Calling it Rape: Differences in Experiences of Women Who do or do not Label their Sexual Assault as Rape

Abstract

Past research had found that one-half or more of all women who have had an experience that might meet the definition of rape do not label themselves rape victims. The present study examined the actual rape experiences of 33 women who labeled their assault experience as rape and 56 women who did not label their assault experience as rape through questionnaires and open-ended descriptions of what happened during their assault. Quantitative findings replicated past research, finding that acknowledged victims, compared to unacknowledged victims, were older, knew their assailant less well, experienced more forceful assaults, and had stronger negative emotional reactions to the experience. Qualitative analysis revealed that women were mostly likely to acknowledge their experience as rape when the assailant was not their boyfriend and they woke up with a man penetrating them or the assailant used force and dominated them to obtain intercourse. Women assaulted as children also acknowledged their experience as rape. However, when the assault involved a boyfriend, or if the woman was severely impaired by alcohol or drugs, or if the act involved oral or digital sex, the women were unlikely to label their situations as constituting rape.