Resisting Rape

Abstract

The impact of victim resistance on rape completion and injury was examined utilizing a large probability sample of sexual assault incidents, derived from the National Crime Victimization Survey (1992-2002), and taking into account whether harm to the victim followed or preceded self-protection (SP) actions. Additional injuries besides rape, particularly serious injuries, following victim resistance are rare. Results indicate that most SP actions, both forceful and nonforceful, reduce the risk of rape completion, and do not significantly affect the risk of additional injury.

Secondary and 2-Year Outcomes of a Sexual Assault Resistance Program for University Women

“…Forceful verbal and physical tactics are both related to decreased likelihood of rape, regardless of whether the perpetrator is a stranger or acquaintance (e.g., Tark & Kleck, 2014 ; Ullman, 1997 ). Unfortunately, women less commonly employ these strategies when faced with sexual assault from men they know, particularly when the men are intimates (e.g., Clay-Warner, 2002 ).…”

“…Built on the evidence-based cognitive ecological theory developed by Nurius and Norris (1996) to understand women’s cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses at each stage of an acquaintance sexual assault, the EAAA program is designed to help women overcome emotional and cognitive barriers to detect and acknowledge the increased risk in men’s behavior. It also aims to assist women to more quickly take action using the most effective resistance strategies, particularly forceful verbal and physical tactics (e.g., Tark & Kleck, 2014 ; Ullman, 1997 ). Without such education, these effective strategies are the least likely to be used by women against men they know ( Clay-Warner, 2002 ).…”

Testing a Model of How a Sexual Assault Resistance Education Program for Women Reduces Sexual Assaults

“…The goals of the program are to (a) increase the likelihood that empirically supported risk cues in social contexts (e.g., isolation, alcohol) and revealed in men's behavior (e.g., persistence, sexual entitlement) will be detected by women as early as possible in social interactions, (b) decrease women's emotional or cognitive obstacles to risk detection or resistance in situations involving known men, and (c) increase the likelihood that women will use defensive actions (e.g., leaving when possible, forceful verbal and physical self defense) that are most likely to lead to better outcomes (i.e., reduced severity of the sexual assault, interruption of rape; Tark & Kleck, 2014;Ullman, 1997) when threats are detected.…”

“…The theory and evidence upon which EAAA was built emerges from many different, primarily correlational studies often focused on a single domain (e.g., risk perception or self-defense strategies) that were related to positive outcomes (Norris et al, 2018;Tark & Kleck, 2014;Vitek et al, 2018). Although changes in individual domains can occur and can be important in their own right (e.g., more high-quality information about a phenomenon or more skill is usually better than less), our focus is on how the combined domains of the whole model are implicated in achieving the reductions in attempted and completed rape 3 affected through participation in the EAAA program.…”

“…However, knowing more about one's options and effective responses and being willing to use them are also important to action. Because expanding these available resources (i.e., women's knowledge and capabilities) is theorized to reduce barriers to resistance (Rozee & Koss, 2001), we also included women's selection of, and willingness to use, the resistance strategies known to be the most effective in an acquaintance sexual assault situation, namely, direct, forceful verbal and physical strategies (e.g., Tark & Kleck, 2014).…”