NCJ Number
111183
Date Published
1985
Length
258 pages
Annotation
Based on a self-administered 1981 survey of 323 women representative of Boston-area women with children aged 6-14, this book examines the incidence, nature, and effects of marital rape and proposes a strategy to counter it.
Abstract
In the United States, approximately 1 in 10 wives is raped by her husband. In this study, marital rape is defined as the use of 'physical force or threat' of it by the husband to make the wife have sex with him or in the course of sexual activity. In more than half of the States, a man can be prosecuted for raping a female, but he cannot be charged if the victim is his wife. This book examines why such abuse remains legal and why so many people still romanticize and dismiss it as a marital tiff. The discussion explores the patterns of sexual coercion, the motives of husbands who rape (based on interviews with three such husbands), and the emotional aftermath for abused wives. Myths about marital rape are challenged, including the notion that marital rape only happens to battered wives. Suggestions for short-term and long-term measures to end marital rape include criminalizing it, intensifying media exposure, and increasing the number of self-help groups and social services. Appended data from the survey, review of the California experience with a marital rape law, chapter notes, and subject index.