NCJ Number
102233
Journal
Signs Volume: 8 Issue: 3 Dated: (Spring 1983) Pages: 532-553
Date Published
1983
Length
22 pages
Annotation
Marital rape appears to be linked closely to wife battering and mainly to reflect problems in the husband's upbringing rather than in the couple's sexual dynamics.
Abstract
Data came from 274 women. Half the subjects came from a population reporting physical assaults from their husbands. The comparison group consisted of matched subjects who had not reported assaults. However, 40 of these women later reported having been battered and were analyzed as a separate comparison group. In structured interviews, the women answered focusing on the incidence of sexual relations against the woman's will and violence in the marriage. A variety of phrasings were used to determine what the women themselves defined as marital rape. One-third of the original battered group reported being raped by their husbands. More than two-thirds felt that their husbands had pressured them into having sexual relations. The reported frequencies of rape and of pressure for sexual relations were 3 percent and 45 percent respectively for the combined comparison groups. Women who had not been battered had the lowest reported rates. Victims of marital rape experienced many emotional and behavioral reactions, some of them severe. The combined effects of rape and battering were worse than those of battering alone. Results challenged stereotypes about marital rape and its causes. Data tables and 42 reference notes.