Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, Vol. 10, No. 4, 1998
Editorial
On the Offensive As you read this, a woman is being raped in this country, probably in your state, possibly in your city. Despite its widespread prevalence, we should not lose sight of why sexual assault is a crime in all civilized societies: because it creates victims, both short- (Resick, 1993) and long- (Kilpatrick & Best, 1984) term. This lends urgency to the report in this issue by Weickowski, Hartsoe, Mayer, and Shortz that sexual aggression is not the province of grown men alone (or grown women; see Anderson in this issue)—an echo of the alarm sounded in these pages in Volume 9 by Gray, Busconi, Houchens, and Pithers (1997), who have called our attention to the problem of childhood sexual aggression. If children can become predators, our efforts must be directed even more strongly toward prevention of sexual abuse, a sadly neglected area in our literature. The efforts of Weickowski et al. and Gray et al. are a step in this direction. We must strive to delineate a subpopulation of youngsters (chiefly male) at the highest risk and then direct attention to a program of awareness and concern, including victim empathy, social responsibility, anger management, and early intervention. Social awareness grows slowly, but it grows nonetheless. One of the first achievements of the antirape movement was to broaden the definition of rape to include additional assaultive acts, extend protection to separated spouses and males, eliminate the requirement of resistance, and restrict the use of the victim's sexual history against her. By expanding the definition of rape, attention is now being given to coercive sexual behavior previously ignored: Gavey (1991) reported that, among 347 young female victims, 63% of all incidents of sexual assault were perpetrated by dates and partners. Kilpatrick (1993) estimated that twice as many women are raped by partners or acquaintances than by strangers. Yllo and Finkelhor (1985) estimated that 10% to 14% of married women are raped, making sexual assault by husbands the most common form of rape. 269 1079-0632/98/1000-0269$15.00/0 C 1998 Plenum Publishing Corporation
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However, some victims of acquaintance and partner assaults are unclear that such activity is considered rape. Among college women who experienced assaults that legally qualified as rape, just 27% thought that they were rape victims (Koss & Deniro, 1989). Whether a woman considers it rape or sexual assault, most will not report the crime to authorities. Koss (1993) reported that just 8% of college women who were raped reported the event; almost half never discussed the attack with anyone. In an Australian study, only 2% of Sydney women reported a rape (McConaghy & Zamir, 1992, as reported by McConaghy, 1993, p. 272), while at Kent State University, only 6% reported the assault (Koss & Oros, 1982). Women may hesitate partly from embarrassment, partly due to the high frequency of assaults by partners and acquaintances, and partly from recognition that a report may generate nothing other than an investigation leading to a lack of closure. Thus, most men who rape remain at large. Of 1000 rapes occurring today in North America, 100 will be disclosed by victims, 10 offenders will be prosecuted, and 1 offender will be convicted. These startling statistics require us to revise the question of why men rape; it may be far more important to explore the reasons why most men do not. In addition to subdefining young populations of potential offenders, we may also be able to target potential victims. In a large Los Angeles study in 1987, Sorenson, Stein, Siegel, Golding, and Burnam found that 19% of all victims were 11 to 15 years old; 34%, 16 to 20; 15%, 21 to 25; and only 12%, older than 26. The modal age of the victim at the time of the attack was 18. In a very large study of 10,000 rape victims across this country, females between 16 and 35 years of age were five times more likely to be raped than women in any other age category (Thornhill & Thornhill, 1990). This age range corresponds to a woman's most fecund period, the age at which she is most attractive to a man, and suggests that sexual assault is not divorced from reproductive strategies that have evolved in all primates (Ellis, 1993; Maletzky, 1996). If young women are at risk, it makes sense to aim rape prevention programs at junior and senior high school youth and onto college campuses. Such programs have existed for over 10 years but their scientific study is nonexistent (for an exception see Lonswey et al., 1998). It appears prudent, and within ethical guidelines, to test the efficacy of such programs with control groups to learn the most effective prevention strategies. Various methods of resistance, whether verbal or physical, cannot be tested in real life; however, ingenious analogue studies (e.g., Nagayama-Hall & Hirschman, 1993) lend themselves to such evaluations: Would girls exposed to rape prevention classes fend off unwanted sexual attention in a more facile fashion than those uneducated?
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Some data are available to inform us in this area. In the Los Angeles study, Sorenson et al. (1987) found that most victims presented only mild obstacles to their attackers, often in the form of verbal pleading. Completed rapes are apparently more likely when a woman uses only pleading and if her main concern is avoiding harm rather than avoiding rape (Bart & O'Brien, 1984; Swift, 1985). Surprisingly, screaming was not associated with subsequent injury. Of 94 women attacked in Chicago, 51 successfully avoided being raped; their most effective strategy was to flee (Bart & O'Brien, 1984). Over 80% of the women who fled avoided rape, as did 70% of the women who fought their attackers. Although a woman who fought back slightly increased her risk of being handled roughly, remaining passive was no guarantee of humane treatment. Moreover, women who resisted showed less depression after the attack, even if they did not avoid being raped. These results were subsequently confirmed in a sample of 274 women attacked: More forceful resistance led to less severe sexual abuse (Ullman & Knight, 1992). More recently, Ullman (1998) has confirmed these findings in a comprehensive survey of 2201 attempted and completed rapes. Certainly, these data indicate the need for greater societal interest and investment in rape prevention. Such programs might include selfdefense and rape prevention classes for young women and rape sensitivity training for teenage males (Lonsway et al., 1998). Because sexual aggression is so diverse, it is unlikely that a single etiologic agent will be soon identified or that a sweeping cure will soon be discovered. Rape may be more an act than a disease. Nonetheless, we can identify some females as being at greater risk to become victims and some males as being at greater risk of aggressing. Why they do so may reside in a combination of currently fashionable bioevolutionary mechanisms; psychological and genetic predispositions toward aggression and poor impulse control; and situational variables such as access to a potential victim, drug and alcohol abuse, and cognitive assessment of benefits (sexual gratification) and risks (detection, apprehension, and incarceration). For offenders, the sources of their aggression may remain a mystery, but for victims, the sources of their suffering assuredly are not. We must invest as much time in prevention as we do in treatment to brighten the colors of this dim view. Barry M. Maletzky Portland, Oregon
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REFERENCES Bart, P. B., & O'Brien, P. H. (1984). Stopping rape: Effective avoidance strategies. Journal of Social Issues, 37, 123-137. Ellis, L. (1993). Rape as a biosocial phenomenon. In G. C. Nagayama-Hall, R. Hirschman, J. R. Graham, & M. S. Zaragoza (Eds.), Sexual aggression: Issues in etiology, assessment and treatment (pp. 17-41). Washington, DC: Taylor and Francis. Gavey, N. (1991). Sexual victimization prevalence among New Zealand University students. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 59, 464-466. Gray, A., Busconi, A., Houchens, P., & Pithers, W. D. (1997). Children with sexual behavioral problems and their caregivers: Demographics, functioning, and clinical patterns. Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, 9, 267-290. Kilpatrick, D. G. (1993). Introduction to the special section on rape. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 8, 193-197. Kilpatrick, D. G., & Best, C. L. (1984). Some cautionary remarks on treating sexual assault victims with implosion. Behavior Therapy, 15, 421-423. Koss, M. P. (1993). Detecting the scope of rape: A review of prevalence research methods. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 8, 198-222. Koss, M. P., & Deniro, T. E. (1989). Discriminant analysis of risk factors for sexual victimization among a national sample of college women. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 57, 242-250. Koss, M. P., & Oros, C. J. (1982). Sexual experiences survey: A research instrument investigation sexual aggression and victimization. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 50, 455-457. Lonsway, K. A., Klaw, E. L., Berg, B. R., Waldo, C. R., Kothari, C., Mazurek, C. J., & Hegeman, K. E. (1998). Beyond "no means no": Outcomes of an intensive program to train peer facilitators for campus acquaintance rape education. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 13, 73-92. Maletzky, B. M. (1996). Evolution, psychopathology and sexual offending: Aping our ancestors. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 1, 369-373. McConaghy, N. (1993). Sexual behavior: Problems and management. New York: Plenum. Nagayama-Hall, G. C., & Hirschman, R. (1993). Use of a new laboratory methodology to conceptualize sexual aggression. In G. C. Nagayama-Hall, R. Hirschman, J. R. Graham, & M. S. Zaragoza (Eds.), Sexual aggression: Issues in etiology, assessment, and treatment (pp. 115-132). Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis. Resick, P. A. (1993). The psychological impact of rape. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 8, 223-255. Sorenson, S. E., Stein, J. A., Siegel, J. M., Golding, J. M., & Burnam, M. A. (1987). The problems of adult sexual assault. American Journal of Epidemiology, 126, 1154-1164. Swift, C. F. (1985). The prevention of rape. In A. W. Burgess (Ed.), Rape and sexual assault (pp. 413-433). New York: Garland. Thornhill, N. W., & Thornhill, R. (1990). An evolutionary analysis of psychological pain following rape. 1. The effects of victims' age and marital status. Ethology and Sociobiology, 11, 155-176. Ullman, S. E. (1998). Does offender violence escalate when rape victims fight back? Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 13, 179-192. Ullman, S. E., & Knight, R. A. (1992). A multivariate model for predicting rape and physical injury outcomes during sexual assaults. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 60, 28-33. Yllo, K., & Finkelhor, D. (1985). Marital rape. In A. W. Burgess (Ed.), Rape and Sexual Assault (pp. 146-158). New York: Garland.
