Acquaintance rape
Acquaintance rape is
Most rapes are perpetrated by a person known to the victim. However, acquaintance rape is less likely to be reported than stranger rape. Thus, crime statistics often underestimate the prevalence of acquaintance rape compared to national surveys. The legal consequences of acquaintance rape are the same as for stranger rape.
Origin of the term
Studies distinguishing between stranger rape and those by a person known to the victim go back to the 1950s, when a study examining American police rape files from 1958 and 1960 found about half were alleged to have been committed by men who knew their victims. The phrase acquaintance rape was first used in print in 1982 by feminist writer and activist Diana Russell.[8]: 395 She used it as an umbrella term to cover all rapes involving people who know one another, in her write-up of a study of 930 women in San Francisco in which she found that 35% reported having experienced rape or attempted rape by an acquaintance, compared with 11% who reported being raped by strangers. In 1988 American feminist writer Robin Warshaw published I Never Called It Rape, the first major book on acquaintance rape.[9]
Prevalence
Most rape is committed by someone the victim knows. In the United States, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) has reported that 45 percent of sexual assaults are committed by an acquaintance and an additional 25 percent by a current or former intimate partner.[10]
A 2004–05 study of 30 predominantly European countries by the
In the U.S., acquaintance rape frequently takes the form of
A 1992 study of reported rapes in inner-city and suburban Johannesburg, South Africa found 80% of rapes of adult women were perpetrated by strangers, often by men who abducted them at gunpoint on their way to work or broke into their houses. However, the majority of rapes of girls under 16 years of age were perpetrated by people known to them, usually family or friends, and sometimes gang members.[15]
In India, anti-rape campaigns tend to focus on "custodial rape": that is, rape of a woman by a man in a custodial position with higher status than hers, such as a landlord, policeman, or employer.[16]
A 2005 study by the World Health Institute found that in Ethiopia almost all sexual violence is perpetrated by the husband or boyfriend of the victim.[17]
Types
Acquaintance rape is a broad category that includes all rapes except those perpetrated by people previously unknown to the rape victim.
Rape of domestic and migrant workers by their employers has been reported in many countries including Kuwait,[18][19] the United Arab Emirates,[18] Saudi Arabia,[20] Malaysia,[18] Singapore[18] and Indonesia.[21]
College samples
Although date rape is a sub-section of acquaintance rape, many studies conducted with college student samples include both acquaintances and dating partners in the same category. All of the following studies on rape victimization among college women cited in this sub-section include non-dating acquaintances (for example, family members, friends, or classmates) as well as dating partners (such as boyfriends) in their questions on the characteristics of the rape perpetrator. Some studies have estimated that 90% of rapes perpetrated against college-age women are acquaintance rapes (Crawford et al. 2008; Fisher et al. 2000). A 2007 study by the National Crime Victims Research & Treatment Center that surveyed a nationally representative sample of over 5,000 women, including 3,000 college women, found that, among the college women, over 50% of forcible rapes and about 70% of drug-facilitated or incapacitated rapes were perpetrated by an acquaintance (Kilpatrick et al. 2007).
Community samples
The National Crime Victims Research & Treatment Center compared rape rates of college students and community women. (Kilpatrick et al. 2007) The study found that, compared to college students, women in the general population had higher rates of lifetime rape (18% vs 12%) and lifetime forcible rape (15% vs 6%). The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey conducted by the
Motivations
Acquaintance rape is a broad category, and so the motivations of acquaintance rapists are varied. However, researchers say that acquaintance rapists generally share common characteristics: the ability to enjoy sex even with someone who is intoxicated, crying, pleading, resisting, vomiting and/or unconscious, and an exaggerated sense of entitlement and lack of guilt, remorse, empathy and compassion for others. Researchers say acquaintance rapists' primary motivation is sexual gratification, and that they tend to see their actions as seduction, not rape.[1]
A study of 15 upper-middle-class American non-stranger rapists found many described their fathers as both physically and emotionally distant, and expressed hostility towards women and a desire to dominate them, and held hyper-masculine attitudes. One researcher theorized that men who have healthy relationships with their fathers may have less need to define themselves in opposition to women and be less inclined to "hypermasculine displays of male superiority."[23]
Researchers say gang rape is motivated by a desire to show off, to be part of a group, or fear of being ostracized by other men or boys if they don't participate.[24] Researchers say marital rape is not about sex and is instead about control, power, violence and humiliation.[25]
Effects
The large majority of rape victims do not sustain physical injury apart from the penetration itself. Contrary to what is often assumed, stranger rape is less likely to cause physical injury than acquaintance rape, particularly rape by a current or former intimate partner: 24% of women raped by a stranger sustain physical injury additional to the penetration, compared with 40–50% of women raped by a current or former partner.[13]
Reporting
The circumstances of the rape and relationship between the victim and the perpetrator do not change the legal definition of rape. Although acquaintance rape is well-represented among rapes that are reported to authorities, surveys show that they are much more likely than stranger rapes to go unreported. One American study found that less than 2% of victims of acquaintance rape had reported their rape to the police, compared with 21% of those raped by a stranger.[2]
Cases involving acquaintances that are not reflected in crime statistics have been labeled hidden rape (Koss et al. 1988). For example, one national survey of college women showed that 29% of stranger rapes versus 3% of acquaintance rapes were reported to the police. The findings are similar among community women where 34% of stranger rapes and 13% of acquaintance rapes are reported (Kilpatrick et al. 2007). Among the reasons that acquaintance rapes may not be reported are that victims do not self-identify as rape victims. Not realizing or not choosing to view as rape an experience that involved force or alcohol/drug-facilitated penetration when unable to consent has been called unacknowledged rape. It is a well-accepted finding first reported in the late 1980s (Koss et al., 1988) repeated in the early 2000s (Fisher et al., 2003) and most recently replicated by Kilpatrick et al. 2007. Unacknowledged rape is more common in college students raped by acquaintances (23%) compared to strangers (55%). Among community women, those who acknowledge the incident as rape are more likely to report than those who do not (21% vs 6%). Women who had been drinking alcohol or using drugs at the time of the rape are less likely to report the experience to authorities (Kilpatrick et al. 2007; Fisher et al. 2003). Other reasons that rape victims who have been raped by a known perpetrator may be less likely to report are feelings of shame, self-blame for the rape, fear of not being believed, not wanting to stir up controversy in social or familial circles, and not wanting to get their acquaintance in trouble (Kilpatrick et al. 2007). These feelings are all encouraged by traditional rape myths that perpetuate the stereotype that acquaintance rapes are not “real” rapes (Estrich, 1987).
References
Citations
- ^ ISBN 978-1449648695.
- ^ ISBN 978-0803973619.
- ISBN 9780495807490.
- ISBN 978-0823928613.
- ISBN 978-0823933037.
- ISBN 9780495912460.
- ^ ISBN 9781585622948.
- ISBN 9780026061902.
For example, he refers to wife rape as involving "acts of a less egregious kind' -- less egregious presumably than stranger and acquaintance rape
- ^ ISBN 978-0520210929.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-44-084489-8.
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- ^ ISBN 978-9004202634.
- ISBN 978-0874368789.
- ISBN 978-1564321626.
- ISBN 978-1440156007.
- ^ "WHO Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence against Women: Initial results on prevalence, health outcomes and women's responses" (PDF). World Health Organization. 2005. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
- ^ ISBN 978-0742525009.
- ^ "Punishing the Victim: Rape and Mistreatment of Asian Maids in Kuwait" (PDF). Middle East Watch Women's Rights Project (Human Rights Watch) Vol. 4 Issue 8. August 1992. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
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(help) - ISBN 978-1564323514.
- ^ "Swept Under the Rug: Abuses Against Domestic Workers Around the World" (PDF). Human Rights Watch. 18 (7). July 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-10-12. Retrieved 13 June 2014.
- ^ Black, M.C.; Basile, K.C.; Breiding, M.J.; Smith, S.G.; Walters, M.L.; Merrick, M.T.; Chen, J.; Stevens, M.R. (2011). "The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS): 2010 Summary Report" (PDF). Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- ISBN 978-0842025997.
- ISBN 978-0231096751.
- ISBN 978-0786408238.
Sources
- Crawford, E.; Wright, M. O. D.; Birchmeier, Z. (2008). "Drug-Facilitated Sexual Assault: College Women's Risk Perception and Behavioral Choices". Journal of American College Health. 57 (3): 261–72. S2CID 25514008.
- Estrich, S. (1987). Real Rape. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674749443.
- Fisher, B. S.; Daigle, L. E.; Cullen, F. T.; Turner, M. G. (2003). "Acknowledging sexual victimization as rape: Results from a national-level study". Justice Quarterly. 20 (3): 535. S2CID 145617521.
- Fisher, B.S., Cullen, F.T., Turner, M.G. (2000). The Sexual Victimization of College Women. Research Report. Washington, D.C. Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice.
- Fisher, B. S.; Daigle, L. E.; Cullen, F. T.; Turner, M. G. (2003). "Reporting Sexual Victimization to the Police and Others: Results from a National-Level Study of College Women". Criminal Justice and Behavior. 30: 6. S2CID 144527981.
- Kilpatrick, D.G., Resnick, H., Ruggiero, K., Conoscenti, L., & McCauley, J. (2007). Drug facilitated, incapacitated, and forcible rape: A national study. Washington, D.C. U.S. Department of Justice.
- Koss, M. P.; Dinero, T. E.; Seibel, C. A.; Cox, S. L. (1988). "Stranger and Acquaintance Rape: Are There Differences In the Victim's Experience?". Psychology of Women Quarterly. 12: 1. S2CID 144857746.
- Koss, M. P. (1992). "The Under detection of Rape: Methodological Choices Influence Incidence Estimates". Journal of Social Issues. 48: 61. .
- Tjaden, P. & Thoennes, N.(2000). Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women: Finding from the National Violence Against Women Survey. Washington, D.C. National Institute of Justice.