NCJ Number
129596
Journal
Social Forces Volume: 69 Issue: 1 Dated: (September 1990) Pages: 71-93
Date Published
1990
Length
23 pages
Annotation
A sample of nearly 1,400 rapes reported in the National Crime Survey was used to examine various factors related to interracial (black offender-white victim) rape.
Abstract
The results did not support previous hypotheses that interracial rape reflects either black economic deprivation and politicization or limited sexual access of black men to white women. Interracial rapes were no more frequent than intraracial rapes in cities with high black poverty, unemployment, or racial inequality. There was no significant relationship between a city's interracial marriage and interracial rape rates. Rather, the authors contend that two factors indicating opportunities for interpersonal contact between whites and blacks -- the racial composition of a city and the degree of residential segregation -- were the strongest predictors of the racial patternings of rape. The study found that black men, while participating in robberies involving strangers, were actually more likely to rape black, rather than white, women. Interracial rape is more likely only in cases involving multiple black male offenders. 4 tables, 13 notes, and 55 references (Author abstract modified)