Calling it Rape: Differences in Experiences of Women Who do or do not Label their Sexual Assault as Rape

Abstract

Past research had found that one-half or more of all women who have had an experience that might meet the definition of rape do not label themselves rape victims. The present study examined the actual rape experiences of 33 women who labeled their assault experience as rape and 56 women who did not label their assault experience as rape through questionnaires and open-ended descriptions of what happened during their assault. Quantitative findings replicated past research, finding that acknowledged victims, compared to unacknowledged victims, were older, knew their assailant less well, experienced more forceful assaults, and had stronger negative emotional reactions to the experience. Qualitative analysis revealed that women were mostly likely to acknowledge their experience as rape when the assailant was not their boyfriend and they woke up with a man penetrating them or the assailant used force and dominated them to obtain intercourse. Women assaulted as children also acknowledged their experience as rape. However, when the assault involved a boyfriend, or if the woman was severely impaired by alcohol or drugs, or if the act involved oral or digital sex, the women were unlikely to label their situations as constituting rape.Research has consistently found that a large percentage of women-typically over 50%-who have experienced vaginal, oral, or anal intercourse against their will label their experience as something other than rape 1 be claimed if a woman does not label her experience as rape. Although there have been a number of studies attempting to differentiate women who label their experience as rape from those who do not in terms of personality and situational factors, few clear-cut relationships have emerged.

Labeling Acts of Sexual Violence: What Roles do Assault Characteristics, Attitudes, and Life Experiences Play?

“…Rape acknowledgement-or the recognition of an individual's own victimization as a rape-may be influenced by several factors, including the victim's personal rape script and rape-related beliefs, the nature of the assault, reactions received from the victim's close friends and family, and the sociocultural context in which the rape occurred (Bondurant, 2001;Orchowski, Untied, & Gidycz, 2013). Not surprisingly, stereotypical rape characteristics (i.e., stranger perpetrator, perpetrator use of force, victim use of resistance) are associated with greater rape acknowledgment (Hammond & Calhoun, 2007;Kahn, Mathie, & Torgler, 1994;Kahn, Jackson, Kully, Badger, & Halvorsen, 2003;Layman, Gidycz, & Lynn, 1996), although there are some inconsistencies with respect to perpetrator identity (cf. Bondurant, 2001;Layman et al, 1996).…”

A Match-and-Motivation Model of How Women Label Their Nonconsensual Sexual Experiences

“…Numerous studies have found that the closer an incident is to this script, the more likely it is to be labeled as rape. For example, women are more likely to label the incident as rape if the perpetrator was a stranger or barely known acquaintance (Kahn, Jackson, Kully, Badger, & Halvorsen, 2003;Koss et al, 1988), if it involved physical force, if they resisted physically, if a weapon was used, or if they sustained an injury (Bondurant, 2001;Fisher et al, 2003;Kahn & Mathie, 2000;Layman et al, 1996;Littleton et al, 2009;McMullin & White, 2006). Conversely, women are less likely to label the incident as ''rape'' if it was perpetrated by a romantic partner (Kahn et al, 2003) or if they had been under the influence of alcohol during the experience (Botta & Pingree, 1997;Layman et al, 1996).…”

Escala de Crenças sobre Violência Sexual (ECVS)

“…Um estudo internacional recente (Krahn, 2004) parece ser demonstrativo desta mudança, na medida em que, quando foi pedido às participantes para descreverem uma experiência sexual coerciva recente, se verificou que relatavam, frequentemente, uma violação perpetrada por um namorado ou conhecido. Além disso, quando se questionou se essas situações correspondiam a uma "verdadeira" violação, a maioria concordou, apenas discordando quanto ao facto de o sexo oral ou "digital" constituírem violação -o que mostra que muitas outras mudanças cognitivas precisam ainda de ocorrer.…”