Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: Societal acceptance of rape myths hinders rape survivor’s ability to correctly identify their assault as rape. Content analysis of rape survivors’ narratives revealed four categories for why survivors did not consider their assault to be rape, and how they later came to define the event as rape.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper examines how journalists reported about rape victims in Darfur. The findings reveal how rape victims were reduced to symbolic representations of a conflict between Arab and Black Sudanese men. Furthermore, inclusion of graphic details about the acts of rape, reinforces the rape victims’ humiliation through public disclosure of their experiences.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This study expands our understanding of rape victimization as a process whose outcome is the end result of the interplay among a number of factors, including offender and victim characteristics, and external situational, temporal and location factors.
Using previously unused narrative portions and coded entries from 75 completed and attempted rape incident reports from the 2000-2001 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) the study examines how the interplay across key variables, including crime circumstances, victim-offender relationship and any victim self defense, contributed to the outcome of the crime and to possible victim injury. The NCVS is an ongoing survey conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics to provide information on the frequency, characteristics and consequences of crimes both reported and not reported to police. The narratives, previously unused in the analysis of survey data, add contextual information about the rape incidents not available elsewhere in the interview.

Using the narratives, offender actions were categorized into 5 scenarios according to how the incident began. Victim responses to the attack and their ability to defend against the rape varied by scenario. The narratives demonstrate that rapes are complex interplays of victims, offenders and circumstances. Because of a lack of contextual information about crime incidents and circumstances, previous research has provided only limited and sometimes flawed explorations of the relationships between incident circumstances and incident outcomes. The complexities surrounding rape victimization make it difficult, and even dangerous to develop simplistic counsel for victims to extract themselves from such victimization.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Although Blacks are victims of violence at higher rates than Whites the rape of African-American women and perception’s of their rape has been largely ignored. An exploratory analysis was conducted on 495 African-American women to examine their experiences with rape and issues of self-disclosure. A convenience sample of African-American women in Chicago was used to conduct this study. It was hypothesized that lower income, unemployed African-American women would experience more incidents of rape, negative responses from support sources and attribute more blame to themselves than higher income, employed African-American women, However, the results showed high-income African-American women attributed more behavioral blame to themselves but low-income women experienced more negative reactions. The implications of these findings will be discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: What factors influence the severity of rape law? This paper explores the question of why states have enacted rape statutes that differ in severity. Drawing on theories of gender stratification, hypotheses are developed using gender income equality measures. Threat hypotheses are also tested by examining the effects of minority presence on statute construction. Ordinal probit models are used to test these hypotheses using data obtained from the rape statutes of all fifty states in the years 1970, 1980, and 1990. Key findings are that (1) female economic equality is a significant factor explaining increased legal severity; (2) minority presence in the historically Confederate south is strongly associated with legal severity; (3) the presence of a Republican governor and Republican controlled legislature are associated with increased legal severity; (4) the political ideology of state citizens also posses significant explanatory power. These results support hypotheses that the state acts in the interest of the economically powerful and racial majority. As female economic power increases, the state will enact laws in their interest. More importantly, this paper also finds support for the hypothesis that historical prejudice and racial fear influences states to enact more severe rape laws.