Roots of Violence and Marital Rape: Causes, History, and Consequences, Slides of Criminal Justice

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Violent Crimes

1. Violence
2. Quiz # 6
3. Course Evaluation

Roots of violence

• What causes people to behave violently?
• Several competing explanations
• Physical/psychological abnormalities
• Many murderers kill themselves shortly after committing their crime

Roots of violence

• Violence-prone subcultures
• Violence is used to solve social conflicts and dilemmas
• Ganging
• Regional values (murder rate is higher in the South)

Roots of violence

• Ineffective Families
• Absent/deviant parents
• Inconsistent discipline
• Lack of supervision
• Abused children

Exposure to violence

• At home, school, neighborhood
• Mental health
• Deviant behavior
• Victimization
• Vulnerable to the lure of gangs and other deviant groups

Roots of violence

• Evolutionary Factors
• Human instincts (animal instincts)
• Violent behavior is committed predominantly by males
• Sexually aggressive males have been the ones most likely to produce children

Roots of violence

• Firearm availability
• Greater social acceptance of violence as method of conflict resolution
• Violence is deeply woven into the fabric of American culture (street talk, prime-time television programming, “gangsta rap” music lyrics)

Marital Rape

• “Marital rape can be defined as any unwanted intercourse or penetration (vaginal, anal, or oral) obtained by force, threat of force, or when the wife is unable to consent”
• Researchers estimate that between 10% and 14% of married women experience rape in marriage
• Researchers have found that marital rape accounts for approximately 25% of all rapes

A Brief Legal History of Marital Rape

• Throughout the history of most societies, it has been acceptable for men to force their wives to have sex against their will
• Traditional definition of rape in the United States: “sexual intercourse with a female not his wife without her consent“
• This provided husbands with an exemption from prosecution for raping their wives-a "license to rape"

A Brief Legal History of Marital Rape

• On July 5, 1993, marital rape became a crime in all 50 states
• In 17 states and the District of Columbia, there are no exemptions from rape prosecution granted to husbands
• in 33 states, there are still some exemptions given to husbands from rape prosecution (When his wife is most vulnerable (e.g., she is mentally or physically impaired, unconscious, asleep, etc.) and is legally unable to consent

A Brief Legal History of Marital Rape

• The existence of some spousal exemptions indicates that rape in marriage is still treated as a lesser crime than other forms of rape

Social Characteristics of Marital Rape Survivors

• The best research on marital rape has come from interviews with women about their experiences of sexual violence
• Marital rape occurs in all types of marriages regardless of age, social class, race or ethnicity
• Russell (1990) found that two-thirds of the wives were first raped by their husbands when they were under the age of 25

Social Characteristics of Marital Rape Survivors

• Women from lower social-class backgrounds were more likely to report experiencing marital rape
• The rate of marital rape was slightly higher for African-American women than white women, Latinas, and Asian women

Decision to leave

• Latinas were less likely than other women to immediately define their experiences of forced sex as "rape" and terminate their relationships
• Some viewed sex as a marital obligation
• White women were less likely to stay with their husband-rapists
• Economic resources played a particularly significant role in women's ability to leave

Types of Marital Rape

• Marital rape is most likely to occur in relationships characterized by other forms of violence
• The majority of women who are raped by their partners are also battered
• Women who are raped by their husbands are likely to be raped many times-often 20 times or more before they are able to end the violence

Types of Marital Rape

• Marital rape survivors are more likely than women raped by acquaintances to experience unwanted oral and anal intercourse (Peacock, 1995)
• Husbands often rape their wives when they are asleep, or use coercion, verbal threats, physical violence, or weapons to force their wives to have sex
• Some researchers have found that compared to batterers, men who batter and rape are more likely to severely injure their wives and potentially escalate the violence to murder

Risk Factors

• Men- rapists are often portrayed as jealous, domineering individuals who feel a sense of entitlement to have sex with their "property"
• Women who are battered are at greater likelihood of being raped by their partners (Frieze, 1983)
• Pregnancy appears to be a factor that places women at higher risk for both physical and sexual abuse

Risk Factors

• Being ill or recently discharged from the hospital are also risk factors for women
• Women are at particularly high risk of experiencing physical and sexual violence whey they attempt to leave their abusers

The Effects of Marital Rape

• Research indicates that marital rape often has severe and long-lasting consequences for women
• Injuries to the vaginal and anal areas, lacerations, soreness, bruising, torn muscles, fatigue and vomiting, broken bones, black eyes, bloody noses, and knife wounds that occur during the sexual violence

The Effects of Marital Rape

• Campbell and Alford (1989) report that one half of the marital rape survivors in their sample were kicked, hit or burned during sex
• Specific gynecological consequences of marital rape include vaginal stretching, miscarriages, stillbirths, bladder infections, and infertility

Why women do not report

• Survivors of marital rape are less likely than other survivors of violence to report their assaults to formal service providers, friends, or family members
• Family loyalty
• Fear of their abuser's retribution
• Inability to leave the relationship
• They may not know that rape in marriage is against the law
• Sex as a "wifely duty," not rape

The following questions were developed to determine what the public believes are the reasons why domestic violence is a problem

Question 8 Causes of Domestic Violence^ Percent Agree Disagree Domestic violence continues because most women will not leave the men who abuse them. 89.8% 10.2% Domestic violence is the result of a couple's inability to communicate and resolve conflicts. 79.4% 20.6% Drug and alcohol problems are the primary cause of domestic violence. 78.4% 21.6% Many women have to choose between living on their own and being poor or staying in the home where they are being battered.^ 76.7%^ 23.2% Most men learn to be violent because they were beaten or witnessed violence in their home when they were growing up.^ 73.1%^ 26.9% Domestic violence is caused by the breakdown of the traditional family. 67.6% 32.4% The court system does very little to protect abused women. 64.9% 35.1% Domestic violence is a result of unequal relationships between men and women. 54.3% 45.7% Domestic stop it. violence exists because police won't 21.9% 77.1%