A metasynthesis of qualitative studies on girls' and women's labeling of sexual violence

Unacknowledged and missed cases of sexual victimization: A comparison of responses to broad versus behaviorally specific questions

“…For example, if a person's conceptualization of rape is limited to the features of the "real rape" stereotype of an attack by a stranger using physical force, they will not identify a sexual intercourse coerced by a former partner exploiting the fact that they were drunk as a case of rape and are likely to answer "no" to the respective question (Cleere & Lynn, 2013;Hills et al, 2021). Consistent with this reasoning, several studies have shown that unacknowledged rape victims are more likely to endorse rape myths, label their experience as miscommunication rather than sexual assault, or experience rape by other means of coercion than the use of physical force (Dardis et al, 2021;Newins et al, 2021;Reed et al, 2020;Rousseau et al, 2020). Moreover, unacknowledged rape victims were shown to rate the probability of being raped to be significantly lower than acknowledged victims (Boyle & Walker, 2016).…”

“…Whether or not individuals report a specific sexual experience as rape or sexual assault depends on their conceptualization of nonconsensual sexual experiences (Hills et al, 2021;Rousseau et al, 2020).…”

“…Victims often fail to acknowledge their experience as rape or sexual assault and therefore remain “hidden” and unacknowledged in counts of the prevalence of sexual aggression (Koss, 2011). Hidden or unacknowledged victims are defined as those victims who endorse behaviorally specific questions about nonconsensual sexual experiences (e.g., “have you ever been made to engage in sexual intercourse through the use or threat of force”), while rejecting items that capture the same experience using broad labels, such as “have you ever been raped.” Research has shown that unacknowledged rape is more likely the more the experience deviates from the “real rape” stereotype of a sexual assault by a stranger on an unsuspecting victim who offers strong physical resistance (Krahé, 2016), leading to a systematic underreporting of victimization experiences that involve other strategies than physical coercion, a nonstranger perpetrator, or an intoxicated victim (Koss, 1985; Rousseau et al, 2020). Therefore, to address the problem of unacknowledged sexual aggression, the use of behaviorally specific questions rather than broad labels, such as rape or sexual assault, has been established as the gold standard in sexual aggression research for some time (Cook et al, 2011; Krahé & Vanwesenbeeck, 2016).…”

“…Whether or not individuals report a specific sexual experience as rape or sexual assault depends on their conceptualization of nonconsensual sexual experiences (Hills et al, 2021; Rousseau et al, 2020). When deciding to answer “yes” to the question “have you ever been raped”, they need to activate their cognitive representation of rape and evaluate their experience in relation to this representation.…”

Only “yes” means “yes”: Negotiation of Sex and Its Link With Sexual Violence

“…Third, it is possible that based on group rape known as the “La Manada” case (Faraldo & Acale, 2018) and the recent approval of the Organic Law for the Comprehensive Guarantee of Sexual Freedom (Ministries of Equality and Justice of the Spanish Government, 2021), where expresses the importance of sexual consent in crimes of sexual violence, and could have made it easier for women to acknowledge having suffered some type of sexual violence. Rousseau et al (2020) reported that some women are unaware of having suffered sexual violence or do not express it out of shame. However, feminist movements like #MeToo (Rentschler, 2018), as well as the aforementioned “La Manada” case (Faraldo & Acale, 2018) or the Organic Law draft on the Comprehensive Guarantee of Sexual Freedom have encouraged women to report having been victims of sexual violence.…”