From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishthe rape of somethingthe rape of somethingthe unnecessary destruction of something, especially the environment companies which profit from the rape of the Earth → rape
Examples from the Corpus
the rape of something• The Romans celebrated the rape of the Sabine Women by Romulus and his men.• Many people I know deplore the digging of these cant quarries and call them ugly eyesores and the rape of the country.• He gave a ten-year prison sentence for this as opposed to two years for one of the rapes of women.• A matter of murder-more than one murder, highway robbery and probably the rape of a young girl too.• This, though less hazardous than the rape of Persephone, was perilous enough to satisfy the most ambitious.• Arrest over teenage rape A man has been arrested in connection with the rape of a teenager in Essex.• Williams was keenly aware of what was happening with the rapes of black women and lynchings of black men. 