Unacknowledged Rape in the Community: Rape Characteristics and Adjustment

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-156
Author(s):  
Heather Littleton ◽  
Marlee Layh ◽  
Kelly Rudolph
Keyword(s):  
1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Layman ◽  
C. A. Gidycz ◽  
S. J. Lynn

1988 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary P. Koss ◽  
Thomas E. Dinero ◽  
Cynthia A. Seibel ◽  
Susan L. Cox

Most published research on the victim–offender relationship has been based on small samples that consisted mainly of women who were raped by nonintimate and nonromantic acquaintances, who viewed their experience as rape, and/or who were seeking treatment. In the present study, 489 rape victims were located among a national sample of 3, 187 female college students by a self-report survey that avoided reliance on helpseekers. Two sets of comparisons were performed. First, the experiences reported by victims of stranger rape ( n = 52) were compared with those of victims of acquaintance rape ( n = 416). Then, the experiences of women assaulted by different types of acquaintances were compared including nonromantic acquaintances ( n = 122), casual dates ( n = 103), steady dates ( n = 147), and spouses or other family members ( n = 44). Rapes by acquaintances, compared with strangers, were more likely to involve a single offender and multiple episodes, were less likely to be seen as rape or to be revealed to anyone, and were similar in terms of the victim's resistance. In general, acquaintance rapes were rated as less violent than stranger rapes. The exception was rapes by husbands or other family members which were rated equally violent to stranger rapes but were much less likely to occur in a context of drinking or other drug use. In spite of these different crime characteristics, virtually no differences were found among any of the groups in their levels of psychological symptoms. A significant feature of these data is that they have tapped the experiences of unreported and unacknowledged rape victims, a group that is potentially much larger than the group of identified victims.


2020 ◽  
pp. 088626052093326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura C. Wilson ◽  
Amie R. Newins

Because unacknowledged rape survivors (i.e., those who do not conceptualize their victimization as rape) are less likely to report the crime to police or seek formal services, a better understanding of factors that contribute to rape acknowledgment is a key step to improving access to care and assault reporting on college campuses. To contribute to this line of research, this study examined the indirect effect of sexist attitudes toward men on rape acknowledgment via rejection of rape myths among female rape survivors. The analyzed sample included 250 college female rape survivors ( M age = 22.49 years, SD = 7.27) who completed measures of sexual assault history, sexist beliefs toward men, and rejection of rape myths. Among these women, 49.6% were classified as acknowledged rape survivors and 50.4% of the sample was classified as unacknowledged rape survivors. Indirect effects of sexist beliefs on rape acknowledgment via rape myth rejection were supported for four types of sexist beliefs, including resentment of paternalism, compensatory gender differentiation, maternalism, and complementary gender differentiation. Specifically, the findings supported that people with greater levels of these particular types of sexist beliefs toward men rejected rape myths less, and lower rejection of rape myths was associated with increased likelihood of unacknowledged rape. The indirect effects were not supported for the heterosexual hostility or heterosexual intimacy subscales of sexist beliefs. By identifying antecedents of rape acknowledgment, the findings from this study can be used to inform programming geared toward encouraging survivors to seek services, which ultimately improves survivor outcomes.


2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren M. Conoscenti ◽  
Richard J. McNally

2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 558-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoë D. Peterson ◽  
Charlene L. Muehlenhard

Many rape victims are unacknowledged rape victims—they report an experience meeting researchers’ operational definitions of rape but do not label their experience as rape. The purpose of this study was to investigate women’s decisions about whether to label their experiences as rape. Participants were 77 college women (predominantly White; mean age = 19.23) who had experienced rape according to the study’s operational definition. The researchers used open-ended questionnaires and interviews to explore participants’ explanations for labeling or not labeling their experience as rape. Explanations were related to match—whether the incident matched their rape script (e.g., whether the man fit their image of a rapist; whether they fought back)—and to motivation—the perceived consequences of using the label (e.g., discomfort with thinking of the perpetrator as a rapist; feeling less self-blame vs. feeling less control or more traumatized). Over time, participants were more likely to label their experience as rape. Results suggested that individuals differ in the meanings that they ascribe to the label rape. For some individuals, labeling their experience as rape may be adaptive; for others, it may be unhelpful or even harmful. Researchers, clinicians, and advocates should use caution in imposing their own preferred labels on other women’s experiences.


1986 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 311-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joyce Levine-MacCombie ◽  
Mary P. Koss

To date, research on effective rape avoidance strategies has involved media-recruited, acknowledged rape victims and avoiders, most of whom were assaulted by total strangers. In the present study, rape avoidance research was extended to a sample of acquaintance rape victims and avoiders who were located by a self-report survey that identified women who both do and do not conceptualize their assaults as rape. The study's goal was to determine whether acknowledged rape victims, unacknowledged rape victims, and rape avoiders could be discriminated by situational variables including the response strategies used in the assault. Victims and avoiders were significantly discriminated. Compared to rape victims, avoiders (1) were less likely to have experienced passive or internalizing emotions at the time of the assault, (2) perceived the assault as less violent, and (3) were more likely to have utilized active response strategies (i.e., running away and screaming). The results suggest that the major findings of existing research on stranger rape avoidance are generalizable to acquaintance rape. However, concerns are expressed over methodological limitations of research on rape avoidance from the victim's perspective.


2004 ◽  
pp. 377-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnold S. Kahn ◽  
Virginia Andreoli Mathie

1994 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnold S. Kahn ◽  
Virginia Andreoli Mathie ◽  
Cyndee Torgler

Past research has indicated that nearly half of college-aged women who experience forced, nonconsensual sexual intercourse, do not label their experience as rape. We found evidence that these unacknowledged rape victims possess more violent, stranger rape scripts than do acknowledged rape victims, who are more likely to have an acquaintance rape script. The difference in rape scripts between acknowledged and unacknowledged rape victims was not due to different demographics or actual rape experience. However, unacknowledged victims did have a sexual history which involved less force than did acknowledged victims. Apparently, most unacknowledged victims do not define their rape experience as rape because they have a rape script of a violent, stranger, blitz rape which does not match their experience of being raped in a less forceful manner by someone with whom they were acquainted. The extent to which their less forceful sexual histories is related to their more violent rape scripts remains to be investigated.


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