Rape by gender explained

Rape by gender classifies types of rape by the sex and gender of both the rapist and the victim. This scope includes both rape and sexual assault more generally. Most research indicates that rape affects women disproportionately, with the majority of people convicted being men; however, since the broadening of the definition of rape in 2012 by the FBI, more attention is being given to male rape, including females raping males.

Since only a small percentage of acts of sexual violence are brought to the attention of the authorities,[1] [2] it is difficult to compile accurate rape statistics. Conviction rates differ by the gender of both the perpetrator and victim. Various studies argue that male-male and female-female prison rape are quite common and may be the least reported form of rape.[3] [4] [5] Furthermore, many rape cases take place when the victims are below the age of consent, bringing in the issue of child sexual abuse or statutory rape.

Gender differences

See also: Sentencing disparity. In the 2001 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 10.2% of girls and 5.1% of boys reported "[having] ever been physically forced to have sexual intercourse when [they] did not want to".[6] In a 2010 study of heterosexual couples where sexual coercion existed, 45% reported female victimization, 30% reported male victimization and 20% reported reciprocal victimization.[7] In 2011, a study supported by a research grant from the Department of Education and Science of Spain found based on a "convenience sample of 13,877 students in 32 nations" that 2.4% of males and 1.8% of females admitted to having physically forced someone into having sex in the last year.[8] In a 2014 study of 18,030 high school students, there was no statistically significant difference between males and females for the reported rate of having been physically forced to have sex.[9]

Rape of females

In a 2000 research article from the Home Office, in England and Wales, around 1 in 20 women (5%) said that they had been raped at some point in their life from the age of 16 beyond.[10]

In 2011, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that "nearly 20% of all women" in the United States suffered attempted rape or rape sometime in their lives. More than a third of the victims were raped before the age of 18.[11] [12]

According to a 2013 report by the CDC, 28% of victimized heterosexual women and a full 48% of bisexual women experienced their first rape between the ages of 11 and 17.[13]

Rape of females by males

Many rapes by males against females are unreported because of "fear of reprisal from the assailant"[14] and because of "shame ... and deep-seated cultural notions that the woman is somehow to blame".[15]

Pregnancy may result from rape, the rate varies between settings and depends particularly on the extent to which non-barrier contraceptives are being used. A study of adolescents in Ethiopia found that among those who reported being raped, 17% became pregnant after the rape,[16] a figure which is similar to the 15–18% reported by rape crisis centres in Mexico.[17] [18] A longitudinal study in the United States of over 4000 women followed for three years found that the national rape related pregnancy rate was 5.0% per rape among victims aged 12–45 years, producing over 32,000 pregnancies nationally among women from rape each year.[19] Experience of coerced sex at an early age reduces a woman's ability to see her sexuality as something over which she has control.[20] [21] [22] [23]

The rape of women by men has been documented as a weapon of terror in warfare (see Wartime sexual violence).[24]

Rape of females by females

See also: Domestic violence in lesbian relationships and Sexual assault of LGBT persons. Assault/rape by forcible stimulation of female genitalia by a female perpetrator is possible by digital manipulation, oral sex, strap-ons, other dildos or other foreign objects, or tribadism.[25] [26] [27] A telephone survey conducted in 2010 for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 43.8% of lesbians reported having been raped, physically abused or stalked at some point by an intimate partner; of these, 67.4% reported the perpetrator or perpetrators as being exclusively female. In the same survey, approximately 1 in 8 lesbians (13.1%) reported having been raped in their lifetime, but the sex of their rapists was not reported.[28]

A 2005 survey by the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA) concluded that one in three lesbian-identified participants had been sexually assaulted by a woman. Fear of coming out, distrust of and/or indifference and hostility by the police, unwillingness to turn in members of the LGBT community, and a sense that female on female rape is not taken as seriously as rape by men causes some victims to be reluctant to report rapes by other women.[29] In one publicized case involving students at Smith College in 2005, two women were charged with the rape of another, but the victim ultimately refused to testify, and charges were dropped.[30] [31]

Rape of males

A CDC study found that, in the US, 1 in 71 men had been raped or suffered an attempt within their lifetime. The same study found that approximately 1 in 21 or 4.8% men in a survey had been made to penetrate someone else, usually an intimate partner or acquaintance.[32] A NVAW Survey found that 0.1 percent of men surveyed had been raped in the previous 12 months, compared to 0.3 percent of women. Using these statistics it was estimated that, in the US, 92,748 men had been raped in the previous year.[33] In another study by the School of Public Health at Boston University, 30 percent of gay and bisexual men reported having experienced at least one form of sexual assault during their lifetimes.[34]

The rape of men has been documented as an underreported weapon of war.[35] [36] [37]

There are some cases when men will speak up about being a victim of rape, such as in the documentary The Hunting Ground, which is about the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses in the US and the failure of college administration to adequately deal with it.

Rape of males by males

Rape by males against males has been heavily stigmatized. According to psychologist Dr. Sarah Crome, fewer than 1 in 10 male-male rapes are reported. As a group, male rape victims reported a lack of services and support, and legal systems are often ill-equipped to deal with this type of crime.[38]

Several studies argue that male-male prisoner rape, as well as female-female prisoner rape, are common types of rape which go unreported even more frequently than rape in the general population.[39] [4] [5] The rape of men by men has been documented as a weapon of terror in warfare (see Wartime sexual violence).[35] Studies have documented incidents of male sexual violence as a weapon of wartime or political aggression in Uganda, Chile, Greece, Croatia, Iran, Kuwait, the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia. Seventy-six percent of male political prisoners in El Salvador surveyed in the 1980s described at least one incidence of sexual torture, and a study of 6,000 concentration-camp inmates in Sarajevo found that 80% of men reported having been raped.[35] In the case of the Syrian Civil War (2011–present), the male detainees experienced sexual abuse like being forced to sit on a broken glass bottle, having their genitals tied to a heavy bag of water, or being forced to watch the rape of another detainee by the officials.[40]

Rape of males by females

Male victims of sexual abuse by females[41] often face social, political, and legal double standards.[42] Some cases in the United States have received increased attention and sparked awareness within the population. Sometimes referred to as "made to penetrate" cases (by the CDC and the NISVS), male rape victims are forced to engage in penetration of the female without proper consent. In many cases, the male victims are under the influence of drugs or being held in life-threatening positions. The case of Cierra Ross'[43] sexual assault of a man in Chicago gained national headlines and Ross was convicted of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and armed robbery with a bail set at $75,000. A similar case includes James Landrith, who was made to penetrate a female acquaintance in a hotel room while incapacitated from drinking, along with his rapist citing the fact that she was pregnant to advise him not to struggle, as this might hurt the baby.[44] [45]

In the UK, the 1970s Mormon sex in chains case brought increased awareness of the possibility of female-on-male rape. A Mormon missionary named Kirk Anderson went missing in 1977, in Ewell, Surrey, after being abducted from the steps of a church meetinghouse.[46] A few days later, Anderson made a report to the police that he had been abducted and imprisoned against his will. He said that while he was chained to a bed, Joyce Bernann McKinney attempted to seduce him, and then raped him.[47] [48] [49] [50] [51] News coverage was extensive, in part because the case was considered so anomalous, having involved the rape of a man by a woman.[52] McKinney fled to the US, extradition was not pursued by Britain, and the English court sentenced McKinney in absentia to a year in jail.[53] Under the then-Sexual Offences Act 1956, due to the victim's gender, technically no crime of rape was committed, though indecent assault of a man applied.[54]

Some male victims, including underage children, have been forced to pay child-support to their attacker when their statutory rapist conceives a baby as a result of the attack.[55] [56] [57]

Several widely publicized cases of female-on-male statutory rape in the United States involved school teachers engaging in sexual intercourse with their underage students. Each of the 50 states have laws regarding the age of consent, but all have it set at 16, 17 or 18. These laws make sexual encounters between adults and minors under the age of consent sexual assault.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: The Secretary General's database on violence against women . UN Secretary General's Database on Violence Against Women. 2009-07-24 . 2013-02-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140201182537/http://sgdatabase.unwomen.org/searchDetail.action?measureId=26309&baseHREF=country&baseHREFId=675. 2014-02-01.
  2. Web site: A gap or a chasm? Attrition in reported rape cases . http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110314171826/http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/hors293.pdf . dead . 2011-03-14 . 2010-12-31 .
  3. [Human Rights Watch]
  4. Robert W. Dumond, "Ignominious Victims: Effective Treatment of Male Sexual Assault in Prison," August 15, 1995, p. 2; states that "evidence suggests that [male-male sexual assault in prison] may a staggering problem"). Quoted in Book: Mariner. Joanne. (Organization). Human Rights Watch. No escape: male rape in U.S. prisons. 7 June 2010. 2001-04-17. Human Rights Watch. 978-1-56432-258-6. 370.
  5. Struckman-Johnson . Cindy . Struckman-Johnson . David . 2006 . A Comparison of Sexual Coercion Experiences Reported by Men and Women in Prison . Journal of Interpersonal Violence . 21 . 12 . 1591–1615 . 0886-2605 . 17065656 . 10.1177/0886260506294240. 27639359 .
    reports that "Greater percentages of men (70%) than women (29%) reported that their incident resulted in oral, vaginal, or anal sex. More men (54%) than women (28%) reported an incident that was classified as rape."
  6. Donna E. . Howard . Qi Wang . Min . Psychosocial correlates of U.S. adolescents who report a history of forced sexual intercourse . Journal of Adolescent Health . 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2004.07.007 . 36 . 2005 . 5 . 372–379. 15837340 .
  7. Brousseau. Me Mélanie M.. Sexual Coercion Victimization and Perpetration in Heterosexual Couples: A Dyadic Investigation. Arch Sex Behav. 40. 2011 . 2. 363–372. 10.1007/s10508-010-9617-0. 20364306. 15650749.
  8. Manuel Gámez-Guadix and Murray A. Straus. CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENT VICTIMIZATION AND SEXUAL COERCION AND ASSAULT BY MALE AND FEMALE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS, 2011. Access date June 2, 2016.
  9. Corrine M. . Williams. Victimization and Perpetration of Unwanted Sexual Activities Among High School Students: Frequency and Correlates. Violence Against Women. SAGE . 20. 10. 2014 . 1239–1257. 10.1177/1077801214551575. 25344559. 34612004.
  10. http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110218135832/http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/r159.pdf Rape and sexual assault of women: findings from the British Crime Survey
  11. News: Nearly 97% of women in the US are raped or suffer attempted rape at some point in their lives, a US study says.. 15 December 2011. BBC World. 15 December 2011.
  12. Web site: National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 2010 Summary Report . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . 16 August 2016.
  13. News: Data shows domestic violence, rape an issue for gays. Susan. Heavey. Reuters. October 31, 2013. January 25, 2013 .
  14. Web site: (CVS) . Crime Victim Services . 2013-08-19 . dead . https://archive.today/20130615195527/http://www.crimevictimservices.org/page/sexassault/76 . 2013-06-15 .
  15. Web site: Rape and Sexual Assault . Pbs.org . 2013-08-19.
  16. Prevalence and outcomes of sexual violence among high school students. 10214457. 1998. Mulugeta. E. Kassaye. M. Berhane. Y. 36. 3. 167–74. Ethiopian Medical Journal.
  17. Evaluacio´n de proyecto para educacio´n, capacitacio´n y atencio´n a mujeres y menores de edad en materia de violencia sexual, enero a diciembre 1990. [An evaluation of a project to provide education, training and care for women and minors affected by sexual violence, January–December 1990.] Mexico City, Asociación Mexicana contra la Violencia a las Mujeres, 1990.
  18. Carpeta de información básica para la atención solidaria y feminista a mujeres violadas. [Basic information file for mutually supportive feminist care for women rape victims.] Mexico City, Centro de Apoyo a Mujeres Violadas, 1985.
  19. Rape-related pregnancy: estimates and descriptive characteristics from a national sample of women. 8765248. 1996. Holmes. MM. Resnick. HS. Kilpatrick. DG. Best. CL. 175. 2. 320–4; discussion 324–5. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 10.1016/S0002-9378(96)70141-2.
  20. Relationship dynamics and adolescent pregnancy in South Africa. 11218177. 2001. Jewkes. R. Vundule. C. Maforah. F. Jordaan. E. 52. 5. 733–44. Social Science & Medicine. 10.1016/s0277-9536(00)00177-5.
  21. Sexual abuse as a factor in adolescent pregnancy. 1601126. 2135718. 4–19. Boyer. D.. Fine. D.. 24. 1. Family Planning Perspectives. 1992. 10.2307/2135718.
  22. The relationship of childhood sexual abuse to teenage pregnancy. Journal of Marriage and the Family. 353666. 119–130. Roosa. M. W.. Tein. J. Y.. Reinholtz. C.. Angelini. P. J.. 59. 1. 1997. 10.2307/353666. 2011-10-01. 2012-03-09. https://web.archive.org/web/20120309162854/http://www.brynmawr.edu/socialwork/GSSW/Vartanian/Handouts/Teenpreg.pdf. dead.
  23. Adolescent pregnancy and sexual risk taking among sexually abused girls. 9323495. 1997. Stock. JL. Bell. MA. Boyer. DK. Connell. FA. 29. 5. 200–3, 227. Family Planning Perspectives. 10.2307/2953395. 2953395.
  24. Web site: Rape as a Weapon of War and Long-term Effects on Victims and Society . Ts-si.org . 2013-08-19 . 2017-09-23 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170923002744/http://ts-si.org/files/BMJCliffordPaper.pdf . dead .
  25. Renzetti, Claire M. Violent Betrayal: Partner Abuse in Lesbian Relationships. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1992, .
  26. Ristock, Janice. No More Secrets: Violence in Lesbian Relationships. New York: Routledge, 2002, .
  27. Girshick, Lori B. Woman-to-Woman Sexual Violence: Does She Call It Rape? (The Northeastern Series on Gender, Crime, and the Law). Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2000, .
  28. Web site: National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey: 2010 Findings on Victimization by Sexual Orientation. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 14 September 2015.
  29. Web site: When Your Rapist Is a Woman. 30 March 2016. marieclaire.com. 9 April 2018.
  30. Web site: Two women arraigned on rape charges. Associated Press. southcoasttoday.com. 9 April 2018.
  31. Web site: Rape charges dropped against local women. Matt Belliveau, Collegian. Staff. dailycollegian.com. 9 April 2018.
  32. Black, M.C., Basile, K.C., Breiding, M.J., Smith, S.G., Walters, M.L., Merrick, M.T., Chen, J., & Stevens, M.R. (2011). The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS): 2010 Summary Report. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pp.1-2.
  33. P., Tjaden, & N., Thoennes (2000). Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequence of Violence Against Women. US Department of Justice, pp. 26.
  34. Web site: Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals at Increased Risk for Sexual Assault - BU Today - Boston University. bu.edu. 9 April 2018.
  35. News: The rape of men : Society : The Observer. Storr. Will. 17 July 2011. The Observer. Guardian.co.uk. 17 July 2011. Sexual violence is one of the most horrific weapons of war, an instrument of terror used against women. Yet huge numbers of men are also victims.. London.
  36. News: McKay . Hollie . Male rape emerging as one of the most under-reported weapons of war . 24 April 2020 . Fox News . 20 March 2019.
  37. Book: Eriksson-Baaz . Maria . Stern . Maria . Sexual Violence as a Weapon of War? : Perceptions, Prescriptions, Problems in the Congo and Beyond . 2013 . Zed Books . 978-1780321639 . 24 April 2020.
  38. Web site: Male rape victims left to suffer in silence. February 9, 2001. 2007-05-30. abc.net.au.
  39. [Human Rights Watch]
  40. Amnesty International. 2012. 'I Wanted to Die': Syria's torture survivors speak out . London: Amnesty International Publications.
  41. 10.1023/A:1022456626538. Men's Reports of Nonconsensual Sexual Interactions with Women: Prevalence and Impact. Barbara Krahé. Renate Scheinberger-Olwig . Steffen Bieneck . Archives of Sexual Behavior. 32. 5. 2003. 165–175. 12710831. 21015424.
  42. Book: Myriam Denov. Perspectives on female sex offending: a culture of denial. 2004. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. 978-0-7546-3565-9.
  43. Web site: Cierra Ross, Chicago Mom, Charged With Raping Man At Gunpoint . . September 6, 2013 . Meredith Bennett-Smith .
  44. News: Against his will: The reality of male rape . CNN.com . 2014-01-11 . 2013-10-10.
  45. Web site: Landrith. James A.. I've Got the T-Shirt and the Trauma Response to Go With It. The Good Men Project. 15 January 2012.
  46. Encyclopedia: Encyclopedia of Contemporary British Culture . Fatima . Fernandes . Sex scandals . Peter Childs and Mike Storry . 1999 . . 978-0-415-14726-2 . 489.
  47. News: Cloned-dog owner is '70s fugitive . Jennifer . Dobner . . (AP) . 2008-08-10 . 2014-03-17 .
  48. News: Missing years in Bernann McKinney's strange journey from Mormon sex case to clones called Booger . . 2008-08-08 . Bone . James . Dominic . Kennedy . 2009-02-22 . London .
  49. News: . 2008-08-13 . A1 . Corrections .
  50. News: Setting it straight. 2008-08-13 . A2 . The Sacramento Bee.
  51. News: I dress my dog in a pumpkin costume - is that a gateway to madness? . . Rebecca . Dube . August 26, 2008 .
  52. Book: Delano, Anthony . 1978 . Joyce McKinney and the Manacled Mormon . London . Mirror Books . 085939140X . 4525404 .
  53. News: A Mormon, a beauty queen and manacles.... South Wales Echo. 2008-01-29. O'Neill. Dan. 2009-02-23.
  54. Web site: Sexual Offences Act 1956 (c.69), section Intercourse by force, intimidation, etc. Office of Public Sector Information. 2009-02-24.
  55. News: Court Tells Youth to Support Child He Fathered at Age 13 . New York Times . 2016-03-20 . 1993-03-06.
  56. News: Arizona Is Requiring A Male Statutory Rape Victim To Pay Child Support . Business Insider . 2016-03-20 . 2014-09-02.
  57. News: Statutory Rape Victim Ordered To Pay Child Support . Chicago Tribune . 2016-03-20 . 1996-12-22.

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