The current reformulation of the Canadian legal definition of rape proposes that rape is an act of assault (i.e., motivated by aggression). Psychological literature has, until recently, considered rape a sex act and has assumed that the motivation of rapists is sexual in nature. This paper reviews the rape literature in terms of such "motivations," and an overview shows that the attribution of motives has resulted in unnecessary confusion and contradictions. Studies based on non-motivational premises (i.e., attitude studies) are also included, and these studies seem to avoid the confusion by classifying rapists according to their responses rather than their motivations.