NCJ Number
91873
Journal
Social Casework Volume: 64 Issue: 6 Dated: (June 1983) Pages: 347-352
Date Published
1983
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This article is derived from 146 indepth interviews conducted with individuals who had experienced marital violence, but who had been free of any form of marital violence for a year or more. The violence in 113 relationships did not involve marital rape, while 33 of the relationships had been such where sexual acts were forced on a woman against her will by her husband.
Abstract
Respondents were predominantly white and middle class; all but six were women. Results indicated no significant differences between the raped wives and other battered wives with respect to demographic characteristics or social embeddedness. Marital quality was measured by six dimensions of the wife's marital satisfaction and revealed that raping marriages are of significantly lower quality than other violent marriages. There was also a pattern of nonsignificant relationships between marital rape and previous experiences with violence. General implications are that no distinct syndrome differentiates raping marriages from nonsexual battering marriages, but social workers and other helping professionals would do well to anticipate the presence of rape where there is extensive marital conflict and high value dissimilarity between husband and wife. A total of 12 footnotes are given.