution: the transaction cost is "go to jail", very high.  Economically, we have a government regulation causing market failure causing the tremendous social problem of rape, a problem that, on the face of it, seemed to have nothing to do with economics.