[net.women] attitudes towards rape

smb@ulysses.UUCP (Steven Bellovin) (06/05/85)

For those who think American attitudes towards rape are changing, the following
survery should be of interest.  The surveys were conducted by Martha Burt,
director of social services research at The Urban Institute.

	* More than half of the people feel that reported rapes are not
	really rapes, because the woman wanted to get even with the man,
	or she was pregnant and wanted to protect her reputation.

	* One third to two thirds feel that women who are raped deserve
	it if they were hitchhiking, wearing a short skirt, or engaging
	in necking or or petting.  They also feel that the majority of rape
	victims are promiscuous or have a bad reputation.

The original survey was conducted in 1977; followups since then indicate
that attitudes have not changed much.

zubbie@ihlpa.UUCP (Jeanette Zobjeck) (06/11/85)

> For those who think American attitudes towards rape are changing, the following
> survery should be of interest.  The surveys were conducted by Martha Burt,
> director of social services research at The Urban Institute.
> 
> 	* More than half of the people feel that reported rapes are not
> 	really rapes, because the woman wanted to get even with the man,
> 	or she was pregnant and wanted to protect her reputation.
> 
> 	* One third to two thirds feel that women who are raped deserve
> 	it if they were hitchhiking, wearing a short skirt, or engaging
> 	in necking or or petting.  They also feel that the majority of rape
> 	victims are promiscuous or have a bad reputation.
> 
> The original survey was conducted in 1977; followups since then indicate
> that attitudes have not changed much.

*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE ***

Add to this an interesting item.

A recent study buy a west coast rape study group (sorry I cant remember
which one I believe the report was quoted in either  _Redbook_  or  
_Mademoiselle_magazine_) interviewed 500 rape victims.

The result - 2 out of 5 indicated that they had been the victims of
multiple rapes i.e. gang rape. 


:-r mail/me