Rape crisis services ‘Standing Alone’: Policy-making as problem representation: The response to sexual violence in New Zealand 1983-89

<p>After more than 30 years of feminist activism in New Zealand the government policy response to sexual violence continues to be highly contested. This thesis draws on archival material (both official and community records) to trace the competing discourses and agendas within the early policy development process. This process involved the pākehā and Māori women’s rights movements seeking to influence the ways in which the problem of rape was represented and responded to by government within the social policy context. Using Bacchi’s “What’s the problem represented to be?” methodology, the analysis of these discourses identifies the silences and assumptions, as well as the privileged government agenda that redefined, individualised and sought to professionalise the services for rape victims/survivors. I explore the perspectives of feminists involved in the movement and how tensions with the state may be seen to be reflected in the policy process, particularly through the emergence of neo-liberalism, the interplay between liberal and radical feminist views and in the highly contested area of rape education and prevention. Further, I consider how the problem of meeting cultural needs through social policy responses stalled, despite seeming state support for such responses through the 1980s and what it may be about the issue of rape itself and its connection to gender inequality that has contributed to a muted government response to the issue of sexual violence. In a postscript I briefly review current policy discourse and comment on how the focus on rehabilitation, the financial instability of services, lack of adequate provision of appropriate services for women and communities continue to be features of the sector today. I argue that a specific focus on rape education and prevention, critical for reducing the incidence of rape, continues to be severely under attended to, and that this in part reflects continued reluctance to address both the nature of rape and the need for wider structural change in addressing it.</p>

Rape crisis services ‘Standing Alone’: Policy-making as problem representation: The response to sexual violence in New Zealand 1983-89

<p>After more than 30 years of feminist activism in New Zealand the government policy response to sexual violence continues to be highly contested. This thesis draws on archival material (both official and community records) to trace the competing discourses and agendas within the early policy development process. This process involved the pākehā and Māori women’s rights movements seeking to influence the ways in which the problem of rape was represented and responded to by government within the social policy context. Using Bacchi’s “What’s the problem represented to be?” methodology, the analysis of these discourses identifies the silences and assumptions, as well as the privileged government agenda that redefined, individualised and sought to professionalise the services for rape victims/survivors. I explore the perspectives of feminists involved in the movement and how tensions with the state may be seen to be reflected in the policy process, particularly through the emergence of neo-liberalism, the interplay between liberal and radical feminist views and in the highly contested area of rape education and prevention. Further, I consider how the problem of meeting cultural needs through social policy responses stalled, despite seeming state support for such responses through the 1980s and what it may be about the issue of rape itself and its connection to gender inequality that has contributed to a muted government response to the issue of sexual violence. In a postscript I briefly review current policy discourse and comment on how the focus on rehabilitation, the financial instability of services, lack of adequate provision of appropriate services for women and communities continue to be features of the sector today. I argue that a specific focus on rape education and prevention, critical for reducing the incidence of rape, continues to be severely under attended to, and that this in part reflects continued reluctance to address both the nature of rape and the need for wider structural change in addressing it.</p>

Introducing the Date and Acquaintance Rape Avoidance Scale

We present the Date and Acquaintance Rape Avoidance Scale (DARAS). The DARAS is a measure of a woman’s behaviors used to avoid date and acquaintance rape. Three factor structures were possible. The DARAS may have measured several factors related to alcohol and drug use, self-defense, and date behaviors; 2 factors related to behaviors to avoid acquaintance versus date rape; or a single factor that represented general vigilance. The data revealed a highly reliable, 63 item single factor that was correlated with stranger rape avoidance, rejection of rape myths, hostile sexist beliefs about men, and benevolent sexist beliefs about women. The creation of the DARAS adds to the growing body of research on rape avoidance. The DARAS is key to understanding the behaviors women employ to avoid date rape. Rather than placing the responsibility for rape on the victim, the DARAS was developed as a theoretical and applied tool that can be used to improve theory and construct rape education and prevention programs.

A Meta-Analysis of Rape Education Programs

Meta-analysis of evaluation studies of rape education programs aimed at college students examined which program characteristics were related to participants’ rape-supportive attitude change. Linear regression analyses revealed that: (a) published studies yielded greater attitude change than dissertations, presentations, or unpublished studies; (b) attitude change declined over time; and (c) men in mixed-gender groups experienced less attitude change after interventions than men in single-gender groups. Implications for the development of effective rape education programs are discussed.