NCJ Number
179010
Journal
Violence Against Women Volume: 5 Issue: 9 Dated: September 1999 Pages: 1036-1058
Editor(s)
Claire Renzetti
Date Published
1999
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This paper examines women's processes of acquiescence to unwanted sex in marriage.
Abstract
Through analyses of 41 interviews with women who had experienced some form of unwanted sex in a marital or long-term intimate relationship, the author identified five types of acquiescence to such unwanted sex. One type of acquiescence involved occasions when the women initially did not want sex but began to enjoy it after a few minutes. In the second type of acquiescence, the women neither desired nor enjoyed the sex but considered it their wifely duty. The third type of acquiescence occurred when the women consented to the sex just to avoid the partner's verbal or nonverbal abuse. The fourth type of acquiescence differed from the third type in that the women acquiesced out of fear that they would be seriously physically harmed if they did not comply; and the fifth type of acquiescence was due to the women having been previously physically abused by the partner for refusing to have sex. After identifying these types of acquiescence, the paper discusses the conditions under which women adopt a given type. This research extends Finkelhor's and Yllo's nonphysical types of coercion to better understand the contexts in which women experience unwanted sex in marriage. The author argues that the processes and consequences of "giving in" to unwanted sex with an intimate have not been given as much scholarly attention as other forms of forced sex that have traditionally been identified as rape. Appended list of sexual coercion items in the 1997 national telephone poll, 3 notes, and 25 references