By modern times I mean before Industrialization and the growth of cities, even though cities probably made rape and similar crimes much easier. It just occurred to me how recent it is that people can come out and actually prove these things, and was wondering since so many shows kind of portray it as a common thing that no one cared about that much.
I'll speak on France, as it's probably the easiest to talk about.
Outside of a warzone, or banditry, Rape was not something that happened ALL THE TIME in the high middle ages. Sure it did happen, but it wasn't just a rape fest happening all the time. However, from the records we have, there were VERY low reported cases inside of France. From the Regisre de I'Officialalite de Cersiry begining in 1314, for a period of 85 years there was only 12 cases of rape, or rather, reported rape. This was likely because of the heavy burden of proof put on the accuser of it. They HAD to have a witness to the act, and they had to prove they actually resisted the act. After all in this period of history women were viewed as the far more libidious gender. If there were no witnesses, the accused was absolved of all guilt. And to go further, to get an actual day in court, you had to be rather rich and noble. This wasn't modern times with paid leave. You had to be home to tend to the kids, tend to the harvest, work on clothing, ect ect. Infact Out of the 12 cases of reported rape in the Regisre de I'Officialalite de Cersiry in 1314-1399 10 were actually clergymen.
Source: Crime and Punishment in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age (Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture) by Albrecht Classen, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA; Connie Scarborough, Texas Tech University, Dallas, USA.