The imbalance of minimum obligatory parental investment between sexes has imposed distinct and often conflicting adaptive problems for males and females. One such adaptive problem faced by the less investing sex (males) is the acquisition of more reproductive opportunities with members of the more investing sex. One potential solution to this problem is the use of sexual coercion or force to nullify female mate choice. Although males of many species have been observed to employ coercion or force to achieve copulation, the extent to which human sexual coercion and rape are evolved behaviors remains an open question. The present chapter is a brief review of the comparative literature, as well as empirical research from a wide range of domains within human psychology, weighing support for both the adaptation and byproduct theories of rape in humans. The similarities in the sexually coercive behaviors of nonhuman primates, heritability of sexual offending, and the potential adaptive benefit of sexual coercion across various mating contexts provide considerable support for the evolution of rape in humans. Nevertheless, support in favor of the adaptation theory of rape is not necessarily exclusionary to the byproduct theory. Therefore, there remains a need for additional evolutionary research to contribute to this open question.