Auster, C. J., & Leone, J. M. (2001). Late adolescents’ perspectives on marital rape: The impact of gender and fraternity/sorority membership. Adolescence, 36, 141-152.

Previous studies on college age men and women have shown gender differences in attitudes and beliefs about sexual assault and rape. Furthermore, college men associated with fraternities have exhibited high rape myth acceptance rates and increased negative attitudes toward women. The current study aims to identify the relationship between gender as well as sorority and fraternity affiliation on attitudes toward marital rape. A total of 209 college students who attended a small liberal arts college in the Northeast were asked to respond to questions intended to reveal the participants’ ideas about: (a) the relationship between stranger and marital rape, (b) the options available to victims of marital rape, and (c) laws addressing marital rape. Results showed that non-fraternity men were more likely than fraternity men to agree that stranger rape and marital rape were equally criminal acts. Regardless of sorority membership status, women were more likely than men to believe that a victim of marital rape should take legal action against her husband. Women were also more likely than men to agree that marital rape should be considered a felony. The findings of this study suggest that fraternity men have elevated levels of rape myth acceptance and poor attitudes toward women that may increase their risk of inappropriate sexual behavior, including sexual assault perpetration.

Topics: Athletes/fraternities, marital rape; myths/stereotypes

Bergen, R. K. (1996). Wife rape: Understanding the response of survivors and service providers. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

This book focuses on wife rape, victims help-seeking behaviors, and responses of service providers. The author provides an in-depth look at two organizations who provide services to this population. Two case studies explore the responses of workers at a battered women's shelter and rape crisis center to the problem of wife rape. Questions that guide this research are: 1) How do women understand and define their experiences of wife rape? 2) What is the response of agencies to women who seek their help?

Topics: Community attitudes/responses; marital rape

Chapter 2: Understanding women’s experiences of wife rape
The goal of this chapter is to develop a comprehensive understanding of wife rape by focusing on this type of sexual violence and how women cope with it. Women's coping strategies as wife rape survivors are discussed. This chapter draws on in-depth interviews with 40 survivors of wife rape who had contacted a service provider for assistance. It focuses on the causes of wife rape, the women’s experiences with wife rape, and coping and emotional survival thereafter.

Topics: Marital rape; survivors

Chapter 3: Defining and ending the violence
This chapter focuses on how women define and deal with their experiences of marital rape. Interviews with survivors indicate that coping with violence, defining abuse as rape, and ending the violence are all interconnected. Interviews indicate that identifying a forced sexual experience as rape results in women being more likely to terminate the relationship or seek help. Naming the violence is crucial to ending it. The chapter focuses on the issues of defining wife rape, seeking help, effects of wife rape, and becoming a survivor.

Topics: Marital rape; rape crisis centers; survivors

Chapter 4: The response of two agencies to wife rape
This chapter focuses on how service providers respond to survivors of wife rape. Two nonprofit organizations, Refuge and WASA, are profiled focusing on how they respond to and provide services for wife rape survivors. Women's responses to service providers are also included. Problems such as the shuttling of survivors between agencies for assistance, and providing interventions that do not specifically address marital rape issues, are discussed.

Topics: Marital rape; rape crisis centers

Chapter 5: Providing services to wife rape survivors – Current trends and future directions
This chapter explores how women's organizations respond to marital rape. The results of a survey sent to battered women's shelters, rape crisis centers, and combination programs across the United States are analyzed. Ways in which agencies can improve services to survivors of wife rape are discussed. Policy recommendations in the areas of outreach, staff and volunteer training, and the inclusion of wife rape in an organization's agenda are detailed.

Topics: Marital rape; rape crisis centers

Bergen, R. & Bukovec, P. (2006). Men and intimate partner rape: characteristics of men who sexually abuse their partner. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 21, 1375-1384. [Posted October 2006.]

Key Points: Among men enrolled in an abuse intervention program, more than half said they had committed at least one kind of sexual abuse against their most recent female partner.

Abstract: Men enrolling in an abuse intervention program completed questionnaires (n=229) that included 17 items about sexually violent or coercive acts with their most recent female partner, ranging from emotionally coercing her to have sex against her will to physically forcing her to have sex with the perpetrator, other people, animals, or objects. Fifty-three percent of the men said they had committed at least one kind of sexual abuse. The most common act of abuse (40%) was emotionally coercing a partner to have sex when she did not want to. Fourteen percent of men used physical force at least once. Seventeen percent admitted to having sex with a partner when she was unable to consent (including while she slept).

Limits of the study include generalizability: 65% of men in the study were court-ordered to the intervention program, and one-third were self-referred. Almost half of the men were African-American. Care should be taken when reviewing the data in the study; the authors mix reports of their results with information from other studies, which may be confusing. Terms such as “sexual assault,” “rape,” and “sexual abuse” are used interchangeably.

Topics: Marital rape; perpetration

Campbell, J., Garza, M., O'Campo, P., Kub, J., et. al. (2003). Intimate partner violence and abuse among active duty military women. Violence Against Women, 9, 1072-1092.

The purpose of this study was to examine intimate partner violence experienced by active duty military women. This study reviewed the responses of 616 women to determine the prevalence of social and physical abuse. The authors also identified demographic characteristics which were risk factors for intimate partner violence. According to this study, 44.3% of the women reported some form of adult lifetime abuse. Some risk factors identified with the prevalence of intimate partner violence include: (a) separated or divorced marital status, (b) being widowed, (c) having either one or more than two children, and (d) being enlisted personnel (as opposed to officers) in the military.

Topics: Marital rape; military; risk

DeKeseredy, W. S., Rogness, M., & Schwartz, M. D. (2004). Separation/divorce sexual assault: The current state of social scientific knowledge. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 9, 675-691.

This article reviews some of the central concerns pertaining to women’s increased risk of not only lethal or nonlethal physical abuse, but their increased risk of sexual assault as well, during separation or divorce from cohabitation/marriage with an abusive male partner. Existing research on separation/divorce sexual assault is discussed covering definitions, prevalence rates and risk factors, and theoretical contributions of the contemporary research along with proposed recommendations concerning potential research on this topic. For example, the authors contend that multiple measures of sexual assault should be incorporated into any methodology examining separation/divorce sexual assault. Likewise, the role that societal patriarchy and gender inequality play in exacerbating “male proprietariness” (p. 686) may be one of the key factors that make exiting an abusive relationship even more challenging. Indeed, while support and intervention for victims of marital rape are woefully lacking, assistance to victims of separation/divorce sexual assault are presumed to be even less available.

Topics: Marital rape; prevalence; risk

 Heise, L., Ellsberg, M., & Gottemoeller, M. (1999). Ending violence against women. Population Reports, Series L, Number 11, 1-43.

This report provides an admirably thorough review of the various dimensions concerning violence against women across the globe. The authors begin by addressing the concept of gender-based violence, how health care providers can help, and what societal responses should entail in curbing the problem. The report discusses in detail the prevalence and ramifications of intimate partner abuse, sexual coercion, impact of violence on women’s reproductive health, threats to health and development, the role of health providers in recognizing and treating the effects of violence, and finally, an agenda for change. The report includes numerous charts presenting, for example, cross-cultural data on issues related to rates of approval of wife-beating and prevalence of forced first intercourse in various countries. The report also includes examples of posters used to educate women and increase awareness of the issues in different countries as well as several useful charts with instructions and guidelines for health care providers. This is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in understanding violence against women on a global level.

Topics: Community attitudes/responses; disclosure; effects; injury; male-female relations; marital rape; medical response; myths/stereotypes; perpetration; prevalence; prevention; racial/ethnic differences; risk; statistics; underserved populations; vulnerability

Lira, L. R., Koss, M. P., & Russo, N. F. (1999). Mexican American women's definitions of rape and sexual abuse. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 21, 236-265.

This paper addresses the concept of rape from the perspective of Mexican American immigrant women living in America. It begins with an overview of cultural meanings of rape and sexual abuse and the impact thereof within an appreciation of cultural differences affected by religious norms, images of women, and notions of sexuality among Latinas. The study presented in this paper involved 17 Mexican American women living in Arizona who participated in four focus groups. Their discussions focused on issues pertaining to unwanted sexual contact. Definitions elicited from these discussions included notions of "rapto," "violacion,” and "abuso sexual." Furthermore, the women discussed child rape and abuse, adult rape and abuse, the causes of rape, wife rape, the causes of wife rape, and ultimately, the silence of victims. The intermingling of traditional and modern meanings of such concepts should not be underestimated nor easily overlooked when addressing the issue of rape among Latinas. Research, prevention, intervention, and treatment programs must therefore be sensitive toward culturally appropriate approaches to this issue and must be mindful of the language used to express the various experiences and perceptions in order to gage an accurate assessment of the prevalence of rape among Latinas. Due to the significance of silence and the rape experiences reported by the participants, it is very likely that underreporting is a grave reality among Latinas.

Topics: Male-female relations; marital rape; racial/ethnic differences; underserved populations

Mahoney, P. (1999). High rape chronicity and low rates of help-seeking among wife rape survivors in a nonclinical sample: Implications for research and practice. Violence Against Women, 5, 993-1016.

The authors analyzed sexual assault chronicity and help-seeking behaviors among 201 survivors (aged 18+ years) of marital (N = 37), acquaintance (N = 109), and stranger sexual assault (N = 55) by utilizing National Crime Victimization Survey data. They found that marital sexual assault survivors were significantly more likely than acquaintance and stranger survivors to experience multiple assaults, with many marital survivors experiencing more than 10 assaults in a 6-month period. The marital group was also less likely to seek medical, police, or agency help. The authors conclude by discussing the implications for research and practice generated by these data.

Topics: Marital rape; survivors; treatment

Moffitt, T. E., & Caspi, A. (1999). Findings about partner violence from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study. National Institute of Justice: Research in Brief, 1-12.

This report summarizes the results of a study conducted on a birth cohort of 1,037 men and women born in New Zealand between April 1, 1972 and March 31, 1973. The Dunedin researchers focused on partner violence as a potential example of antisocial behavior during childhood and teenage delinquency carried over into adulthood. Results of the study revealed that partner violence is associated with risk factors in childhood and adolescence involving poverty and low academic achievement for men and harsh family discipline and parental discord for women. Mental illness was present among 65% of females exposed to physical abuse and among 88% of the male perpetrators. The strongest risk factor for male and female perpetrators of partner violence involved a history of physically aggressive behavior prior to the age of 15 years. The findings from this study suggest that three intervention tactics are necessary to reduce partner violence in adulthood. The first needs to teach teenagers to avoid using violence against their partners. The second strategy involves interventions with young parents to reduce their stress and subsequently reduce the potential for exposure of their children to violence within the home. Lastly, given the findings that perpetrators of partner violence tend to be mentally ill and engage in other violent crimes, intervention needs to draw upon the interaction of law enforcement, the judicial system, and the mental health profession.

Topics: Marital rape; perpetration; prevention; risk; underserved populations

Monson, C. M., Byrd, G. R., & Langhinrichsen-Rohling, J. (1996). To have and to hold: Perceptions of marital rape. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 11(3), 410-424.

This study investigated differences in societal perceptions of marital versus stranger rape. The researchers were specifically interested in how sex role socialization affects perceptions of marital rape and whether there were gender differences in perceptions. Subjects rated their reactions to one of two hypothetical rape scenarios that differed only in the identification of the man as the woman's husband or as a stranger. Sex role expectations and rape supportive beliefs were assessed. Individuals were found to minimize the seriousness of rape perpetrated by a husband rather than by a stranger. However, female subjects were found to hold less strong rape-supportive beliefs than men held, suggesting that women perceive rape as a more serious, violent, violating, and psychologically damaging event regardless of the relationship between the victim and perpetrator.

Topics: Marital rape

Resnick, H. S., Kilpatrick, D. G., Walsh, C., & Veronen, L. J. (1991). Marital rape. In R. T. Ammerman & M. Hersen (Eds.), Case studies in family violence (pp. 329-355). New York, NY: Plenum Press.

This chapter reviews literature on the prevalence of marital rape and presents two case studies that examine medical, legal, family, and social issues to consider when working with victims. Behavioral approaches for the treatment of rape are discussed.

Topics: Marital rape

Rozee, P. D. (1993). Forbidden or forgiven? Rape in a cross-cultural perspective. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 17, 499-514.

This article presents a conceptual framework in order to study rape cross-culturally. The model considers non-normative rape as well as illicit, uncondoned genital contact, normative rape, and socially condoned rape in a sample of 35 non-industrial societies. This study shows that if the occurrence of rape is focused on the female's choice rather than on the illicit, societally prohibited rape, then a much different picture of rape across cultures is presented. The research implies that rape is clearly separate from female sexuality. The presence of both non-normative and normative rapes in the majority of societies depicts rape as regulated rather than prohibited. Societal views of rape in the United States are discussed, as is its worldwide status.

Topics: Community attitudes/responses; marital rape; racial/ethnic differences

Updated 08/01/07