The Criminal Justice System has repeatedly been criticised for not considering how sexual victimisation may cause psychological trauma and how trauma, in turn, may shape responses to criminal victimisation (Campbell 2022; Ellison and Munro 2017; Herman, 2003). It has also been argued that trauma may explain why many rape victims ‘freeze’ or do not fight off the attacker when assaulted. In Norway, unlike in some other countries, the freeze response is acknowledged by the Criminal Justice System as a possible and legitimate response to sexual violence (Houge and Laugerud 2023). In this chapter, Laugerud analyses Norwegian case law to investigate the use of the freeze-response-model in legal decisions regarding rape. In an examination of all rape verdicts in Norwegian appellate courts that include a reference to the freeze response, she investigates when and how this model becomes relevant in rape verdicts and unpack the ways in which it matters (or not) in the processing of the case. The purpose of this chapter is to consider how a scientific biomedical model of fear performs in legal processes and to compare it to competing models that explain victims’ apparent passive response to rape. Competing models include sleep, intoxication and in-between-positions conceptualised as liminal hotspots (Houge and Laugerud 2023; Laugerud 2023a; 2023b; Stenner 2017). The primary aim of this chapter is to further conceptualise victims’ responses to rape.