This study was designed to investigate the reasons why many rape victims fail to report their victimization to public agencies. The study sample comprised 54 victims of unreported rape (38 Afrikaans-speaking white females and 16 English-speaking white females) who had responded to media appeals. In line with recent conceptualizations of crime victim decision making, barriers to reporting were examined at three levels of abstraction: the intrapersonal level (victim immaturity, victim guilt, or self-blame); the interpersonal level (fear of rapist retaliation, fear of further victimization by family and friends); and the institutional level (fear of victimization by the police or the criminal justice system). Interpersonal barriers were found to constitute effective barriers to reporting in 34 cases (63%), institutional barriers in 20 cases (37%), and intrapersonal barriers in 12 cases (22%). Analysis of the relationship between victim characteristics, rape circumstances, and reporting barriers revealed that the importance of reporting barriers can be predicted to a significant extent by selected rape-descriptive variables. The study findings are discussed in terms of their practical and methodological implications.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AmirM. (1967). Victim precipitated forcible rape. Journal of Criminal Law Criminology and Police Science, 58, 493–502.
2.
AmirM. (1971). Patterns in forcible rape. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
3.
AshworthC.Feldman-SummersS. (1978). Perceptions of the effectiveness of the criminal justice system: The female victim's perspective. Criminal Justice and Behaviour, 5, 227–240.
4.
BakerA.L.PetersonC. (1977). Self-blame by rape victims as a function of the rapes consequences: An attributional analysis. Crisis Intervention, 8, 92–104.
5.
BinderR.L. (1981). Why women don't report sexual assault. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 42, 437–438.
6.
BrickmanJ.BriereJ. (1984). Incidence of rape and sexual assault in an urban Canadian population. International Journal of Women's Studies, 7, 195–206.
7.
BrownmillerS. (1975). Against our will: Men, women, and rape. New York: Simon & Schuster.
8.
BurgessA.W.HolmstromL.L. (1974). Rape trauma syndrome. American Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 981–985.
9.
BurgessA.W.HolmstromL.L. (1975). Rape: The victim and the criminal justice system. In DrapkinI.VianoE. (Eds.), Victimology: A new focus (Vol. 3), Lexington, MA: Heath.
10.
BurgessA.W.HolmstromL.L. (1976). Coping behaviour of the rape victim. American Journal of Psychiatry, 133, 413–418.
11.
BurtM.R. (1980). Cultural myths and support for rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38, 217–230.
12.
BurtM.R.AlbinR.S. (1981). Rape myths, rape definitions, and probability of conviction. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 11, 212–230.
13.
ChappellD.GeisR.GeisG. (1977). Forcible rape: The crime, the victim, and the offender. New York: Columbia University Press.
14.
ClarkL.LewisD. (1977). Rape: The price of coercive sexuality. Toronto: The Women's Press.
15.
CollingsS.J. (1986). Rape in South Africa: Incidence, patterns, and trends. Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk, 22, 27–30.
16.
Comment. (1968). Police discretion and the judgment that a crime has been committed — rape in Philadelphia. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 117, 277–322.
17.
DukesR.L.MattleyC.L. (1977). Predicting rape victim reportage. Sociology and Social Research, 62, 63–84.
18.
Feldman-SummersS.AshworthC.D. (1981). Factors related to intentions to report a rape. Journal of Social Issues, 37, 53–70.
19.
Feldman-SummersS.NorrisJ. (1984). Differences between rape victims who report and those who do not report to a public agency. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 14, 562–573.
20.
FlynnL. (1974). Women and rape. Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality, 8, 183–197.
21.
GagerN.SchurrC. (1976). Sexual assault: Confronting rape in America. New York: Grossett & Dunlap.
22.
GreenbergM.S.RubackR.B.WestcottD.R. (1982). Decision making by crime victims: A multimethod approach. Law and Society Review, 17, 47–84.
23.
GreenbergM.S.RubackR.B.WilsonC.E.MillsM.K. (1980). Theft victim's decision to call the police: An experimental approach. In CookeG. (Ed.), The role of the forensic psychologist. Springfield, IL: Charles Thomas.
24.
GreenbergM.S.WilsonC.E.RubackR.B.MillsM.K. (1979). Social and emotional determinants of victim crime reporting. Social Psychology Quarterly, 42, 364–372.
25.
GriffinS. (1971). Rape: The all American crime. Ramparts, 10, 26–35.
26.
HindelangM.J. (1976). Criminal victimization in eight American cities: A descriptive analysis of common theft and assault. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.
27.
HorosC.V. (1974). Rape. New Canaan, CT: Tobey.
28.
HurschC.H. (1977). The trouble with rape. Chicago: Nelson-Hall.
29.
Janoff-BulmanR. (1979). Characterological versus behavioural self-blame: Inquiries into depression and rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1798–1809.
30.
KiddR.F.ChayetE.F. (1984). Why do victims fail to report? The psychology of criminal victimization. Journal of Social Issues, 40, 39–50.
31.
KrippendorffK. (1980). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
32.
LötterJ.M. (1984, October). Verkragting: Sosiale dimensies met spesiale verwysing na veroorsaking. Paper presented at a symposium of the Institute for Criminology, University of South Africa, Pretoria.
33.
MacDonaldJ.M. (1971). Rape offenders and their victims. Springfield, IL: Charles Thomas.
34.
MayneA.V.LevettA. (1977). The traumas of rape: Some considerations. South African Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 1, 163–170.
35.
McDermottM.J. (1979). Rape victimization in 26 American cities. U.S. Department of Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, National Criminal Justice Information and Statistics Service, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
36.
MedeaA.ThompsonK. (1974). Against rape. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
37.
PerettiP.O.CozzensN. (1979). Psycho-social varibles of female rapees not reporting and reporting the first incidence of rape. Acta Psychiatrica Belgica, 79, 332–342.
38.
PerettiP.O.CozzensN. (1983). Characteristics of female rapees not reporting and reporting the first incidence of rape. Corrective and Social Psychiatry and Journal of Behaviour Technology, Methods and Therapy, 29, 82–87.
39.
Queen's Bench Foundation. (1975). Rape victimization study. San Francisco: Office of Criminal Justice.
40.
RubackR.B.GreenbergM.S.WestcottD.R. (1984). Social influence and crime-victim decision making. Journal of Social Issues, 40, 51–76.
SalmonD. (1983). Sentences for rape. In OlmesdahlM.C.J.SteytlerN.C. (Eds.), Criminal justice in South Africa. Cape Town: Rustica Press.
43.
SchultzL. (Ed.). (1975). Rape victimology. Springfield, IL: Charles Thomas.
44.
SchurinkW.J. (1979). Seksuele misdaad. In LötterJ.M.StrijdomH.G.SchurinkW.J., Eersterust: 'n Sosiologiese studie van 'n kleurling-gemeenskap. Pretoria: Human Science Research Council.
45.
ShotlandR.L.GoodsteinL. (1983). Just because she doesn't want to doesn't mean it's rape: Ari experimentally based causal model of the perception of rape in a dating situation. Social Psychology Quarterly, 46, 220–232.
46.
StrijdomH.G.SchurinkW.J. (1977). Priměre viktimisasie in Soweto. Pretoria: Human Science Research Council.
47.
SueS.McKinneyH. (1975). Asian Americans in the community mental health care system. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 45, 111–118.
48.
SymondsM. (1975). Victims of violence: Psychological effects and after effects. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 35, 19–26.
49.
WallerL. (1977). Victims on trial: Prosecutions for rape. South African Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 1, 147–162.
50.
WeisK.BorgesS. (1973). Victimology and rape: The case of the legitimate victim. Issues in Criminology, 8, 71–115.
51.
WilliamsL.S. (1984). The classic rape: When do victims report?Social Problems, 31, 459–467.
52.
WongL. (1975). The Esther Lau trial: A case study of oppression and sexism. Amerasia Journal, 3, 16–26.
