Preventing Rape: How People Perceive the Options for Assault Prevention (From The Victimology Handbook: Research Findings, Treatment, and Public Policy, P 227-259, 1990, Emilio Viano, ed. -- See NCJ-126951)

• NCJ Number: 126967
• Author(s): L Furby; B Fischhoff; M Moran
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 33 pages
• Grant Number(s): MH40481-02
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health and Human Services
• Sale Source: Garland Publishing, Inc.
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study surveyed 132 women, 44 men, and 43 sexual assault experts regarding their views on rape prevention strategies.

Abstract

The questionnaire was designed to obtain from the respondents an array of strategies for preventing rapes from occurring and for stopping sexual assaults already underway. The females mentioned 569 different prevention strategies, slightly fewer than the number mentioned by the experts. The men produced approximately the same number of strategies as a comparable group of females. Women produced a roughly equal number of strategies for preventing assault from occurring and from being completed once underway, suggesting that both prevention strategies are equally important to women. The focus on both types of strategies, however, was upon thwarting the potential rapist once the initial confrontation had occurred. The strategies of all groups tended to place the responsibility for preventing rape on individual women rather than upon society or upon men. Women's omission of strategies aimed specifically at acquaintance rape suggests an erroneous assumption that rapists are most likely to be strangers. 11 tables and a 17-item bibliography