I have to join the "Don't lay down and let the criminal get away with it" crowd. I have also had the misfortune of having my been through an attempted home invasion. I actually had an entire gang of at least 20 people try to attack me in my home. I lived in an upstairs half of a fourplex(a house divided into 4 apartments) building and they even had the tweeker downstairs neighbors helping them by hiding some of them in their apartment when the cops showed up. Sadly i was on probation for a weapons charge which meant that i wasn't allowed to have any weapons. I also had no phone at the time and it was in the mid 90's before we all had cells. I had some friends over at the time so thankfully i wasn't home alone. One of them left and the gangbangers didn't relent until another friend brought over his mini-14.
Sadly they simply came back later to finish the job. I had the presence of mind to move all of my belongings out as i saw it coming. I was at a concert when it happened. When i came home, my tv and vcr where in the front yard busted up, and i had no front door. Rather than simply busting down the door they had actually removed the sections of wall around the door frame, which was laying in the living room. The entire apartment was graffitied up on the inside. I later learned that one of my roommates was in the shower when it happened and they brutalized him. No one was ever arrested for it.
My position on the self defense angle is simple. To not bring force against your attackers is not only naive, but selfish. Do you honestly believe you will be the only person that person violates? I now keep swords all over my home, i have over a decade of experience using them so even if someone breaks into my house and grabs one, they better hope they get lucky with it because they aren't likely to be more skilled with them. Even if i went to jail for killing a home invader i could at least take pride that there is one less person out there victimizing other people and i may have saved a potential future victims life.
I would also second that keeping a dog or 2 is a damn good idea. Even a little dog is a great alarm to give you a moments heads up. Sadly where i live it seems that affordable housing rarely allows you to have a dog. I would love to have a dog, but sadly it isn't an option since i'm not wealthy.
On a side note: Why the hell would anyone suggest an attempted rape charge? That is just stupid.
