LIBRARY
1 Michigan State
a University

 

 

 

PLACE IN RETURN BOX to remove this checkout from your record.
TO AVOID FINES return on or before due due.

 

DATE DUE DATE DUE DATE DUE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

—

—T
__IE:L___I
mi:
l 1(—
__1| Ii

MSU Is An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution
cha-IM

 

 

 

 

__L—

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A MODEL FOR RAPE VICTIMIZATION REPORTING

By

Renee De Groot

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS
Department of Sociology

1992

ABSTRACT
A MODEL FOR RAPE VICTIMIZATION REPORTING
By
Renee De Groot

Rape victimization rates are 4 times higher for college aged women than for any other age
groups (Koss. Gidycz. Wisnieweski. 1987). Yet, it is estimated, only one out of ten survivors
choose to report the rape to the police (Russell, 1984, Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness
Center, 1989).

This thesis analyzes interviews with rape survivors. interviews with rape cn'sis counselors,
and sexual assault client contact sheets to determine factors which influence the decision to report
a rape.

The situations which were found to increase the likelihood of reporting are listed below
in order of greatest to least influential: stranger assailants, additional violence, the expectation that
the police would believe the women’s report, the belief that reporting would increase one’s
continued safety. the absence of quilt feelings. the immediate encouragement from a friend to
report, and. finally a desire to tell the assailant what he did was wrong. and keep him from doing
it again.

Several policy recommendations designed to increase the likelihood that survivors would

report are discussed.

For my husband. Nick . . .

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank all of the sexual assault survivors that have volunteered to be
interviewed for this study. It is only through the insight and courage of survivors like the seven
who volunteered for this thesis that we are able to research the topic of sexual assault. This
research represents my hOpes and prayers for a safer world for all women.

I would also like to thank the sexual assault counselors that I interviewed. They fill very
crucial and yet under-rewarded positions on college campuses. The experience and perceptions
of these counselors provided a deeper understanding of the reporting process.

Dr. Larry Hembroff. Director of the Center for Survey Research. Michigan State
University. has been helpful in formulating and articulating the ideas expressed in this thesis. He
has been an encouraging mentor in my academic and professional training. I am very grateful for
the patience and assistance he has given me.

There are two key figures in my life that have given me the support in order to advance
in each step of my academic career. my parents, Renze and May De Groot. They have always
encouraged me and taught me to look ahead with a special lens of insight. caring and Christianity
that has enriched all of my work.

The one person who really understood how important this project was to me and offered
the technical and theoretical assistance to help me complete it was my fiance. Nicholas Hinkle.
You put so much of yourself into this thesis Nick. it could not have been completed without you,

and I am very grateful. Through you. Nick. I have matured intellectually and spiritually.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Introduction .......................................................

Chapter 2
Review of the Literature
The comparison of rape reporting rates with the
reporting rates of other crimes .....................................
Factor which affect the decision whether or not
to report a sexual assault from the
previous literature ..............................................

Chapter 3

Hypothetical Model for Rape Victimization Reporting ..........................
Factor #1: Situational circumstances .................................
Factor #2: Perceptions of the criminal
justice system ................................................
Factor#3: Support ........; ....................................

Chapter 4
Methods
The ideal methods to test the hypothetical model of rape
victimization reporting ..........................................
Methodological and practical complications to the
ideal test ....................................................
Methodology used to test the hypothetical model of rape
victimization reporting ..........................................
Population - College students ................................
Method #1: Interviews with survivors ..........................
Method #2: Interviews with counselors .........................
Contacts with schools that do not have rape
crisis centers ......................................
Method #3: Client contact sheets ..............................

Chapter 5

Results and Discussion
Results of the interviews with survivors ..............................
Discussion of results of survivor’s data ...............................
Results from the interviews with counselors ...........................
Discussion of interviews with counselors ..............................
Reporting statistics of schools that do not have rape
cn’sis centers ................................................
Results of contact sheets from a sexual assault crisis

. 6

12

29

30

33
33

35

39

43
43

76
80
93

center ..................................................... 104

Discussion of the results from the contact sheets ....................... 115
Chapter 6
Conclusion
Integrated summary of results .................................... 119
Policy Implications ............................................ 125
Thesis Bibliography ........................................... 163
Appendices
Questionnaire to survivors ....................................... 136
Advance letter to counselors ..................................... 147
Questionnaire to counselors ...................................... 149

vi

LIST OF TABLES

Table C.l: Demographic variables of the schools with

rape crisis services ............................................. 80
Table C.2: Sexual assault reporting rates of schools in

sample ..................................................... 83
Table C.3: Counselor ratings on community support and level

of encouragement .............................................. 84
Table C.4: Three factors selected by counselors ............................... 87
Table C.5: Counselor ratings on hypothesized factors ........................... 90
Table 8.1: Frequency of police reports, missing values left

as missing values ............................................. 105
Table 8.2: Crosstabulation of report status and level of

acquaintance ................................................ 106
Table 8.3: Crosstabulation of reporting status with

location of assault ............................................. 107
Table 8.4: Crosstabulation of reporting status and location of

rape controlling for relationship to assailant ........................... 108
Table 8.5: Crosstabulation of report status by presence of

additional violence ............................................ 109
Table 8.6: Crosstabulation of reporting status and violence

controlling for relationship to assailant .............................. 110
Table 8.7: Crosstabulation of reporting status and victim’s

race ...................................................... 111
Table 8.8: Crosstabulation of reporting status and victim’s

race controlling for relationship to assailant ........................... 112
Table 8.9: Crosstabulation of report status by assailant’s

race ...................................................... 113

Table 8.10: Crosstabulation of reporting status and race of
assailant controlling for relationship to
assailant ................................................... 114

vii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure l: Hypothetical model of rape victimization

reporting .................................................... 31
Figure 2: Final predictive model of rape victimization
reporting ................................................ 77. 120

viii

Chapter 1

Introduction

One out of three women will be raped in their lifetime according to the United States
Federal Bureau of Investigations (Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center. (SAPAC),
1989). Only one out of ten of these victims will report the rape to the police (Russell. 1984).
When such a small fraction of sexual assaults committed are ever reported. there are several
serious negative consequences likely to result. First. the assailant is never told that his actions
were wrong. and he is never held accountable for assaulting another person (Feldman-Summers.
and Norris. 1984).

Second. communities and the criminal justice system are never made aware of the
prevalence and seriousness of rape. If communities are not made aware of the rape epidemic. they
will be less willing to allocate resources to the eradication of rape. According to Armand Mauss
and Camille Wolfe, in This Land of Promises. much of the feminist literature advocates reporting
a rape. because "modifications in the law will be affected more rapidly if the appalling frequency
of rape becomes known” (Mauss and Wolfe. 1977. p. 182). Lorna Flynn conducted interviews
with the director of a Rape Crisis center in Washington DC. and a policewomen in New York.
Both women stated that procedures in handling rape crisis cases would have changed if more
assaults were reported (Flynn. 1974).

Third. if the victim reports the assault. she may be more likely to feel she has regained
some control over the situation and her own life. Rape makes victims feel a sense of a loss of
control. It is important for them to regain a sense of control (Caringella-MacDonald.1983).

If she does not report the assault. she also will not be eligible to receive publicly

supported treatment and assistance (Feldman-Summers and Norris. 1984). Finally. if the victim

2
never achieves retribution for the assault against her person. she. as well as the community, may
continue to blame the victim for the rape (Anonymous. 1990).

Yet reporting a sexual assault. and pursuing it through the criminal justice system can be
an extremely taxing process for any woman. It requires a great deal of strength and time and
money. Often women are faced with accusatory attitudes and hostility at every turn in the
process. and they may spend years of their lives trying to prosecute only to have the man judged
not guilty and set free without retribution for his actions. "For a woman struggling to make sense
of her experience and cope with her feelings. the attitude and distancing of the legal system may
not be best for her personal progress" (Anonymous, 1990. p.5). It is clear, there are significant
reasons not to report.

There are likely social as well as individual factors which influence a woman’s decision
whether or not to report a sexual assault. Thus an improved understanding of this decision-
making process poses an interesting sociological question. I have conducted an empirical.
exploratory study of the factors which influence whether a sexual assault survivor will decide to
report a sexual assault to the police. I am presenting and using a definition of rape rather than
examining or questioning how it is defined by victims or public Opinion. I believe that there is
a line which separates consensual sex from rape. regardless of context. When a woman says "no"

. and a man forces her to have intercourse. it is always rape ‘ (see note, Best, 1989).

 

‘ Best. Joel. (1989) Images of Issues: Typifling Contempgrgy Sociajjroblean. New
York:
Aldine De Gruyter. Inc.. There is another approach to understanding rape. Social
construction theory describes labels of rape as social constructions influenced by the
culture and normative climate. Pe0ple use situational cues to decide on which labels to
attach to a situation. and thus assignment of labels then changes as popular opinion
changes. According to this theory. the definition of rape changes over time. even though
the events are no less "real".

 

3

I have formed hypotheses about three separate factors which may affect a sexual
assault survivor’s decision making process. Some studies claim that rape is reported as
frequently as many other crimes. other studies claim rape is far more underreported than
other crimes. The purpose of my study is to examine the conditions under which rape
(according to my definition) is reported and is not reported.

I will present a review of previous literature which has examined conditions under
which rape is reported or not reported, and discuss the influential factors that have
emerged from the results of these studies. From this research and my own experience
as a rape crisis counselor. I have drawn three broad factors out of the previous research
on rape reporting and developed a hypothetical model of reporting based on these factors.
These three factors are situational circumstances around the rape (such as level of
acquaintance. location of assault. level of violence. level of resistance. and race of
assailant and victim). expectations of the police response. and the support system which
a victim may have (such as family, friends. and counselors) to report the assault. In
order to test these three factors, I have used three sources of information. The
methodological procedures and rationales will be discussed for each of the data collection
measures. Results of the data collection will be presented, and I will discuss the
importance of each factor in reference to the three sources of data.

Finally, those factors for which I find evidence in the decision-making process
will be combined into an integrated model of rape victimization reporting. I will offer
policy recommendations which might improve the rate at which sexual assault survivors

report rapes to the police based on these factors.

4

I wish to make a few comments about the language used before going into the
body of the thesis. First, there are some differences of Opinion concerning language used
to describe sensitive issues such as rape and its victims. Some prefer the use of the term
"survivor" in order to concentrate on the recovery and strength of the individual and the
fact that rape is a life-threatenin g event which the woman survived. Concentrating only
on women’s victimization ignores the personal and political strength that women have
and use. It is important to refer to women who have been raped as survivors.

But, women who have been raped are also victims. The term "victim" carries
with it the connotation of innocence. A victim did not cause their victimization. Some
women describe the experience after a rape as a two stage process, first they are victims
and then they become survivors. Thus the words are used interchangeably throughout
this thesis. Women who have been raped are victims and survivors.

The second comment I wish to make is that I use only female pronouns when I
refer to victims/survivors in this thesis. This is intentional. Men are also victims of rape.
One out of ten men will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime (SAPAC. 1989). The
issue of the sexual assault of men is remarkably neglected. There is too little research
in the area. Unfortunately, I am not equipped to add to it. One reason for this, is the
difficulty of gaining access to male survivors of rape to interview. They are a very
hidden group. Secondly. I believe there may be different issues involved in the decision
making process men go through when deciding whether or not to report a rape. I have
decided to concentrate on women only.

I also always refer to assailants with male pronouns. There are rare documented

cases when women have been an assailant in a rape, but only in conjunction with a man

5

or when the victim is a child. I am not delving into the area of child sexual abuse, and
the cases involving adult women for the most part also involve men. Men rape women.
Thus the adjectives I have used are justified.

Andrea Dworkin claims it is important to understand and speak of female rape
survivors. She states her views very simply "Rape is a crime against all women"
(Dworkin. 1976. p. 32). "It may be damaging to say men are raped too. because that
ignores the political consequences of the rape of women. And. perhaps men can only be
sympathetic when they feel they may be in danger also. We don’t want the victimization
of women to become invisible as a consequence of viewing men as also potential
victims" (Dworkin. 1976. p. 44).

The use of the terms sexual assault versus rape is also a noteworthy language
issue. Recently women’s groups have preferred the term sexual assault because rape
infers penetration while sexual assault includes other forms of forced sexual contact. But,
the legal definition of rape in the state in which this study was conducted also does not
require penetration. The definition contains four parts. First and third degree rape
involve penetration with body or objects, and second and fourth degree rape do not

involve penetration. Sexual assault is rape. and I will use the two terms interchangeably.

Chapter 2

Review of the Literature

The comparison of rape reporting rates with the reporting rates of other crimes

There have been some research studies which have claimed that rape is not
underreported compared to other crimes. The number of police reports of rape has been
increasing over the last two decades. Baron. and Straus, state that between 1960 and
1987, reports of rapes have increased from 16,860 to 91,111 an increase of 440%, a
higher increase than any other major violent crime (Baron and Straus, 1989). Between
just 1972 and 1976 rape reports increased 105% (Anonymous. 1990, p. 2). No other
violent crime has increased at a faster pace.

Galvin and Polk claim. according to their data. victims of rape report to the police
as often as victims of other crimes (Galvin and Polk, 1982. p. 135). They claim that the
problem of underreporting is not unique to rape, the majority of crimes never make it to
the police records. Yet. I will argue, and present contradictory evidence that rape is less
far less likely to be reported to the police than other crimes.

Duncan Chappell conducted a study of criminal justice system personnel.
Comprehensive questionnaires were sent to police agencies and prosecutor’s offices
around the US. Based on these questionnaires. Chappell concluded that the increase in
rape reporting is in part due to the improved ways in which police officers deal with
victim’s reports. He found in general that rape victims have become the focus of more
concern with the police. Many police departments offer sensitivity training to officers

to instruct them on how to deal with a rape victim. In addition, more women are

7

entering into influential roles in police departments making female victims of sexual
assault feel more comfortable reporting to the police (Walker, and Brodsky, 1976).

Baron and Strauss view the increases we are seeing in the number of reported
rapes as part of the changes in rape laws, broadening definitions of rape, greater
sensitivity on the part of criminal justice personnel, and an increasing willingness on the
part of survivors to report a sexual assault. Baron and Strauss do recognize however. the
increase seen in the numbers of rapes that are reported are also due to an increase in the
incidence of rape (Baron and Strauss, 1989, p. 45).

There are two oversights and methodological flaws in the above studies that bring
their results into question. The first is that the incidence of rape is very likely increasing
and this may account for much of the increase in rape reporting (Baron and Strauss.
1989). The second oversight is that the studies neglect to mention the types of rapes that
are reported to the police. Stranger rapes are far more likely to be reported to the police.
The increase in reporting of rape and the improved treatment of victims may only involve
stranger rapes. If stranger rape is increasingly being reported. but not acquaintance rape,
then we still need to examine the reasons why acquaintance rape is not being reported.
The above studies would be more reliable if they had defined which types of rapes were
being reported. Unfortunately. it is still unclear as to how severely underreported, rape
really is.

Other research studies have found that rape reporting is far less likely to be
reported than other crimes. Dukes and Mattley claimed that sexual assault reporting rates
are lower than any other crime. Their estimation is that from 75%-90% of all rapes go

unreported (Dukes and Mattley, 1977, Weis. and Borges. 1973, p. 169). Susan

8

Brownmiller estimated that only 1 in 5, to 1 in 20, rapes are reported (Brownmiller,
1975, p. 190). In another study by Kilpauick, et. al.. researchers took a random sample
of 2,004 women, of those who had been raped, only 29% reported to the police
(Kilpatrick. et a1 1981). In a study by Lizotte. half of the sexual assault survivors in his
sample did not report the rape to the police (Lizotte. 1985). Koss and Harvey claim that
less than 5% of all college student rape victims report the assault to the police (Ross and
Harvey. 1991. p.15).

A well-known study conducted by Diana Russell, in 1984 was probably the first
research study to reveal the profound underreporting of sexual assault. She conducted
an impressive study of 930 women randomly selected from the San Francisco Bay area.
The study lasted seven years. Women in the sample were given detailed interviews
averaging 1 hour and 20 minutes. Of the 930 women in the whole sample, 223. or 24%
had been the victim of at least one completed rape. An additional 291 or 31% of the
total sample, had been the victims of at least one attempted rape. According. to this
state’s criminal sexual conduct laws, (which combines completed and attempted rapes)
44% or 407 women out of 930 had been sexually assaulted (Russell. 1984. p.35).

Many women had been sexually assaulted more than once. When the total
number of assaults is added up, for all the women, there were 780 incidents of sexual
assault in this sample. Out of the 780 assaults, only 8%, or 66 assaults, were ever
reported to the police (Russell, 1984, p.35-36).

Not only were very few cases ever reported, but those that were reported, were
extremely unrepresentative of the majority of rape cases. Russell examined variations in

the reporting rates of rape. according to the relationship between the victim and assailant.

9

The majority of rapes that were reported were committed by strangers: 30% of stranger
rapes were reported to police, 13% of rapes by authority figures. 10% of rapes by
boyfriends, 7% of rapes by acquaintances, 6% of relatives and friends of family, 3% of
lovers or ex-lovers. 2% of friends. and only 1% of date rapes. Although Russell found
that date rapes were the most common type of rape, they were the least likely to be
reported to the police (Russell. 1984, p.37).

There are also demographic differences among women who report and those who
do not. Women in economically disadvantaged groups are more likely to report to the
police than women in more economically advantaged groups. This is in part a function
of the dating tradition among middle and upper classes. Only middle and upper class
youth possess the finances and resources to engage in dating activities which allow a
young man and woman virtually unlimited privacy. 80 women in middle and upper
classes are more likely to be assaulted by dates or acquaintances and women of lower
classes are more likely to be raped by strangers. Those who are raped by strangers are
more likely to report.

Allen Lizotte conducted an extensive review of the literature and concluded that
"rape is vastly undereported, minimizing our awareness of rape as a social problem"
(Lizotte, 1985. p. 169). Lizotte examines the National Crime Survey (13,500 cases from
1972-1975, people 12 and older) using logistical equations to determine whether rape is
unique in terms of the factors that motivate a woman to report the rape to the police. He
concluded that there are in fact. unique factors which motivate the reporting of a rape.
Moreover, be controlled for gender. and the differences could not be explained by gender

(Lizotte, 1985. p.169).

10

In this study. Lizotte chose to examine four different factors hypothesized to
differentially affect crime reporting: characteristics of the offender, characteristics of the
victim, spatial-temporal location of offense, and characteristics of the offense. A
multivariate analysis was conducted to test the relationships of each of the above factors
to crime reporting.

Lizotte found that factors that make for a strong prosecution are more powerful
predictors for reporting rape, than for reporting any other assaults. This places more
severe requirements for evidence before reporting a sexual assault. Victims of sexual
assault look to the presence of physical injury and stranger status among assailants as
evidence to help their case.

Lizotte claimed the social distance between the victim and offender was o_nly
predictye in the reporting of rape. The study also found that if medical injury resulted.
the victim of rape would be more likely to report. While this relationship did not always
hold for other types of assaults.

Lizotte, like Russell in her 1984 study, found a relationship between education and
reporting. Lizotte’s results agree with Russell’s findings on the relationship between
class and reporting. but his explanation of the relationship differs from Russell’s. Lizotte
found that highly educated women are less likely to report a rape than less educated
victims (education in part determines social class standing). He speculated that highly
educated women are more knowledgeable about the way rape reports are treated in the
criminal justice system, and thus avoid the process. I would not offer the same
explanation. Women with less education are likely to live in poorer neighborhoods. and

poorer neighborhoods have more contact with the police. Women who have more contact

11

with the police would have a better understanding of how they handle reports of assaults.
There may be a better explanation for the relationship between education and reporting
than the one offered by Lizotte.

While the victims of rape consider the factual evidence they have to support their
case and their knowledge of the police, victims of other types of assault seem to respond
more to idiosyncratic factors like age of assailant and victim. etc. (Lizotte, 1985, p. 181).

From all of the above studies, it seems that sometimes rape is reported, and
sometimes it is not, thus a study such as this is called for. to determine the conditions
gnder which rape is reported or not reported. Taking the results of all the studies
described above, it seems that if rape were placed on a continuum of reporting along with
other crimes (both assaultive and non-assaultive) rape would be at the low end of
reporting. There is sufficient evidence that the undeneporting of rape is a common social

phenomenon that deserves sociological examination.

12

Factors Which Affect the Decision Whether or not to Report a Sexual Assault from
the Previous Literature

Menachim Amir was the first to study sexual assault reporting rates in an
empirical manner by examining police records. He was instrumental in demonstrating
when rapes are likely to be reported or not reported. In concluding his research, Amir
offered one view of rape that had been commonly held for sometime, he asserted that
women precipitate or cause their own rape by their suggestive behavior and lifestyles
(Amir, 1971). According to Amir, young women who run away from home, and drink
alcohol or use other drugs in the presence of men, are engaging in suggestive behavior
that often leads to rape (K033 and Harvey, 1991).

Subsequent studies have refuted Amir’s conclusions. Social control theories claim
rape is caused by a desire to gain power and domination over a woman, not by a desire
to have sex (Brownmiller, 1975). Psychological theories have offered hypotheses which
state that rape is the act of deviant individuals. Men who rape are mentally imbalanced
and do not represent the average man (Schwendinger and Schwendinger, 1983). To the
contrary, radical feminist research has claimed that relationships between men and women
are inherently unequal because men are in dominant. controlling positions and seek to
maintain those positions. Sexual relations between men and women cannot be viewed
as consensual in this regard, and thus all sex is rape (Griffen, 1978; MacKinnon, 1983).

In his research, Amir was concerned with why some women choose not to report
a sexual assault. He suggested some predictive factors that have formed the basis for

subsequent theorizing about rape reporting. His results are outlined as follows.

13

The first predictive factor to stand out concerned personal characteristics of both
parties involved: age and race. There is a linear relationship between age‘ differences and
reporting. The greater the age difference, the more likely the woman will be to report.
However. when the victim is a minor, she is less likely to wish to report the assault
regardless of the age of the assailant (less likely to tell her guardian(s) or want her
guardians to report it). Amir also found that victims who had nonwhite assailants
demonstrated a greater tendency to report.

The second factor Amir examined was the extent of physical injuries sustained by
the victim. Women who suffered more severe physical injuries were also more likely to
report in Amir’s sample.

Third, Amir discusses what he labels a community factor in the overall handling
of rape cases. When the community experiences a wave of sex crimes, individual women
may be more likely to report Fluctuations in community sentiment about rape influence
the resources that the criminal justice system allocates to the processing of rape cases and
the level of receptivity that is shown to women who report a rape. These community
level changes can affect individual women’s willingness to report

Amir noticed the role that parents often play. since many of the rape cases be
reviewed involved young (teenage) girls. Parents had a strong influence on girls in both
directions. If parents wanted their daughter to report. she was more likely to, but if they
preferred to protect her and the family from further attention and difficulty, they were
able to strongly dissuade her from reporting.

Parents and other significant peeple are usually the first people a survivor tells

about the assault. If they respond by blaming her, she is very unlikely to go to the

14

police. Sometimes survivors fear telling their parents or having them find out about the
assault. Amir found this to be the case especially with teenage victims who had been
engaging in activities which their parents would not approve when the rape occuned, for
example, drinking alcohol.

Yet, Amir did not assume the decision was determined by these factors alone.
Individual feelings about the assault do enter into the process. Shame, embarrassment,
or fear. or simply the desire to put the ordeal behind, all keep many women from
reporting. according to Amir (Amir, 1971).

Research by LeBeau. found that social distance was very influential in deciding
whether or not to report a rape to the police (LeBeau. 1988). Steketee. and Austin claim
that acquaintance rapes are less likely to be reported because the victims fear that others
will not view the incident as rape, or the victim interprets it as less serious (Steketee. and
Austin. 1989).

Linda Williams in her review of sexual assault client contact sheets, found that
victims attacked in certain social contexts which they entered into willingly, for example
on a date or studying with the assailant, were less likely to report than those who were
raped by strangers or assailants who forced their way into the woman’s home (Williams,
1984).

Holmstrom and Burges cite a study by Smith and Nelson which concluded that
the probability that the victim would report varied by the degree of social distance
between the offender and the victim. Acquaintances were less likely to report

(Holmstrom and Burges, 1978). K033 and Harvey state that victims who knew their

15
assailants were less likely to seek any type of treatment, or make a report, and where also
less likely to have physically defended themselves (K033 and Harvey, 1991. p. 76).

However, another research study by Hindelang and Gottfredson, found that social
distance was not influential in reporting. Although they noted a relationship, those who
had a prior acquaintance with the assailant were less likely to report. the relationship w
not significant (Hindelang and Gottfredson, 1976). Hindelang and Gottfredson have
offered evidence of another predictor variable, age. Younger victims (under 35). they
assert. are always less likely to report than victims over 35 years of age (Hindelang and
Gottfredson, 1976).

Roberts argues for the effects of race in the decision whether or not to report. It
seems both black and white women take into consideration the race of the rapist, when
deciding whether or not to report the assault. Each group of women realize black men
are more likely to be convicted than white men. Black men are arrested for rapes at a
rate five times greater than their representation in the total population. More women
reported a black rapist than a white rapist regardless of their own race (Roberts, 1989,
p. 26).

LeBeau listed situational characteristics which he concluded made victims more
likely to report. Violence took precedence. The characteristics included the level of
violence used. whether or not the victim’s home was broken into, and if a weapon was
used. Violence, I believe, can have varied affects on survivors. For some, it provides
the outrage which compels them to action. and they report it to the police. For others,
the added physical violence and often accompanying threats. can be so frightening that

victims do not report to the police. In fact. LeBeau found that even though women in

16

the violent situations just listed were more likely to report, in rapes where physical injury
or sexual humiliation occurred, reporting rates would decrease (LeBeau, 1988).

From some of the research on rape reporting, it seems that women are afraid to
report to the police because they fear the police will mistreat them by not believing their
claim or blaming them for causing the rape. Steketee and Austin have argued that these
attitudes about the criminal justice system. and expectations for conviction. are formed
by media accounts of rape cases and these accounts profoundly affect women’s decisions
whether or not to report a rape themselves (Steketee. and Austin, 1989).

Diana Russell found that the more politically conscious women were less likely
to report. These women were most affected by the women’s movement, which exposed
the unfair treatment that rape victims are likely to receive. This had a discouraging affect
on survivors (Russell, 1984, p.14). In fact. many studies have found that the media plays
a major role in forming women’s impressions of the manner in which the criminal justice
system handles rape cases.

The fear of mistreatment by the police, seems to be rather debilitating for sexual
assault survivors, and perhaps more importantly, _o_nly for sexual assault survivors
(Bumiller. 1990). Holmstrom and Burgess conducted personal interviews with sexual
assault survivors at several points of the recovery process. Again and again, these
researchers heard victims say they did not want to prosecute because they were afraid
they would be misueated in the criminal justice system. Women feared it would be them
on trial. People would ask them what they did to precipitate the event. These fears were
based on what they had heard about the rape trials of other survivors (Holmstrom and

Burgess, 1978. p.58).

l7

Herzog provides further support for the contention that sexual assault remains
undereported. She suspected that one reason for low reporting rates was the poor
treatment that victims receive from the criminal justice system. To test this theory. she
studied three aspects of rape, the first involved personal and demographic characteristics
of the victim, the second was situational circumstances before the rape occuned, and the
third was situational circumstances during the rape. Herzog found that only situational
circumstances before the rape were significantly related to victim’s perceptions of
responses from criminal justice personnel. Victims who consumed alcohol prior to the
rape, reported less understanding treatment from the prosecutor than victims who did not
report the use of alcohol. Victims who used other drugs besides alcohol reported less
understanding treatment from the detective than victims who did not use such drugs.
Victims who met their offenders in a bar or tavern, reported less understanding treatment
from both the detective and prosecutor, than victims who did not meet their offenders
under such circumstances. Victims who were hitchhiking reported that the patrol officer
I was less understanding than victims who had not been hitchhiking. Finally. victims who
were acquainted with the alleged offender. reported less understanding treatment from
both the patrol officer and the detective, than victims who were not acquainted with the
offenders. All of these activities which can occur prior to a rape do not warrant a rape.
The mistreatment of rape victims who had engaged in these activities is based on rape
myths and gender stereotypes. This mistreatment pervades the entire criminal justice
system personnel and it is very difficult for a survivor to combat (Herzog, 1963).

Herzog offers interpretations of her findings. She reasons that criminal justice

personnel are more likely to treat victims that they believe better than victims that they

18

do not believe. They judge credibility on the basis of circumstances over which the
victim has control. This involves only behavior occurring prior to the forcible rape.

"By far the most crucial variables which dictate the victim’s perception of the

treatment she received from the criminal justice personnel are the behaviors in

which she engages prior to the assault. These results have serious social
implications both at a societal and an individual level. At present, no evidence
exists that women who consume alcohol, use drugs. meet men in bars, hitchhike

or who indicate being raped by men they know. are any more likely to make a

"false” complaint. than women who do not conduct themselves in these ways"

(Herzog, 1963. p.81).

The second fear that victims have, which was mentioned above. is a fear that the
police will not believe the rape report. This fear is not unjustified (Griffen, 1973).
Studies have found that police do disregard women’s reports of sexual assault. Rape is
the only crime for which police officers are entitled to utilize an unfounding process
(Brownmiller. 1975).

According to this process, police are entitled to use their own judgment when a
survivor reports a sexual assault and determine whether or not they think the incident
really happened as the victim claimed it did. If they feel the case is weak. it may be
dropped at this point without any further investigation (Russell, 1984). Perhaps there
would be some justification for this process if the criteria chosen to determine credibility
were fairly and accurately chosen. However, in a study conducted by Gary LaFree,
Indianapolis police officers were interviewed about their decisions to use the unfounding
process. LaFree classified the answers into the following three categories with the given
frequency rates: 70.9% stated that problems with victim’s moral character caused them

to use the unfounding process, 20% stated that a lack of c00peration from the victim

caused them to unfound the claim, and finally only 9.1% unfounded the claim for

l9

technical reasons (LaFree, 1989, p. 69). The majority of rapes reports that are unfounded
are done so on personal police Opinion about the survivor’s character, not on the evidence
of the case. Women have reason to fear reporting to the police when it involves a
judgment of their moral character.

Police Officers have also made unfounding decisions based on the time period
between the assault and the victim’s report of the assault. There is no consideration
given to the idea that reporting a rape may take courage and women need some time to
feel ready to contact the police. If she does not report within a few days her credibility
is severely crippled (Holmstrom and Burgess, 1978).

The adherence to this process is fairly ingrained. Subsequent to LaFree’s study,
a special sexual assault unit was developed in the Indianapolis police unit to improve the
processing of rape cases. Even after this program. evaluation studies found that little had
changed in the way the cases were handled and the problematic unfounding process was
still being utilized in the same manner (LaFree, 1989.p. 88).

A similar study conducted by Susan Caringella-MacDonald examined the
processing of rape cases before and after many progressive changes were made in the
rape laws in Kalamazoo, Michigan. One year after the sexual assault laws were changed,
she found there were limited changes made in the actual processing of rape cases. This
demonstrates underlying attitudes that are firmly in place. The unequal treatment given
to rape cases is not merely a problem with the laws, it is a problem with how players in
the system use the laws. Their personal beliefs about rape enter into the way survivors

of rape are treated and the way the case is handled. Attitudes regarding rape must

20

undergo some changes before improvements can realistically be seen in rape reporting
and processing.

Weis and Borges have shed light onto the responses of victims when reporting a
sexual assault to the police. They claim that the basic question in reporting is whether
or not officials believe that it was really a rape and not a seduction. Sometimes victims
will disclose details of the rape that seem inconsistent. When the victim is recounting
the rape she will evaluate how the police officer is reacting. Depending on whether the
police officer seems to be accepting the victim’s story. she may release or hold back
certain key details. Police Officers often do not understand this process and thus become
suspicious of her entire story (Weis. and Borges. 1973).

LeBeau conducted a study of rape victims in San Diego for 1971-1975. Among
his sample of survivors he also found a reluctance to report due to factors related to the
criminal justice system. Survivors mentioned such things as; a lack of corroborating
evidence or proof of the lack Of consent, judicial and juror attitudes made the victim feel
she had to prove her innocence. the victims wanted to avoid a disclosure Of their sexual
history in court, and the police were insensitive (LeBeau.l988).

The fear that the police will blame you is also not unrealistic for sexual assault
survivors (K033 and Harvey. 1991). Flynn conducted interviews with a rape crisis
counselor and a female police officer, both attested to the difficulty women have securing
a rape conviction, moreover, they claimed that women in the general public are aware Of
the difficulty that previous survivors have had (Flynn, 1985).

Debilitating fears of the police response seem to only be a concern for victims of

sexual assault and not for victims of other crimes. Elizabeth Rafter Offers an explanation

21

for this by quoting Burgess and Holmstrom who claim that women fear the criminal
justice system as much as the rapist. Women are placed in the position of reporting an
embarrassing personal event to a man, someone not only above them in the social
hierarchy but also someone of the same sex as their assailant (in a crime for which
gender is the key). Women are also aware that as a victim of rape, their sexual behavior
will be placed under scrutiny and they will be judged according to how closely they acted
in accordance with their ascribed gender roles (Rafter, 1982).

Rafter cautions us about the effects this has on the community’s image of women.
When women’s claims are taken less seriously, this is an indication of women’s place in
the community. It becomes acceptable for women to be victims (Rafter, 1982).
Disbelieving women’s claims of rape or blaming them for the incident is a social control
mechanism which further victimizes women in denying them any retribution for crimes
committed against them.

Dukes and Mattely were also interested in what factors influence survivors in
deciding whether or not to report a sexual assault. These researchers have come tO
understand the survivor’s decision making as a sequential process in which several factors
are taken into consideration.

The first stage in Dukes and Mattely’s process begins before the rape. Women
who have survived a rape have preconceived notions about how the police will handle
rape cases which come from general exposure to the police. Women were primarily
concerned with the way police treat survivors rather than the efficiency of the police
department. they did not have sufficient knowledge of the police department to make

judgments about its efficiency.

22

The second step is the influence of situational characteristics of the rape itself.
Dukes and Mattely have argued that specific circumstances around the rape make the
victim feel that the police are less likely to believe her. They found that women who felt
more fearful of the rapist, immediately after he left tended to report more often.
However, they found that social distance between the assailant and the victim, or the
level of acquaintance, the number of offenders. the number Of threats made by the
assailant. and the degree to which the victim was hurt physically were not statistically
different for reporters and non-reporters.

Victims also took expected family and friend’s reactions into account when
deciding whether to report. The final step in this process was making the decision
whether or not to report. After testing the model, Dukes and Mattely found only two
predictive factors showing up; fear after the rapist left, and a concern over the manner
in which police handle rape cases. The percentage of variance accounted for in this
model was 96%. They were able to predict non-reporters with 100% accuracy, and
reporters with 76% accuracy. K053 and Harvey also claim that rape victims frequently
refrain from disclosing a rape to clinicians or police for fear of the assailant (Koss and
Harvey, 1991, p. 83).

Linda Williams reviewed client contact sheets from a rape crisis center in the state
of Washington. she also examined reasons for not reporting a sexual assault to the police.
Her research is one of the most frequently quoted pieces on the issue of factors which
cause women not to report a sexual assault. She claimed that often very practical issues
are involved for survivors. they feel they do not have the time and resources to pursue

the case through the entire criminal justice process. And, women lack confidence in the

23

effectiveness of the criminal justice system to insure that justice is served (Williams,
1984, p.460). .

The authors Ashworth and Feldman-Summers, have done the most extensive
research on female sexual assault survivor’s expectations and perceptions of police
responses and how these have affected the level of reporting. In one of their research
projects. female rape victims. male and female assault victims. and matched non-
victimized controls were compared on their perceptions of the effectiveness of the
criminal justice system in handling their cases. They found that not only did female
victims of sexual assault give the police the lowest rating on effectiveness. but this rating
also declined over time (Ashworth, Feldman-Summers, 1978).

In a later study, Feldman-Summers, and Ashworth, again questioned why victims
do not report to the police. They found that many victims will not report because they
believe the outcomes of the report will be unfavorable. Victims suspected that reporting
would not do any good in terms of punishing the assailant. The respondents also
perceived the criminal justice system to be particularly ineffective at handling rape cases
(Feldman-Summers. and Ashworth. 1981).

Ashworth, and Feldman-Summers have concluded through. their research that
although victimization has increased, reporting rates remain low, in part, this must be due
to people’s perceptions of how the criminal justice system handles reports. Rape victims
express a declining confidence in the police in handling rape cases with the more
experience they gain. And, the message seems to be reaching other women. that
reporting to the police may not be the best decision for them (Ashworth and Feldman-

8ummers, 1978).

24

Another issue which has been researched in previous studies on rape reporting is
the support from family, friends or counselors to report tO the police. The underlying
assumption in all Of these studies is that victims who have strong support and
expectations from others to report are more likely to do so.

Liza Jacoby points out that it is very difficult for peOple to talk Openly about rape.
Rape is in the realm of privacy. it involves sex. and violence, and judgment by those who
hear the news. It makes for awkward and emotional conversation. She asserts that if a
survivor discusses the rape with a counselor, it may be easier to tell significant Others
about the assault. When more people talk about rape and its affects, the incident may
become destigmatized and victims will have more avenues in which to tell their story
(Jacoby. 1983).

Counseling has a personally critical function for survivors. According to Liza
Jacoby. a rape crisis counselor may be the first and only person that tells a rape survivor
that she is not to blame for the assault. Many families and friends remain uneducated
about sexual assault. and a trained person in the area can help a survivor better
understand the incident (Jacoby. 1983).

One final benefit of receiving counseling is that rape crisis counselors have more
experience with the criminal justice system and know what reporting an assault involves.
Through their training. they gain knowledge as to what steps are necessary for a survivor
to go through if she decides to report an assault. Counselors can inform women of what
to provide in terms of evidence to support their case. Counselors can also inform

survivors that they have the option of reporting anonymously.

25

Yet, counselors have less influence on the lives and self-images of the survivor
than family and friends have. Numerous studies have found that family and friend’s
responses to the survivor have significant effects on her decisions of whether or not to
report. A noted expert on the issue of rape reporting, Linda Williams in her article. "The
Classic Rape: When Do Victims Report?" mentions the fear of rejection by husband and
family and the desire to protect one’s family from the knowledge of the rape or its
attendant publicity. keeps women from reporting a rape to the police (Williams. 1984.
p.460).

Steketee. and Austin also mention in particular the degree of social support and
especially the expectations of family and friends affect whether or not a woman reports
(Steketee. and Austin, 1989). In Menachem Amir’s ground-breaking study. the affects
of protective parents and other agencies. is mentioned as a deterrent to reporting the
sexual assault of many young women (Amir. 1971).

The strongest evidence for the influence of family and friends comes from a study
by Feldman-Summers, and Ashworth. These researchers adapted Fishbein’s model of
behavioral intentions (Fishbein, 1963). This model states that the intention to carry out
any act is a function of two factors: first the perceived outcomes and evaluation of those
outcomes. and second. the perceived responses by significant others to the act. They
attempted to test the strength of each of these factors on the victim’s decision making
process. The researchers drew a random sample of women from the phone book, called
them at home and set up an appointment to conduct a self-administered interview.
Respondents were then questioned on their likelihood of reporting a sexual assault in

various situations.

26

At the conclusion of their study three findings were noted. First, the intention to
report an assault varied substantially according to several demographic characteristics Of
the respondent. Single, lower income, minority women tended to be more influenced by
perceived outcomes of reporting to the police. while married, white, upper income women
tended to be more influenced by the expectations of significant others for them to report.
Perhaps the first group of women may be more concerned about the perceived outcome
Of reporting because they are less likely to be believed by the police and more likely to
be blamed (Feldman-Summers and Ashworth. 1981. p. 63).

Second, respondent’s intentions to report also varied significantly according to the
potential recipient of the report. Intentions to report to non-criminal justice officials such
as clergy or medical practitioners. are more affected by normative expectations to report,
than by expectations from Others to report to these sources. Intentions to report to
significant others or family were more affected by the perceived responses of these
groups.

Third. Feldman-Summers and Ashworth’s study found a subject-by-subject
analysis indicated that normative expectations were typically better predictors than
perceived outcomes of reporting. The authors heard women express the need to feel that
a decision to report to the police would be supported from their family and friends. They
concluded that many women do not report because they perceive little if any social
support for reporting.

There is one critical methodological problem with Feldman-Summers and
Ashworth’s study that must be brought to attention. The women in this sample were

chosen randomly, they were not chosen on the basis of experiencing sexual assault

27

victimization. We do not know if any of these women are sexual assault survivors.
Stated intentions to report a sexual assault, while in the comfort of one’s own home, may
be very different from what survivors actually do after experiencing a sexual assault. I
presume that Often. women sincerely believe that if they were ever raped, they would
most assuredly report it to the police. Yet. after a sexual assault, factors which they
might not have ever considered, will enter in and deter them from reporting it.

In another study. Holmstrom and Burgess. followed women through many post
rape procedures, and concluded that victims usually look to family and friends for
guidance after a rape. and thus their decision will in part be based on what their family
suggests that they do (Holmstrom and Burgess, 1978, p. 54). Many victims are hesitant
to report the assault, and use reactions from significant others to decide whether to report.
Victims evaluate the perceived reactions from significant others as positive or negative
and act accordingly.

Sometimes. significant others take an even stronger stand. They make the
decision for the survivor. In more than half of the adult victim cases in Holmstrom and
Burgess’s study, someone other than the victim reported the rape (Holmstrom and
Burgess, 1978).

Feldman-Summers. and Norris conducted an extensive research study on the
influence of various factors on sexual assault reporting. They interviewed 179 female
victims of rape recruited through public notices in health agencies and on public service
announcements. The women were asked whether or not they had reported. Then the
following issues were discussed and assessed. What kinds of outcomes did the women

expect after reporting? Did she feel social expectations to report or not to report?

28

Various demographic characteristics of the individual victims, and situational
characteristics of the rape were also recorded.

Several hypotheses were formed to predict rape victim reporting. The perceived
outcome of reporting, whether close reference groups expect the woman to report
(partners, parents etc.), individual characteristics (demographic and psychological), and
situational characteristics around the rape (violence used, acquaintance level etc.) were
all hypothesized to influence the likelihood of reporting. The strongest predictor of
reporting to show up was the social expectations scale (Feldman-Summers. and Norris.
1984). An earlier study by Weis and Borges agreed that those who were encouraged or
expected to report the assault by their families and friends were more likely to report
(Weis, Borges, 1973).

Two other significant predictors came forth. The belief that reporting would result
in positive treatment by police made women much more likely to report. Conversely, the
belief that reporting would result in a uial in which the respondent would have to testify
against the assailant in court deterred many from reporting (Feldman-Summers. and
Norris. 1984).

Above. I have described a great portion of the research on rape reporting
decisions. From the results of these studies, I have selected out three factors which seem
to most strongly influence rape reporting: situational circumstances, expectations of police
response, and outside support systems to report. These factors and my hypothesis about

them will be discussed in Chapter 3.

Chapter 3

Hypothetical Model for Rape Victimization Reporting

It is difficult to sum up the factors which affect sexual assault survivor’s decisions whether
or not to report a rape into one clear predictive model. There are so many factors which enter
into the survivor’s decision. and not all survivor’s are affected by the same factors, (often their
past history plays a role in how they adjust after a sexual assault) Koss and Harvey, 1991;
Steketee. and Austin. 1989). Yet. what I will attempt to do in this thesis is pull out factors and
examine them separately in terms of how they tend to affect a survivor’s decision to report to the
police. The nature of science is to pull out the pieces of the whole picture and gain a better
understanding Of these pieces and how they work in the phenomenon. Then we replace the
pieces. back into the system. with a better understanding Of how the system works. This is what
I hope will happen in the course of this research project. I will pull out what seem to be the most
prominent factors affecting a survivor’s decision. test them. and then replace those which provide
the strongest evidence in order to Obtain an even more accurate picture of the whole decision
making process.

I am drawing upon not only a review of the literature on rape and reporting. but also my
Own work in the area of sexual assault. Some might argue that this is an invitation to biased
results. However. as Sandra Harding argues in FeminiMid Methodology, no research is bias
or value free (Harding. 1987). By recognizing the influence of my past experience with sexual
assault survivors in the interpretations I make. I am able to understand my biases and better limit
their effects on my research. The effects of my biases cannot be eliminated altogether. however,
but this does not compromise the results.

From the literature on rape. there are three factors which seem to have the strongest

influence on survivors’ decisions of whether or not to report. The first factor involves situational

29

30
circumstances surrounding the rape. These circumstances include, primarily. the level of
acquaintance between the victim and assailant. the level of violence used during the assault. the
level of resistance offered by the victim. location of assault, and race Of the victim and assailant.

The second factor is the victim’s perceptions of the criminal justice system. These
perceptions include the woman’s expectation of whether or not the police will believe her. and
if they will blame her.

The third factor is the level of encouragement the victim receives to report the assault.
This encouragement can come in two forms; first. support from family and friends. and second.
advocacy from a rape crisis counseling center.

Factor #1: Situational Circumstances

Figure 1 contains a "hypothetical" path model which portrays how I have hypothesized
each of the factors to be interrelated. The model begins with elements of the situational
circumstances. The level of acquaintance is the first factor. The acquaintance factor influences
how each Of the other factors are experienced.

Hypothesis #1: There is a direct. inverse relationship between level of acquaintance and

rape reporting. As the level of acquaintance decreases rape reporting increases.

The level of acquaintance also has an indirect affect on the likelihood of reporting. As
level of acquaintance increases. the more likely the victim and assailant are to socialize together.
This brings the assailant and the victim into the same physical locations. When a woman knew
her assailant and had willingly invited him into her home. and he raped her there. she and the
surrounding community. are less likely to view this as a "real rape" and more likely to blame her.
The victim is therefore. less likely to report.

Hypothesis time There is a direct. positive relationship between the level of acquaintance

and the location of the assault. The greater the level of acquaintance between the victim
and assailant. the more likely the rape will take place in a location that is familiar to the

victim.

31

 

NH“ mt!“-

 

 

eta-outta.
mi or g or aetio-
helm A m
9
O
’ militia _ l
I”! .1 ' of location
Ana-1m a

 

 

O
\ M or Claimant
mitten! mm

 

 

 

 

 

Violence miller
moo
(Rutter-l tires-tune. W m

 

 

 

Figure 1: Hypothetical Model of Rape Victimization Reporting

Hypothesis #2b: There is a direct. inverse relationship between the location of assault and
reporting. The more familiar the victim is with the location of assault. the less likely she
is to report the assault.

When the woman and man are well acquainted. it is usually less necessary to use
additional physical violence to complete the rape. Women have more inhibitions about fighting
a man that they know (Koss and Harvey. 1991).

Hypothesis #3: There is a direct. inverse relationship between the level of acquaintance

and the level Of additional violence used in the assault. The greater the level of

acquaintance the less additional violence is used. and the less likely the victim will report.
A rape victim will be less likely to report a rape if she thinks the community in which she reports
will not believe her. Typically. communities look for violence to define an incident as a crime.

so the less violence used in the assault. the less likely the victim will expect the support Of her

conununity. and the less likely she is to report (K055 and Harvey. 1991).

32

Prior acquaintance also decreases the level of physical resistance that women offer. I
assume that no woman desires to be raped. and that all victims do all that they can to resist the
attack. Yet. when a woman has a prior relationship with a man. she again feels more inhibitions
against striking out at him in a physical manner.

Hypothesis #4: There is a direct. inverse relationship between the level of acquaintance

and the level of resistance Offered The greater the level of acquaintance. the less physical

resistance is offered. the less likely the victim will report.
Evidence of resistance has the same effect on public opinion regarding rape, and the victim’s
actions. as violence does. Communities also look for signs of resistance from the victim. If the
rape survivor can provide evidence of this resistance. than she may expect the community to be
more supportive of her claim. and thus more likely to report

The fifth element of situational circumstances is the race of both the victim and assailant.

Hypothesis #5: Women who are white are less likely to report a rape to the police than

women who are not white.
One reason for this has already been mentioned. in general. white women are more likely to be
assaulted by men they know. (largely a function of their class standing). A second reason Is that
upper. and middle class (white women are more likely to be in upper and middle class groups)
groups tend to desire a greater degree of anonymity. They maintain this by neglecting to report
crimes. There has not been a great deal of research on the relationship between race and
reporting. The research that has been done. has concluded with somewhat contradictory results.
Possible reasons for differences in reporting behaviors among white women and women of color,
have never really ban tested. so. as an exploratory measure I will examine this relationship.

Hypothesis #6: Women who are raped by a black man are more likely to report than
women who are raped by a man of another race.

33
The myth Of the black male rapist (Brownmiller. 1974) may still lead women to believe that they
are more likely to get a conviction if the assailant is black.

These six characteristics: social distance. location of assault. level of violence and level
of resistance. race of victim and assailant constitute the first factor called situational circumstances.
Most certainly. there are other characteristics which describe rape incidents and may have an effect
on the woman’s decision whether or not to report the assault, but these are the factors which I
have hypothesized to have the greatest affect on this decision and I have recognized these as
important in the previous rape literature.

Factor #2: Perceptions of the criminal justice system

Previous literature discussed above. claims that women are acutely aware of
discriminatory. negative treatment rape victims Often receive from the police when reporting a
sexual assault. These perceptions are often formed by media accounts. Fear of mistreatment by
the police in the form of disbelief or blaming attitudes can often keep women from contacting the
police.

Hypothesis #7: There is a direct. positive relationship between expectations Of police

response and reporting status. Women who have positive expectations of the police

response (expect to be treated fairly. and respectfully) are more likely to report than
women who have negative expectations of the police response (expect to be blamed or
disbelieved).

Factor #3: Support System

The affects of counseling services. and supportive significant others. when viewed in terms
of the whole model I have constructed. do not seem to be well integrated factors. They are
positioned Off in the comer and affect only her likelihood of reporting. Supportive assistance is
not assumed to be affected by any of the other factors in the model. Yet. this factor has been

I mentioned in previous research articles on rape and I initially felt it was important. SO I have

chosen to discuss it here and examine its affects in my research.

34
Hypothesis #8: There is a direct positive relationship between support system and
reporting status. Women who have immediate support from family, friends. or a
counselor to report the assault are more likely to report to the police than women who do
not have the support of family. friends or a counselor to report, or receive the support
much later.
This factor is pointed out in Figure l by the bracket labelled "Support System”. Significant others
and counselors comprise this support system.
I have discussed the three factors I hypothesize to affect rape victim’s decisions whether
or not to report the assault to the police. Next, I will present a discussion of the ideal manner
in which the effects of these factors might be tested. the methodological and practical

complications to testing in this manner. and the methods that were selected. based on what was

feasible. to test each of the factors.

Chapter 4

Methods

The ideal methods to test the hypothetical model of rape victimization reporting

An examination Of the factors I have described call for a descriptive study, which
measures the phenomenon at only one point in time. the mision whether or not to report a rape
after it occurs. This is not an experimental study in which variables are manipulated. or
treatments are administered. In a descriptive study such as this. the key requirements for setting
up the ideal test Of the hypothetical model involve the sampling procedures used. the reliability
of the questions asked. and validity of the questions. These three issues will be discussed.

In order to test a hypothetical model of factors which affect rape victimization reporting.
I would suggest that two different sources of data be used. The first and obvious source of
information on sexual assault reporting would be interviews with sexual assault survivors. This
is the population that has survived a sexual assault and has made a decision whether or not to
report it to the police.

A second important source of information on sexual assault reporting could be obtained
from sexual assault crisis counselors. The training and experience which they receive enables
them to recognize survivor concerns about reporting which victims themselves might not even be
aware. For example. a victim may fail to report because she feels some guilt for causing the
event. This guilt may be embarrassing or difficult for her to express. but the counselor may
recognize it. because the counselor has seen it in other victims. In addition. the survivor may
have worked through the guilt in the course of counseling and would fail to mention it later during
an interview. Although counselors only have direct contact with survivors who call a counseling
center (not a representative sample of survivors), they may be more aware of the social conditions
which affect a woman’s decision whether or not to report a sexual assault than many survivors.

35

36

The first step to conducting interviews with sexual assault survivors is selecting the samme
to include in the study. In order to test for statistical difference in responses across respondents.
a random sample is necessary. To obtain a random sample of female sexual assault survivors for
the study. women from the general population would need to be screened to determine if they
have ever been sexually assaulted Thus there are two steps to selecting the sample for this study.
first selecting a sample of women to screen for incidence of sexual assault. and second. selecting
those who have been raped. to participate in the study.

The population. from which the sample of women to be screened is drawn. should be
broadly defined so that the study might be generalizable to many women. I would suggest the
sample be drawn from the population of adult. female. United States citizens. 18 years of age and

older.2 The sample must be random within this pOpulation, and should include women
of color in proportion to their numbers in the population.

The size of this screening sample would be determined based on the final number
of survivors desired in the study. If one Operates on the assumption that 1 out of 3
women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime (Russell, 1984). then the required size
of the screening sample can be calculated to achieve a level of 5% error of measurement,
in the final sample of survivors selected to participate in the study.

The second step in the "ideal interviews" with survivors is a pretest of both the
screening instrument and the actual questionnaire to survivors to test for validity and

reliability.

 

2Girls younger than 18 years of age are sexually assaulted. but parental permission
would be required for participation. and I fear the subject matter may be too sensitive for
girls under 18.

37

Once valid and reliable instruments of the screening form and the questionnaire
are constructed, the third "ideal" step would be to conduct the screening Of a random
sample of women. The sample of women to be screened would be contacted by phone
using a procedure called random digit dialing. This procedure takes phone banks which
are known to include working. residential numbers and randomly assigns suffixes to yield
a list of potential working phone numbers. This method will reap some phone numbers
that are not residential and will have to be screened out, but it is preferable to selecting
numbers from a phone book because phone books do not contain unlisted numbers.
Random digit dialing (RDD) procedures are able to reach 94% of the population (Groves,
et. al.. 1988).

Telephone interviews would most likely bring the highest response rate from the
screening sample given the nature of the topic being screened. The incidence of rape is
a sensitive, and threatening issue. Although personal interviews in general achieve a
higher response rate, the threatening nature of this screening topic would likely have
negative affects on the response rate to personal interviews. The thought of a stranger
coming to a woman’s home asking her if she has ever been raped seems very threatening.
Finally, mail surveys receive a much lower response rate than telephone interviews
(Sudman. 1976).

At each household called, one woman, 18 years of age or Older, would be
randomly selected for the screening (i.e. the one woman with the most recent birthday).
She would be asked a series Of questions which describe rape scenarios. The questions
would be designed in essence to determine whether she has ever been raped. Not all

women may fit their experience into one definition of rape. therefore. several will be

38

given so that all incidents of rape may be noted. These women that reply, "no". to all
of the questions will be dropped from the study, and those women who reply, "yes", to
any of the questions will be asked to participate further in the study by answering more
questions about the rape.

The interviews with sexual assault counselors would also involve three steps.
First, a questionnaire which asks counselors about the factors which they believe
influence a sexual assault survivor’s decision whether or not to report a rape should be
pretested on a group of counselors to test for validity and reliability.

Second. a random. and representative sample of counselors must be selected to
be interviewed. The National Directory of Victim/Survivors Services and Programs
(Webster, 1989) contains information on sexual assault crisis centers in the United States.
The name, address and phone number of the center and a contact person at each center
is given in this directory. A simple random sampling procedure can be used to select
centers from this directory to be included in the sample. Once the center is contacted.
one counselor could be randomly selected from the entire staff to participate in the study.

Finally. the group Of counselors selected for the study should be contacted in
advance with a letter from the researcher explaining the study. This letter can describe
the types of questions that will be asked in order to prepare the counselor for the
interview, (for example, the counselor may have to look up statistics on the numbers of
clients who have reported to the police. etc.).

Then, approximately one week later, the counselors selected for the study should
be contacted by phone and administered the pretested questionnaire. I suggest they be

called by phone because counselor’s schedules can more easily accommodate a telephone

39

interview than a personal interview, and thus the completion rates are likely to be higher

with telephone calls.

Methodological and practical complications to the ideal test

Critical methodological and practical complications prevent a graduate student
researcher (and possibly more established researchers) from carrying out the "ideal" study
described above. The first source of information that was suggested was interviews with
randomly selected sexual assault survivors. This requires a demanding screening process
of the general population of survivors. The first problem with this screening is that
although it is random, not every woman will have an equal chance of selection. For
example. women who do not have phones. women who are institutionalized and are not
allowed to answer a phone. and homeless women do not have a chance of being selected
for the screening. Screening in this manner also requires time and money to make the
phone calls. The screening instrument as well as the questionnaire should be pretested
for validity and reliability. placing additional demands on the researcher’s resources.

Once selected for the screening, there remain complications to securing a truly
representative sample of women who have been raped. Some women will refuse to
participate, some will be unable to participate due to language problems, or time
conflicts, etc., some will have blocked the memory Of the rape out of their minds
(especially if it occurred while they were young), and some were murdered during the
rape.

The second source of information that was suggested was interviews with sexual

assault crisis counselors from a random, representative sample of rape crisis centers in

40

the United States. This requires a directory of such services. The directory cited above,
Mona] DirectorLOf Victim/Survivor Services and Prom (Webster. 1989) is
considered by most counselors, to be the best available (Diane Windischman, personal
interview, 1991), and yet, it is not kept up-tO-date and contains some errors. It is also
questionable as to whether it is complete. Sampling from all crisis centers, so that each
has an equal chance Of selection would require an accurate and complete list of all
centers, which truly distinguishes rape crisis centers from other medical and mental health
services, and to this date. one does not exist.

In part. this is a problem with defining a rape crisis center. For example, some
hospital emergency rooms offer counseling services to survivors. often domestic violence
shelters have clients who are also rape victims, many schools (middle schools, high
schools and universities) have counselors who help students recovering from a rape, and
victim/witness programs sometimes Offer counseling to rape victims. Likewise, some
centers that are listed in the above directory Offer only medical or legal assistance to rape
survivors and never actually counsel them on the issue of reporting the assault. Yet.
these services are not consistently included or excluded in directories of services to rape
victims. SO not all rape crisis counselors may be represented in the above listed
directory. while others who rarely or never counsel rape victims. might be listed.

The questionnaire administered to sexual assault crisis counselors would also need
to be pretested, again on a different sample, in order to ensure validity and reliability.

This requires additional time and financial resources that are not available to this

researcher.

41

Finally, there are complications to completing the survey with all of the
counselors selected. There may be some counselors who will refuse to do the survey, or
due to time constraints are unable to complete the study. and this threatens the
generalizability of the sample. Furthermore. not all rape crisis center staff actually
counsel survivors. some Of those selected for the study might not have actually had the
opportunity to discuss the issue of reporting with rape survivors. and this threatens the
validity of the study.

Thus there are complications to conducting the ideal study of rape victimization
reporting which could perhaps be rectified with unlimited time and resources, but these
resources are not available to most researchers. We are forced to work with what
resources we do have and be innovative in using them to conduct the most valid and
reliable study possible. Because I could not access a random sample of sexual assault
survivors. I did not screen for respondents but rather interviewed known survivors that
I could access. I did not have the resources to pretest my questionnaires so I attempted
to achieve face validity by subjecting my questionnaires for review by a rape crisis
counselor and a survey researcher. Because I did not have a random sample of
survivors, I supplemented my data with information from rape crisis center client contact
sheets.

I was also not able to sample rape crisis counselors in the ideal manner.
Therefore, I restrained my sample to centers which exist on college campuses and did not
strictly define a rape crisis center for inclusion in the sample. Some of the centers were

also not chosen randomly.

42

I was not able to pretest the counselor’s questionnaire. and thus made the
assumption that it was valid. I was unable tO achieve the ideal. thus I used what
resources were available. Below, I present a discussion of the methods I utilized to test
my hypothetical model of rape victimization reporting, and the methodological flaws

involved with each of them.

43

Methodology used to test the hypothetical model of rape victimization
reporting

Population - College students

I gathered data only from sexual assault survivors (73% of these had received counseling
for the rape). and counselors who were at colleges and universities in the United States. Women
are more susceptible to rape while in college than during any other four year period of time in a
woman’s life (Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center. University of Michigan, 1989,
Koss. and Harvey. 1991). The ages and lifestyles of this group seem to increase their chances of
being sexually assaulted. One out of four women are raped during a four year college career.
Victimization rates are 4 times higher for ages 1624 than for any other age groups (Koss. Gidycz.
and Wisnieweski. 1987).

College is a time when many young people leave their parent’s home for the first time.
they are primarily surrounded by Others their own age. and they may experiment with drugs and
alcohol for the first time. These conditions seem to be associated with high rates of sexual
assault Young women at these stages are also sometimes hesitant to say "no" to a man when he
is making sexual advances. As freshman. women are trying to fit into a new situation among
older peOple. Many fear that saying "no" to a man will detract from their popularity and affect
their social lives in negative ways (Jayne Schuiteman. MSU. Department of Human Relations.
Personal Interview. 1992).

College campuses provide a very good setting for studying factors that influence sexual
assault reporting rates. They are the only institutions which offer specific rape crisis counseling
to their members. Thus they provide access to a group of survivors who have received
counseling. and to directors and counselors who have worked in the area of sexual assault and

possibly have some insightful information to offer.

Method #1: Interviews with survivors

The first means that I employed in gathering information to test my hypotheses was to
conduct interviews with sexual assault survivors. Linda Williams states: "The only way that we
can really find out why rape victims do not report to the police is to ask the victims themselves”
(Mlliams. 1984. p.465). To study a rape survivor’s decision concerning whether or not to report
the assault to legal authorities. validity comes from talking with survivors themselves in a one-to-
one personal interview in which a relationship of trust had already been built.

I interviewed seven sexual assault survivors for this thesis. Three different means were
used to solicit volunteers to be interviewed. Initially. I posted signs in several places in and
around the campus community. Signs were posted in the school counseling center and health
center. a local community counseling center which handles sexual assault and in a local domestic
violence shelter. These signs read:

"Academic Research for sexual assault survivors. I have been trained as a counselor for

three years and now am conducting research on sexual assault reporting rates. I would like

to interview both survivors who have reported and those who have not reported to the
police".

Secondly. I wrote a more extensive description of my research again requesting volunteers.
I placed this inside an information packet which goes out to sexual assault clients at the
counseling center of the school which I attend.

The third tactic I used was to mention my research in a meeting of student volunteers for
a university sexual assault crisis center. I told them I was looking for volunteers if they knew Of
someone who would be willing. or if they were qualified and willing themselves. I then passed
around a sheet for volunteers to sign if interested.

These efforts resulted in a sample of seven women. six of whom were volunteers at the

sexual assault crisis center. All the respondents were currently active in the struggle to end

45
violence against women. This sample will by no means be representative and I will be unable
to make many generalizations from this sample. However. I believe that the training and
experience these women have received in dealing with sexual assault may better equip them to
understand their own reasons for reporting or not reporting a sexual assault. and help them to
verbalize those reasons. Talking with a few survivors in this manner should still Offer some
helpful insights and anecdotal data.

After a survivor volunteered to be interviewed, I scheduled a time that was convenient for
her to meet. All of the interviews were conducted face-to-face with the exception of one for
which schedule conflicts prevented us from finding a time we both could meet. That interview
took place over the telephone. On average. the interviews lasted about 40 minutes. I began each
interview by reading a statement of confidentiality and a voluntary statement. After securing
verbal consent I proceeded to ask them questions. I followed the format of the questionnaire
almost exactly for each interview. (The questionnaire is given in Appendix A). I had explained
to each Of the respondents that although I had this list of questions. if they felt other issues were
more important. or did not think any of these questions were appropriate for their situation. then
we could stray from this format. My previous training as both a counselor in sexual and domestic
assault. and my training as a professional interviewer. at The Center for Survey Research.
Michigan State University. provided me with excellent background knowledge and skills to
acquire personal information from the women I interviewed.

According to Festinger and Katz, these two skills. counseling and interviewing. seem to
be the ideal combination for this type of research. These authors claim successful interviewing
skills are similar to counseling techniques (Festinger and Katz, 1953). Interviewers need to be
able to establish a rapport with respondents and in this situation I think it was especially important

to establish a relationship of respect and trust. I was taking the time of some very busy people

46
to ask them about a personal. traumatic event in their past that they would rather forget. I had
to let them know that I appreciated their participation and that they could trust me with this
information. Festinger and Katz make three suggestions for successful interviewing: express
genuine interest in the women. model an attitude of permissiveness. and establish freedom from
pressure. I attempted to employ these suggestions in my interviews.

I have operationalized the affects of situational circumstances. my first factor. on reporting
by asking survivors questions about the location. level of acquaintance. level of violence. their
race, and the race of the assailant. I then compared these answers. with whether or not they
reported. to see if there were differences on these variables among victims who reported and
victims who did not.

I asked each of the respondents several questions about to whom, among their family and
friends. they disclosed the rape. in order to operationalize the factor. support system. I asked the
survivors questions about the responses of people they told, if they were encouraging or
discouraging. and if these people had any affect on their decision whether or not to report.

Finally. I had operationalized victim’s expectations of the police by asking questions about
the police both currently and at the time of the rape. I asked respondents about how sensitively
they felt police respond currently. and at the time of the rape. and whether police tend to believe
or disbelieve women who report currently. and at the time of the rape.

By asking survivors about the factors that influenced their decision whether or not to
report. I hoped to gain some insight into the conscious decision-making process. From the
victim’s perspective. I hoped to learn what crucial factors are considered and if there are any
similar factors among survivors.

They did not seem to have any difficulty answering the question. "what most influenced

your decision whether or not to report?" Whatever their decision. respondents felt fairly certain

47
about following it. Those that did not report. claimed they never felt a desire to. and those that
did report. were relatively confident it was the right choice.

As with each Of my data collection measures. there are methodological problems with this
procedure. The most serious methodological problem has already been mentioned. the
unrepresentative sample. I relied on volunteers. who were all women active in anti-rape efforts.

The process of carrying out a research study is a learning experience in itself. I learned
something about my stereotyped perceptions of rape scenarios. I believe I had a rape scenario in
mind when I wrote this questionnaire and. in hindsight. I can see that the questions reflect this.

Given the setting for this study. a college campus. I imagined most of the rapes would have
occurred between acquaintances. I expected most Of the assailants to be either someone the
survivor had been dating or had met at a party or bar for example. but someone with whom she
had been building a romantic relationship. Less than half of the survivor’s I interviewed fit their
experiences into this description. thus some of the questions I had constructed were inappropriate.
This is an example Of how a study such as this might benefit from a pretest.

If I were to rewrite the questionnaire. 1 would have had fewer questions about counseling
and reporting because so many were not in a position to answer these questions. I would have
condensed the section on whether family or friends advised or influenced the reporting. and asked
more about general responses from significant others. Few women were influenced by family and
friends. in general, on their decision whether or not to report.

I felt all Of the interviews went well for both me and the women I interviewed. A few
of them mentioned that they felt it was cathartic to relay their story to an attentive and interested
listener. This research gives them an Opportunity to let their voices be heard and to tell their story

, while being reinforced for believing what was done to them was wrong.

48

I knew all of the women in this sample even before I had interviewed them. Quite
naturally. the interviews took on a personal tone. The respondents queried about my own life and
my motives for conducting this research. I approached these interviews as a two-way
conununication process. In this regard. this portion of my study may most accurately be described
as participatory research. Avoiding. a "detached researcher" approach to interviewing was crucial
in building up the trust that would afford me access to the quality information I was seeking. If
I did not engage in exchange with the respondents about my life. I would have placed myself in
an unequal position with them. and would have done them a disservice (Ann Oakley in Roberts.
1981). By Opening up to the survivors and sharing some of my experiences with them I believe
I established a greater level of credibility with the women. I was no longer a distant academic.
but another woman empowering herself through this research.

Previous feminist researchers have called for this type of involvement from researchers
interviewing women. Ann Oakley. claims that when women interview women. they cannot use
prescribed interviewing practices. the relationship must be non-hierarchical. the interviewer must
invest their own identity into the relationship (Ann Oakley in Roberts. 1981. pp. 41-43). When
women are being interviewed. they often ask questions of the interviewer. These questions cannot
simply be brushed Off for fear of biasing responses and risking validity. Answering respondent’s
questions as simply as you can builds up a relationship. and improves the quality of information

you may get from respondents (Roberts. 1981; Herzog. 1964 p. 44).

49
Method #2: Interviews with counselors

The second means that I employed in gathering information to test my hypotheses was
to conduct interviews with directors of rape crisis counseling centers on ten different campuses
in the United States. I think counselors who have worked for some time with sexual assault
survivors. have experience which can help them determine victim’s reasons for reporting a rape.
Many counseling centers advocate for the survivor throughout the entire criminal justice procedure
and would have an understanding of what this process involves for survivors. They might also
have contemplated a more theoretical approach to the issue of reporting than any given survivor.

Two of the institutions were not selected randomly. but were intentionally selected based
on a prior connection I had with the institutions. The remaining institutions were selected
randomly. Selecting portions of my sample based on a prior connection may place the validity
of my research into question I had anticipated some difficulty convincing crisis centers to agree
to take the time to answer this somewhat sensitive survey. Therefore. I felt I would be much
more likely to Obtain the sample size I desired. if I used colleges where I may know some Of the
counseling staff. presumably they would then be more likely to participate. In the interest of time,
I felt this was justifiable.

Those colleges chosen randomly were selected from W
Education, which contains an alphabetized list of 3.600 accredited institutions in the United States.
I used a systematic sampling procedure to select schools. Those selected were compared with
institutions listed in Every Woman’s Guide to Colleges MERE.» which lists those
institutions that have a rape crisis center. If the randomly chosen school had services on campus
for sexual assault survivors. then it was placed into the sample for which I conducted interviews

with counselors. If the school did not have services on campus. then it was placed into another

50
sample set. For these schools. I called only to determine the numbers of rapes reported on
campus.

The original sampling resulted in too few schools with centers. so I had to go back to
Peterson’s Guide and re-sample. There was also one school at which I was unable to contact the
director of the center. so I replaced that school with another. After calling, two of the schools that
were listed as having services. claimed they did not These schools were ineligible for the sample
and were also replaced.

Defining a rape crisis center. seemed somewhat problematic for some of the schools in
my sample. When the school was listed as having a center in the guides listed above. I assumed
there was a rape crisis center on that campus and I referred to it as such Yet, after I called some
of the counselors. they did not define their service as a separate ’rape crisis center’. Many rape
victim services are housed in the school’s counseling center. Few have their own offices on
campus. I made the decision that if there was a counselor at the school trained to deal with sexual
assault survivors. and had experience doing so. then I included the school in the sample. If not,
they went into the sample of schools which did not have rape crisis services available to students.
The Mionaigirectomof Victim/Survivor Services and Prevention Progrfls was consulted for
the addresses and names of the directors of the centers (Webster. 1989).

After I drew the sample and gathered a few demographic characteristics on each school.
I then prepared advanced letters to be sent out to the schools which had rape crisis services. This
letter is in Appendix B. Each letter was personally addressed to the woman that was listed in the
Ml Directory of Victim/Survivor Servicesgnd Prevention Progrfls. as the contact person
for that center. I began each letter by explaining who I was and why I was writing to them. I
explained my research, and listed the variables that I had hypothesized to affect survivor’s

decisions whether or not to report a rape. I tried to establish my credibility with them by listing

51
my experience. espousing feminist attitudes and a commitment to empowering sexual assault
survivors. I explained why I thought it was crucial for them. personally. to participate in my
survey. Then I explained what I would ask of them. I said that I would call them in one to two
weeks. and I gave them a description of what types of questions I would be asking them over the
telephone. I informed them about confidentiality and consent, made one final pitch for my study
and thanked them for their time.

Each of the counselors was then telephoned one to two weeks later. I set up appointments
with all of the counselors to call them back and conduct an interview over the phone at a time
which was convenient for them. The interviews lasted an average of 40 minutes. Before
beginning each interview. I reminded the counselors what I was interested in studying and why
I was calling them. I described the types of questions I would be asking them and then read them
a confidentiality statement that had been approved by the research ethics committee which
reviewed my prOposal. A copy of the questionnaire I used can be found in Appendix C.

The interviews I conducted with counselors at each of the schools followed a structured
format. I began by asking them when the center began and how many clients they have contact
with in an average academic year. These were primarily introductory questions. They Offer a
measure of how well the center might be established within that campus community. and the level
of experience which the counselors can draw upon in answering my questions.

Next. I asked about the types of services that are Offered at the center. I listed services
one at a time and asked if it was offered at that center. I then asked if there were any other
services they offered that I had forgotten to mention.

I asked about the types of programs offered to examine whether a greater level Of services

offered might be correlated with higher reporting rates. The more services Offered at a particular

52
campus, the more likely victims would be familiar with the program on their campus and its
purpose. Then perhaps they would be more likely to report.

Unfortunately this will be hard to detemiine because there are not many differences in the
types and extent of services offered by different centers. it seems if a school has a center they
offer services that are very similar to those offered at other schools. This may be primarily
because schools often model their programs after existing ones at other schools.

Each program has to function within unique administrations and local communities. The
attitudes and support from different administrations may affect the types of services that are
offered at different schools. therefore I have also asked about the level Of support for sexual
assault survivors from various general groups on campus; the administration. faculty, students,
campus public safety department. local community. local police department. and the public
prosecutor’s office.

Many of the counselors expressed difficulty answering these questions because they could
not generalize to all the peOple that comprised those groups. The reactions and level of support
among peOple who comprise these groups vary so much from individual to individual. Therefore.
the responses to these questions must be viewed with caution because they are only an
approximation to the counselor’s general impressions of these groups.

The next set of questions asked about reporting rates at that school. First. I asked how
many rapes had been reported to the local police department by a student. which had taken place
within the past year. Many schools did not have this information. Next. I asked about how many
had reported to campus safety. More could answer this question. Indwd some respondents have
said that a victim would be more likely to report to the school campus safety than the local police
department. I then asked the numbers having reported to the counseling center. I was looking

for a hierarchical pattern. I assumed that students would be most likely to go to the rape

53
counseling center. then to the campus police. then to the local police. I finally asked about any
other places where students might report and what the rates were for these other places. Here the
amount of information I was able to gain waned a great deal.

The next section began to deal with the issue of reporting more specifically. I asked
counselors about discussing the Option of reporting a sexual assault to the police and whether or
not they ever encourage or discourage it. These questions were asked to determine how much
counselors really discuss the issue of reporting with their clients and if they even have the
opportunity to influence this decision.

Next. I asked a set of open-ended questions regarding the counselor’s estimates of the
three most influential factors in a survivor’s decision whether or not to report. I wanted to know
what were the first three things to come to mind when asked about factors related to reporting a
sexual assault in order to see if the factors that I have hypothesized to influence this decision.
were the same factors that counselors would mention. If the counselor mentioned one of the
factors in my model. this was interpreted as support for that factor.

The next section represents the operationalization of the three factors given in my model.
I operationalized situational factors and measured Its effects. according to counselors with the
following questions: ”How much influence do you think the level of acquaintance between the
victim and assailant has on the woman’s decision whether or not to report?" "How much influence
do you think the level of violence has on the woman’s decision whether or not to report?" "How
much influence do you think the amount of physical resistance the victim used. has on the
woman’s decision whether or not to report?" "How much influence do you think the location Of
the assault has on the woman’s decision whether or not to report?" "Is this different for stranger

and acquaintance rapes?"

54

I operationalized victim’s perceptions of the police response with the following question:
"How much influence do you think the victim’s perceptions of the criminal justice system has on
her decision whether or not to report?"

I operationalized the effects of support systems with the following questions: "How much
influence do you think support from family and friends has on a woman’s decision whether or not
to report?” and "DO you think victims who receive immediate assault crisis counseling. by
contacting a center like this one. within a week of the assault. are more likely to report an assault
to the police. less likely to report an assault. or neither more nor less likely to report. than victims
who do not receive counseling after an assault?"

I concluded the survey with some questions about the counselor’s position. and personal
contact with clients. again to get an idea of the level of experience which they might draw upon
in answering these questions. I then thanked them for their participation and offered to make a
copy of the results available to them.

There are methodological problems involved with this data collection procedure. The
most serious problem is probably being one step removed from the population I am really
concerned with learning about. sexual assault survivors. I am asking counselors to interpret their
client’s feelings and motivations. Counselors are somewhat trained to do this. yet there is room
for misinterpretation in this process. and some might be more adept at interpretation than Others.
There is no control for this variability.

Another problem involved with this method will become more evident when I present the
results of the survivor interviews. Often. a counselor does not have the opportunity to become
involved in the decision making process with the survivor. Frequently, survivors make a decision
about reporting before they even contact a counselor. thus it may only receive minimal attention

in discussions between the two.

55

A third problem with my particular questionnaire is that it has never been tested. I have
no basis for knowing these questions provide reliable data. I asked all of my questions as directly
as possible (i.e "What do you think is the most influential factor in a woman’s decision whether
or not to report to the police?"). Yet. my experience with survey research has taught me that
questions really need to be tested on several audiences and over time to determine if they really
reap the kinds of information the researcher is seeking in the most efficient manner. I do not have
the time and resources to pretest this questionnaire. I did consult with a counselor at a University
sexual assault center and a director of survey research about the questionnaire. Each gave me
some helpfiil feedback and I made some improvements on the questionnaire accordingly.

Another notable problem with the questionnaire was the somewhat questionable attempt
it made to measure community support for sexual assault survivors. I firmly believe that each of
the communities represented in my sample demonstrate varying levels of support for sexual assault
survivors. and this affects the likelihood of victims reporting. I have attended four different
colleges in my undergraduate and graduate careers. and each has had a different atmosphere in
regards to dealing with sexual assault. Yet. when one lives and works in a particular community.
it is difficult to "step outside” and evaluate that community in regards to its level of
supportiveness (Bessmer. 1984).

It is difficult to assume respondents have a comparison base on which to measure their
responses. for example I asked them. "On a scale of one to four. how supportive or unsupportive
do you feel the local community is towards sexual assault survivors?" Bessrner claims that people
regard certain behavior as normal or natural based on what they are used to seeing. Only
deviations from this. are problematic. She assumes that "the structure of people’s observations

about their world is shaped by their participation in a particular culture" (Bessmer. 1984. p. 357).

56
80 respondents may be too unfamiliar with other communities to know if theirs is relatively

supportive or unsupportive. they merely take it for granted.

57
Contacts with Schools that do not have Rape Crisis Centers

As I mentioned above. I also contacted ten schools in the United States that do not have
services on campus for students who are sexual assault survivors. (There may be a variety of
reasons why these schools do not have rape crisis services available. the primary reasons likely
being small size and lack of funding.)

TWO of the colleges in this sample were not selected randomly. With these colleges, I had
to call a variety of different Offices or departments before I could get the information I desired.
I suspected some of these people would not be overly eager to speak to me and release this
sensitive information to me. If I was calling someone who knew me. or knew I was a former
student. they may be more likely to release the information to me. There are gatekeepers to
knowledge. even within institutions of higher education. and I believe we must utilize any inroads
or resources we have at our disposal to access this knowledge.

Once in touch with the source most likely to have the information I was seeking. I queried
all of the respondents in the same manner. I said. "Hello. my name is Renee De Groot. I am a
student at Michigan State University and I am conducting some research for a paper I am writing.
I am studying sexual assault reporting rates on different college campuses around the United
States. I wonder if you could tell me how many sexual assaults have been reported on this
campus by students of this school."

I had no trouble securing answers from the respondents once I was connected with the
person who would have that information. Three of these respondents were employees Of the
campus safety departments. three were Deans of the schools. and the remaining four were
employees of the Student Affairs Office.

People did not seem to be concerned about covering up reports of sexual assault on their

campus. They were very cordial and cooperative. Many seemed genuinely interested in my

58
research and excited that someone was doing research in this area Several requested copies of
the results when completed and wished me luck in this endeavor. Thus. I have every reason to
believe that the statistics they gave me. regarding the numbers of rapes reported on their campus,
are accurate to the best of their knowledge. I believe there is less secrecy around the issue of
rape on college campuses. More people are talking about the issue and its consequences for men

and women at college.

59
Method #3: Contact Sheets

Counseling centers that receive government grant money are often required to keep
statistics on the number of clients they see and what types of contacts they have with clients. I
was able to access these records from the sexual assault crisis center at a large university, that
must remain unnamed. by petitioning the University Research Ethics Committee and the
counseling center. The contact sheets cover the 1990-1991 academic year. These contact sheets
record all the contacts with clients via the crisis telephone line and those who see a rape crisis
counselor for counseling after an assault.

These contact sheets contain the following relevant information: whether or not the victim
reported the assault to the police. and in some cases. to which police department they reported.
the location of the assault (i.e. assailant’s home. victim’s home. a car or another place) the level
of violence used in the assault. and the race of the victim and assailant. I operationalized the
factor situational circumstances with these variables from the contact sheets.

It is difficult at best to draw many conclusions about the differences between people who
report a sexual assault and those who do not. based on this data set. There are many
methodological problems with this data set and the manner in which it was collected that make
it difficult to say that I will discover any new "truths" about women who do and do not report a
sexual assault I hope only to use this data to compare to the things I have learned from survivors
and counselors in the interviews that I conducted with each. By discussing this data. I may also
enlighten future researchers as to how they might design studies which will provide data that can
more validly tell us what the differences are between women who report a rape and women who
do not.

The key variable in terms of my thesis was whether or not the victim reported the assault

to the police. Reporting in this data will be operationalized as a report made to the local police

60
department, another non-local police department. or the campus police. The campus police are
included because on this particular campus. the police are deputized. they have the right to arrest
on campus and are given all the rights and responsibilities of the local police department. When
a report of rape is taken they eventually turn it over to the local city police and if the survivor
chooses to prosecute. she must follow all the same procedures she would if she had reported to
the city police directly.

There is one field or "spot" reserved in the data set to represent this variable. reporting
to the police. The coded responses are: "Y" for "yes victim reported to the police. "C" for
"reported to the campus police"."L" for "reported to the local police". "0" for "reported to some
other police department” and finally. "N" for did not report to the police". The rest of the
responses to this question are blank.

The first methodological problem in utilizing this data set is the manner in which the
contact sheets are actually used by the volunteers who fill them out. and how this key variable
was treated. The sheets are not questionnaires and were not treated as such. These contact sheets
are filled out by volunteers who answer crisis telephone calls from sexual assault survivors. The
sheets are filled out afier the call is completed and the volunteer just records what they recall from
the conversation. If the client does not mention whether or not she reported the assault to the
police. the volunteer may or may not ask her. Volunteers are trained to. and do. serve the purpose
of discussing what the caller needs to discuss. not the answers to the questions on the sheet.
Some of these missing values on this variable may represent women who have reported the assault
to the police. but did not mention it to the volunteer. and some may represent women who did

not report the assault to the police.

61

Likewise with the other variables. missing answers may actually represent valid responses
to the variable. but merely because this was not an interview. and clients were not asked all Of
these questions. they were not mentioned in the course of the conversation. and were not coded.

There are two ways of interpreting these blank responses. A conservative approach would
be to not make any assumptions about these missing values. I have included a frequency table
of all the responses to the item regarding reporting of the assault. On this table. we can see how
many true "no" responses were given to this variable.

Yet. I have reasons to believe that these blank answers represent negative responses to the
question of reporting. Reporting to the police is a major step. It requires time and commitment
and courage and it is likely to be a big enough issue for survivors that they would mention it to
a volunteer or counselor when discussing the rape. Speaking with survivors themselves about the
issue of reporting confirmed my suspicions that these blanks represent negative responses. TWO
of the survivors that I interviewed did report to the police. and they did so after they contacted
a rape crisis center for counseling. Each of them discussed the process of reporting the rape with
the counselor that they contacted. Reporting was an important topic in the course of the
counseling. They did not simply neglect to mention it.

Thus. I have decided to make a very liberal assumption regarding this key variable. I
based my analysis on the assumption that these missing responses. on the reporting to the police
variable. represent women who did not report the rape to the police.

There are a total of 361 cases in this data set On the variable. report to the police. 100
people either answered "yes". "campus". "local" or "other". signifying that the survivor did report
to the police. while only 24 negative responses were recorded. This leaves 237 missing cases.
. There are so many missing cases that it would not be worthwhile for me to examine if I did not

make any assumptions about these missing cases. If I add all of the true "no" responses to the

62
missing cases and assume that all 261 (24 + 237) of these cases represent women that did not
report to the police. this would still give a reporting rate of 28% (100 out of 361). and 72% of
the women did not report. The FBI estimated that only 10% of all the women who have been
sexually assaulted report the rape to the police. 80 it may be reasonable to assume that these
missing cases represent women who did not report to the police since we already have a higher
reporting rate in this sample than the national average.

I must stress again that assuming the missing cases on the variable. reporting. represents
women who did not report. is a big assumption. Yet, I have argued as to why this assumption
might be fair. Interpretations of this data must be viewed with caution however.

When assumptions are made they should be made uniformly. There are also many
missing cases on the other variables of interest to me. which I have already mentioned. I can
make assumptions only about those variables for which "no" is an Obvious possibility for the
missing values. The first of these variables is the threat of physical injury. The responses to this
variable are only "y" for "yes" and the rest are all missing values. Given that there is no category
given for "no" responses. I think it is an even safer assumption that these missing values are "no".
Another variable titled threat of death also has only "y" for "yes" responses. Again. I assume the
blanks signify negative responses.

The last variable for which I will make assumptions is the variable titled weapon use.
Those that are left blank. I will assume represent negative responses. Each of these variables.
threats of physical injury. threats of death. and use of a weapon. are all very severe actions that
I believe women would mention in an event such as this.

On the remaining variables of interest. responses are not dichotomous, for example victim
race. therefore. I felt I had fewer grounds to make assumptions about these missing values. I

decided to leave the missing values on the remaining variables as missing values. Thus for many

63
of the crosstabulations I have run on reporting and another variable. there are less than 361 cases
due to the missing cases on the other variables.

With this information. I looked for differences on demographic variables between those
who report and those who do not report. Since the sample is not random. and there are so many
missing pieces to this data set. I will compare and discuss percentages in the tables but will not
offer statistical tests of differences since these would be virtually meaningless.

I recoded the responses to the variables I have used into two categories. I recoded the
level of acquaintance variable so that acquaintance and relative are in one category. and stranger
and other are in the second category. The reporting behavior of women assaulted by
acquaintances and relatives will be compared to that of women assaulted by strangers. and others.
For location, I recoded the responses into victim’s residence and other. No location is likely to
be more familiar to a victim than her own home. even if she does know the assailant. It was
hypothesized that victims who are assaulted in a familiar location are less likely to report.

The variable physical violence is a combination of several variables from the contact
sheets. Violence exists on a continuum. Threats of violence are a less extreme form of violence.
but threats may have the same affect on women as actual acts Of violence. Acts of violence and
resulting physical injury are on the other extreme end of the violence continuum. I have
combined the variables physical injury. threat of physical injury. threat of death. and use of a
weapon into one variable called presence Of additional physical violence (since rape itself is one
form of violence). If any one of these threats or actual acts occurred during the rape. then this
was coded as additional violence. If none of these threats or acts occurred. then the response was
coded as no additional violence. I have hypothesized that rapes in which additional physical
violence was present. are more likely to be reported to the police than rapes in which additional

violence was not present.

64
The final variables are race of victim and assailant. I have recoded the race of the victim
as white and have combined all the other categories into "other". in order to test the hypothesis
that white women are less likely to report than other women. And finally. the race of the assailant
was recoded into black and "other" to test the hypothesis that women who are raped by black men
are more likely to report than women who are raped by men of another race.
The results of these contact sheets will be interpreted in light of the other pieces of data
I have collected as well as my own theories. I am using three sources of data and the results from
all of these can be used together. Alone. any one of them would be inconclusive. at best. But.
together perhaps they can bring us closer to an understanding of why so few women report a
sexual assault and what might be done to make it easier for more women to do so.
Below. I present the results and a discussion of my interviews with sexual assault

survivors. crisis counselors. and finally. the information on client contact sheets.

Chapter 5

Results and Discussion

Results of the Interviews with Survivors

I interviewed seven women who are sexual assault survivors. All of these women are
presently active in the struggle to end violence against women by working or volunteering in
women’s assault crisis centers. They have gone beyond healing from their own victimization
experience and have actually used it to empower themselves and other women by educating the
public and counseling other survivors. The work that they do requires an acute awareness of the
issues related to sexual assault. reporting is one such issue these women had previously
considered.

The women in this sample are all white. middle class women who are very well-educated
generally. and about rape specifically. thus they were all able to articulate their experiences and
thoughts very clearly. In interpreting the information they have given. it is important to keep in
mind. these women are not representative of all sexual assault survivors. Due to sampling
complications. this is a special group of women.

To reach the stage these respondents are in. one of advocating for other survivors. takes
time. There is a long time span between when the assault occurred and when the interview took
place for most of these women. The average time span was eight years. There were a few
younger respondents who had been assaulted 3-4 years ago. while most of the older respondents
had been assaulted around 10 or more years ago. The greatest amount of time elapsed between
the assault and the interview was 23 years. All the assaults discussed. occurred while the women
were of college age.

Each of the survivors I interviewed had a different story to tell. It is difficult to say. from

this sample. that there is any "typical rape scenario". I will try to summarize what had happened

65

66
in each of the situations and then present summaries of their responses to the questions which
were related to my hypotheses. From this point on. I will use alias names to identify my
respondents in order to protect their identity and yet make comparisons across questions possible.

The first survivor I interviewed was Cindy. She was 22 at the time of the assault Cindy
was assaulted four years ago by a 33 year old black man whom she had never previously met.
The assailant posed as a maintenance worker in her apartment complex. Once be secured entry
into her apartment. he threatened her with a knife. raped her. and left her with bruises and a
sprained arm. Cindy’s roommate came home and saw the assailant Her roommate encouraged
Cindy to report the assault to the police immediately. But. the assailant had made threats to Cindy
if she should report to the police so she was afraid to do so. Her roommate called the police for
Cindy. yet once she did, Cindy made the decision to continue with the prosecution process.

Cindy did tell her family and friends about the assault within days after it had occurred.
but they were all informed after the rape had already been reported to the police. Cindy claimed
that all of her family and friends were supportive of her in general. but they did not have the
opportunity to influence her on the issue of reporting because Cindy had already done so by the
time she told Others Of the assault.

Cindy also received counseling shortly after the assault (within a few days) and claimed
that it did help to take all blame off of herself and broaden her definition of rape. but she had
already made the decision to report and again. the counseling center did not have the opportunity
to influence her on this decision. The counseling center had offered to accompany her to legal
proceedings. but she declined the offer.

When Cindy realized the police had been called. she never really considered whether or
not the police would believe her. She assumed that they would. I quote. "My roommate called

the police. I didn’t really want her to because I was afraid he would return and hurt me more

67
The police took it out of my control. I never considered dropping it." At the time, she was much
more concerned about the assailant returning and harming her further. The initial decision to
contact the police was taken out of Cindy’s hands. her roommate contacted the police. This is
not an uncommon situation for survivors. When the police arrived, Cindy felt they had treated
her very well. they were fair and sensitive.

Cindy’s interview concluded with a recommendation she made to other survivors to report
sexual assaults to the police because it is a necessary step to informing the assailant that what he
did was wrong.

Charlotte. had also been raped by a stranger. a black man. This assault occurred
approximately 20 years ago. when Charlotte had just begun college. Charlotte had been with her
boyfriend at the time. in a car not far from her own home. The assailant abducted her from the
car and took her to an abandoned garage and raped her. When she returned to her boyfriend. he
immediately ascertained what had happened. Her boyfriend began driving around the
neighborhood looking for the assailant. Then. Charlotte was not quite certain if she had made the
decision to go to the police station or if her boyfriend had made the decision. Both Charlotte and
her boyfriend just assumed that was what needed to be done. since a crime had just been
committed.

Charlotte also told her family and friends about the rape after she had already reported
it to the police. There were no other peOple who influenced the decision to contact the police.
Her evaluation of the police was rather non-committal. They took a report from her but never
found the assailant and the case was dropped. She felt that at this time. 20 years ago, there were
far fewer services available for sexual assault survivors. She never received counseling and knew

very little about what to expect from the criminal justice system.

68

Belinda. the third respondent had known her assailant for a few months before the rape
occuned, both were students at the same university. Her assailant was a white man. The two had
gone out on three prior dates. On the last of these dates. after they had returned to her dorm
room. he assaulted her. Within a few hours after the assault, Belinda told her best friend and this
friend encouraged Belinda to contact the police immediately. Belinda’s friend had a significant
impact on her decision to report the assault to the police. Belinda decided to go ahead and contact
the police. She said. "I reported to prevent him from doing it again to someone else... I felt
apprehensive about reporting. I knew it would vary by the officer I got and it was an
acquaintance rape so that brings up a whole new can of worms. We also had some mutual friends
which made me more hesitant.”

She attempted to follow the case through the criminal justice system but. the prosecutor’s
office would not accept the case because they felt it could not be won in court due to Belinda’s
prior relationship with this man.

She wanted to report to the police to keep the assailant from raping anyone else. Her
friends and family were supportive of her and assisted her through the legal process. But, Belinda
also did not tell anyone else about the assault until after she had made the report. Belinda had
been working as a sexual assault crisis volunteer counselor when she was raped. She contacted
the center at which she was volunteering and received counseling on and off for the next year.

These were the three respondents that did report to the police. The remaining four
survivors in my sample did not report. There seems to be a common thread to all of the above
situations. The women who were assaulted were in contact with a very close significant other
immediately or very shortly after the assault. In some of the cases it was unclear who had
actually contacted the police. the survivor or the significant other, but these other people had a

definite influence on the decision to notify the police. Yet. it was only this one other person who

69

had any influence on the decision. All of these survivors informed the rest of their friends and
family after they had already reported to the police. Perhaps just the effect of having someone
with you. shortly after the rape to encourage you to call the police (or even call for you) is a
predictor of reporting, but the larger social network of family and friends has little influence on
the decision to report. The effect of having someone tell the survivor she had been raped and now
she needs to call the police. seems a more accurate predictor than merely the support of family
and friends.

Talking with survivors who did not report their assault provided even more clues to
understanding a predictive model of victimization reporting rates. The remaining four survivors
in my sample did not report their assaults to the police. Three of these rapes had occurred an
average of 14 years ago. The issue of reporting is less of a concern to these women now, given
this large time lapse. Yet. at the time the women seemed rather certain that they did not want to
report the assault to the police. and their reasons for this provide some interesting insights.

Betty. the fourth survivor I interviewed had also been assaulted by a stranger 10 years ago
in a violent attack that left her with bruises on her body. Betty was 20 years old at the time of
the rape. and she was assaulted by a black man in his mid thirties. She was walking in an
unfamiliar neighborhood and was attacked by a man on the street When she returned home. she
told a roommate what had happened. The roommate had given her a number of a rape crisis
hotline and suggested that she call the police. Yet Betty never seriously considered calling the
police. She was primarily afraid of the assailant banning her again. He made threats in the event
that she reported. He examined the contents of her purse and discovered her name. address and
phone number. Betty stated. "He threatened to kill me if I reported and he looked through my
ID so he knew who I was and where I lived I think a lot oftimes the assailant keeps the victim

from reporting. The assailant is a real threat and women are in fear."

70

She also knew she would never report it to the police because of other activities. outside
of the rape. which brought her to this area. She felt somewhat disappointed in some of the
activities in which she was engaging at the time and thought this would shed a negative light on
her if she reported the assault to the police. She never made it clear to me what it was she was
doing at the time of the assault. and I felt she preferred to keep this to herself. I chose to respect
her privacy and not probe this any further. It is not essential to my analysis to be informed of
these other activities.

Betty also had the benefit of immediate contact with a close significant other. her
roommate. and yet this did not prompt her to call the police. There may be fine gradations in the
levels of encouragement that these peOple offer which could have an affect on reporting. Betty
stated that perhaps if her roommate had been more encouraging. she would have more seriously
considered reporting to the police. But. she said any amount of encouragement from her
roommate still would not have actually made her call the police. Betty had already made up her
mind not to call the police.

I believe then. that having contact with another person may be a necessary (or vital
component) but it is not a sufficient predictor of reporting. Women also need to be open to the
idea. Betty was not. She thought the police would believe her story. yet she was certain they
would still blame her for causing it.

Some time after the rape. Betty had received counseling for other issues in her life and
the event of the rape came up during counseling. Yet. Betty claimed that the counseling did not
really change her views on the rape. she had received other support from friends by this point who
helped her to understand the rape and take the blame off of herself. By the time she received

counseling, it had been so long after the assault that reporting was not really a feasible choice. nor

71
was it a prominent issue in Betty’s mind. but she and the counselor did discuss why Betty did not
report the assault at the time.

Betty had kept the assault from family and friends until several years after it had occurred.
When she did inform friends and selected family members (sisters). they were all supportive and
did not discuss the issue of reporting with her. but rather concentrated on Betty’s healing process.

Mary. has yet another unique situation. She has had a very difficult past plagued by
multiple sexual assaults and incest. She had blocked many of these incidents out of her
consciousness for many years. Only in the last 7-8 years has she been able to recall these events.
Together. she and I decided to concentrate on the first sexual assault (committed by someone
outside of her family) that she could recall. This occurred 10 years ago when she was 21 years
old. The assailant a white man. was her supervisor at her place of employment at the time. She
is able to recall little about the nature of their relationship since most of this had been blocked out
of her mind.

The assault occurred in her bedroom. When it had resurfaced in her memory she
discussed it with her therapist. But. reporting the assault to the police was not an issue at that
time and so reporting was not discussed with the therapist. Mary never felt that counseling helped
her to better understand the assault. her understanding of sexual assault came from her own
education and work experience as a social worker. Mary also told a few friends and family
members when she had recalled the rape. but again. reporting it was never a tOpic of conversation
with them.

For Mary. reporting was less of a possibility than it was for any of the other victims.
Mary had blocked it out of her mind and still is only able to recall pieces of the event She had

less of an opportunity to make a decision about reporting herself. When asked why she did not

72
report. she replied. "The fact that I didn’t remember it until years later and it is still not a solid
or clear memory. I am not sure myself. There is no evidence in this case."

Mary had a markedly more negative view of the police departments and their treatment
of rape victims. She also seemed more secure in generalizing about the police departments than
any of the other survivors did. She believed that police have made some improvements in their
treatment of rape victims. but that they still had a long way to go to deserve a description of
sensitive or fair. She feared that police often do not believe women when they report an assault
She understood that the police may be more likely to doubt her story since it still contained many
missing pieces and she still carries some uncertainty about it herself.

The sixth person I interviewed. Julie. had been raped 23 years ago. Julie had been dating
her assailant for a few months. They were in the home of one of his friends. They had started
to become physically intimate when she felt the situation "just got out of control". For a long
time afterwards. she blamed herself for being in the situation which she felt led to the assault
Julie never told anyone about the assault until 19 years after it happened. The incident came up
in a therapy session in connection with other issues in her life. She felt the counseling had been
helpful in removing the blame from herself. Because Julie had initially blamed herself for the
rape. she did not immediately understand that she had been raped For Julie. counseling did more
to assist her in understanding the rape as the assailant’s responsibility.

Around the time when the rape came up in therapy. Julie also told a female friend about
the assault. Julie had been friends with this woman at the time of the assault and rather than
being supportive to Julie. her friend was hostile because Julie did not tell her about it when it
happened. Only in the last year did she reveal the assault to family members. She told her two

sisters. She found them to be much more understanding and supportive.

73

Julie did not contact the police for "fear of the assailant I was afraid he would physically
harm me again. I didn’t really want my family to know. I didn’t know what they would do and
how they would treat me. I feared the police would not believe me."

She is still skeptical about whether the police believe survivors of acquaintance rape even
now. Fear of the assailant also kept her from reporting. She could not predict what his reaction
might be if she reported it. but she feared it may be violent. She also feared that her family
would blame her for causing the assault.

The last person that I interviewed. Karley. also did not report the rape to the police.
Karley was a freshman away from home for the first time at a very large public university. She
had been dating a man from an adjoining dormitory for a few months. At a party one weekend.
she met her boyfriend’s brother. The brother had asked her to come back to his room with him.

She was hesitant but did. and there he assaulted her.

Shortly after this assault. other students in the dorm discovered what had happened.
Karley told her suitemate who. for the next three weeks. strongly encouraged her to call a rape
crisis line. Finally. she did. and the person she spoke with informed her. that she had the option
of reporting the assault to the university judiciary. She decided to do this but lost the case. She
never reported to the police.

When asked about her decision she said her boyfriend and the assailant strongly affected
her decision to contact the university judiciary. "He (boyfiiend) didn’t want me to report and he
was so angry at me and be blamed me. I wanted revenge against the guy I was dating and against
the assailant. I wanted to tell him (assailant) that he was wrong. I felt hesitant to report to the
judiciary but after talking to the hotline I felt more confident about it I never considered going
to the police because I didn’t have any evidence. and it took me three weeks to get a grip on

myself."

74

Karley told her sister about the rape. Her sister supported Karley’s decision not to inform
the police but to contact the university judiciary. yet Karley felt her sister never really understood
the ramifications of the assault. She told her parents about the assault after she had reported It
to the school and her parents were not supportive and blamed her for causing the rape. She told
a few other friends of hers but none were very supportive of her nor understanding.

Both her boyfriend and his brother. the assailant. blamed her for causing it She felt she
wanted to do something to tell both of them that the assailant was responsible. not her. Reporting
to the local police seemed too intimidating and demanding. she was having trouble adapting afier
the rape. She felt reporting to the university judiciary was the biggest step she could take. Kariey
had a difficult time functioning from day to day after the assault. She said that she drank alcohol
heavily for many days after the assault in an attempt to forget and escape what was going on
around her. She did not receive any further counseling for the assault but found that talking with
a volunteer over the telephone was very helpful.

In the past three years. Karley has changed her definition of rape. Before she was
assaulted. she accepted only the stereotypical definition of rape. but now has broadened her
definition far beyond that. The change has come through her own education and exposure to
literature from women’s organizations.

The first variable in my model. situational circumstances. varied among the survivors in
this sample. These women had been raped by people of varying social distance. from stranger,
to acquaintance. to date, to boyfriend. Some of the assaults had taken place in the survivor’s
home. some in the assailant’s home. some on the street. And again. varying levels of violence
had been used in committing each of the rapes that were represented. Some had been very violent

and included the use of a weapon and resulted in additional physical injuries. and others had not

75
involved any additional physical violence. Circumstances that were more likely to lead to
reporting will be analyzed in the discussion of the results.

The second major factor in my model of rape victimization reporting was the expectations
of the police. Again. my questions regarding these expectations brought similar responses from
the survivors. I had asked the women questions about their perceptions of the police at the time
they were raped and presently. Overall. the responses seemed to indicate that respondents in this
sample think the police do believe victims when they report an assault. but they think the police
will still blame the women. Most of the women I interviewed felt the police response depended
on the individual officer. This factor seemed to have less influence on the women in this sample
than I had hypothesized it would.

The final factor in my model was the support from others to report the assault. All of
those who reported had the benefit of immediate support from a friend to contact the police. one
friend even made the call for the survivor. Aside from this immediate source of support. other
friends and family members were not informed of the rape until after they had reported and thus
had no direct influence on the decision. Among those who did not report. none mentioned the

support or lack of support as a factor in their decision not to report.

76
Discussion of Results of Survivor’s Data

1 have outlined a model of rape victim’s decision-making process in Figure 1. This model
contained three factors: situational circumstances surrounding the assault. perceptions of the
response from the police. and support from family and friends to report the assault. Figure 2
contains the final predictive model based on the results of my research.

In the results section. a brief synopsis of each of the rape events was presented as well
as victim’s statements about why they did not report. in their own words.

All of those that did report the assault had contact with a friend almost immediately after
the rape. who strongly encouraged the victim to report and in one case. actually made the call for
the victim. Those that did not have this immediate source of support did not report the assault
to the police. Betty was one exception to this. After she was assaulted. she returned home and
told a roommate what had happened. Her roommate encouraged her not only to call the police
but also to get counseling. Yet. Betty did neither. Betty was convinced in her own mind after
the rape occurred. that she would never report it. This was partly because of a concern over the
police department’s definition of the event given the circumstances in which it took place.
Perhaps, victims must be somewhat open to the idea first. in order for friends to be able to
convince them to call the police. Or. perhaps the fear Betty felt for the assailant was a stronger
deterrent than the encouragement to report.

Based on these results. the factor which I had titled. support from family and friends. will
be modified to include only immediate support or crisis intervention. This is the presence of a
close friend who strongly encourages the victim to report very shortly (within a few hours) after
the rape occurs. For two of the three reporting survivors. this immediate support came from a
female friend Only this immediate support of a friend right after the rape seems to have an effect

on reporting because so often. family and other friends have not been informed about the assault

77
until after a reporting decision has been made. Thus, based on the results of these interviews.
immediate support from a close friend (or possibly a family member) will be included in the final

predictive model in Figure 2.

 

 

 

 

 

inundiate
Support
Fear of the
Assailant
Situation ’,,r””””"
Acquaintance L
L—-—- Race _ Report
Location — GU, .1__ ——e
Violence
Police, Family,
and Friends
L___Boilevo Justice
Blame

 

 

 

Figure 2: Final Predictive Model of Rape Victimization Reporting

The second reason mentioned for deciding to report a rape was a desire for both
retribution and prevention Belinda said that she wanted to see that the assailant did not rape any
one else. Charlotte said she recognized this as a violent crime and something that should be
reported to the police. Karley said she reported to the campus judiciary to "tell him what he did
was wrong”. These survivors wanted to see some retribution for the crime. they wanted to see
that social justice prevailed. This is a factor which I had not included in my initial model. yet
there seems to be strong evidence for its affects and it would enrich my model so it has been

added as a predictive factor to the final model in Figure 2.

78
The remaining factors which had been mentioned were all reasons for not reporting.
Another factor which I had not imagined to be a strong predictor was a fear of the assailant.
Betty stated that the assailant. and the threats he made to her. were the main reason why she did
not report to the police. She was afraid he would find her and hurt her again if she reported.
Although she reported. Cindy was also fearful of the assailant. it was her roommate who called
the police. Julie was raped by a man she had been dating for a few months and she was also
fearful of him.. She suspected his response would be violent if she chose to report to the police.
Again. although this was not in my original model. adding this factor would make my model more
complete. therefore it also will be in the final predictive model in Figure 2.

After reviewing the circumstances of each of the rapes. it seems that situational
circumstances again surfaced as a factor. Two of the three rapes reported were stranger rapes
and were relatively violent. Belinda. the only survivor of an acquaintance rape that did report,
mentioned a hesitancy about the police response because it was an acquaintance rape. She said
because it was an acquaintance rape it brings up a "whole new can of worms." Therefore. again,
level of acquaintance and violence have shown up as strong predictors. These will be included
in the final predictive model in Figure 2.

The situational circumstances seem to affect the perceived responses from family, friends
and the police. Belinda was apprehensive because it was an acquaintance rape. and she was
“Wu as to how the police would respond to this situation She also mentioned a concern over
the refrlCtions of mutual friends. Julie said she did not want her family to know at all because she
re“ their response would be negative. She was raped by a boyfriend. Regarding the police she
Said- "I feared the police would not believe me." Karley was raped by an acquaintance with
Whom She had left a party. she said. "I never considered going to the police because I didn’t have

any evidence".

79

Situational circumstances seem to have an effect on the expected responses from family
and friends and police. Charlotte and Cindy were both raped by strangers and never considered
the possibility that others might not believe them. In the final model then. a line will extend from
the factor "situational circumstances" to the "expectations of responses to reporting". signifying
that situational circumstances affect survivor’s expectations which in turn affects the likelihood
of reporting.

Two other components in my original model were not specifically mentioned by the
survivors. but seemed to follow a pattern in terms of reporting. Two of the three women who did
report were raped by black males. while three of the four women who did not report were raped
by white males. From this pattern. it would seem that women who are raped by black males are
more likely to report. Further evidence from the client contact sheets will be used to specify the
nature of this relationship.

The location of the rape was also not mentioned by the survivors as a consideration in the
decision to report the rape. yet there also seems to be a pattern between this factor and reporting.
Two of the three women who reported were raped in their own home. while three of the four
women who did not report were raped in another location. and the one raped in her own home,
did not remember the incident for many years. Again results from the interviews with counselors
and the responses on client contact sheets will help interpret the relationship between reporting

and location of assault.

80
Results from the interviews with counselors

The counselors that I interviewed came from schools that are very similar in terms of size
and types of students. The schools were large and had primarily white, upper middle class
students. Over half of the schools in the sample also had a deputized campus safety department
or police department to which women could report a sexual assault

This is recognizably not a representative sample of sexual assault survivors. Yet. this
approximates a representative sample of female college students in the United States. and is an
important group to examine.

The results are presented in a series of tables. The first table. Table C.1 lists the
demographic variables on each of the schools. The schools have arbitrarily been assigned a
number. 1 through 10 in order to compare schools across tables.

In Table Cl. I begin with a record of the number of years the center has been in

operation. This is given in column two. Counselors that were able to give me this information

Table C.1 Demographic Variables of the schools with rape crisis services

School 0 of Years 0 of Ratio s/f I of fm. 1/4 fm pop
Services Students

16 9 .098 9,162 2 291

6 11 .070 15.641 3.910

11 7 . 20,523 5.131

12 6 . 3,331 833
NA S . 4,744
6 7 .- 3,039
4 .7- 6,014
NA . 2,947
.197

.243

 

stated that the center has existed for several years. There is a significant variation in the number

81
of years of operation, but each center seems to have sufficient experience to answer my survey.
The counselors from schools 5. 8 and 9 did not have this information and thus they are coded as
"NA” for ”not available". The number of years of operation ranged from 4 to 16. and the average
was 9.9 years.

The third column lists the numbers of different services the center provides to the
university community. for example in-person counseling. educational programs. public
demonstrations. etc.. This number ranges quite a bit across schools in this sample. from 3 to 14.
The average is seven.

The next column gives the ratio of services offered to the female student population. This
was calculated by dividing the number of services by the number of female students and then
multiplying by one hundred. This helps to give a comparative rate of services offered among the
schools. In column 4. it is apparent that school number 7 offers the most services per female
student.

The fifth column lists the number of female students at the university. The sixth column
gives the percentage of the student population that is female. The percentages average right
around 50%. with some schools having more males and some having more females.

The last column in table one is the calculation of one quarter of the female student
population. This figure was calculated to show how many rape victims each school could
potentially have in any given year. If we assume the rate of one out of four female college
students will be raped in four years of college. then approximately one fourth of the female
students at each college could potentially make reports of rape to the police. This figure can be
compared to the actual reporting rate at each school.

Before presenting the results of the substantive section of the interviews. I wish to

mention a difficulty many of the respondents had with the term "rape crisis center". Many of the

82
schools did not have a separate center for sexual assault victims on campus. but within the school
counseling center they had counselors who were trained to see sexual assault victims and regularly
did so. If there was a person at the school who was trained to counsel sexual assault survivors
and had some experience in this area, then I chose to include them in my sample.

Since so many schools do not have a distinct rape crisis center separate from any other
department on campus, it would have been very difficult to find enough schools to interview.
Those that would have had a center that fit these criteria would have likely been very different
from schools that did not have such a center. These types of schools would likely have been
different In terms of size. campus atmosphere towards sexual assault. geographic location and
financial resources. As a result of increased restrictions on the definition of sexual assault crisis
center. the schools in my sample would have been even less representative of other colleges in
the United States and of other sexual assault survivors in the US. Half of the schools in the
sample claimed that they were not a separate rape crisis center as I had originally defined it. but
rather they existed within another center in the university.

The counselors I interviewed consisted of 4 coordinators of the direct services of sexual
assault counseling and education programs. There were three directors of sexual assault crisis
centers. two staff psychologists and one staff counselor. The average number of years that the
counselors have been in their positions was 5.65 and ranged from 16 years to 13 months. These
counselors on average meet with 12 clients a month. Many found it hard to clearly specify how
many clients they meet with each month because they may conduct a special program or run a
special support group and were uncertain as to whether they should include the clients involved
in these programs as regular monthly clients. I instructed them to include only the average
number of clients with which they usually meet one-on-one. because this is where they are most

likely to discuss the individual’s reasons for reporting or not reporting a rape to the police.

83
Table C.2 presents information on the number of clients and the reporting rates at each
school.
In th e s e c o n d Table C.2 Sexual assault reporting rates of schools in sample

column. we see that
School I of clients Report to Report to city
Center lice

the numbers of

1 17 NA

clients each center 90 17

12 7
worked with in the NA

10

last academic year NA

12

varied from 10 to
15

I700. The average r NA

3

 

was 307 clients. The
schools with more
programs and more university support, as one would expect. had a higher average number of
clients. Those that were more hesitant to define themselves as a rape crisis center also had fewer
clients than those centers which existed for that specific purpose. Schools with a specific rape
crisis center usually had more accurate record keeping methods. One school did not have records
for the number of clients they had in the last year and this school only had a general counseling
center. so they were not included in the above average.

Two of the counselors did not have any information on the numbers of students who
reported a sexual assault to the local police. so I obtained that information from the campus police
instead. There were two remaining schools that could not give me this information at all. Of the
eight schools for which I was able to obtain the numbers of reported rapes to the police. the
average was four and a half. These figures are given in column 4 of Table C.2. For all the

schools which I was able to get the number of rapes. the numbers remained very low. The

84
highest was 17. and the lowest was 0. Only a fraction of a percent of the potential victims ever
reported to the police at any of the schools. Not surprisingly. the center with the most clients.
also had the highest number of rape reports on campus.

The numbers of rapes reported to the center represents how many of the total clients
actually called and said they were raped. Sometimes clients call a rape crisis center for other
reasons. Three of the counselors however. did not have information on the numbers of students
reporting a rape to the counseling center. Of those who did have this statistic. the numbers of
reports at the various schools ranged from a high of 90 to a low of 3. The average was 27. The
figures are given in column 3.

Table C. 3 presents the Table C.3 Counselor ratings on community support and

level of encouragement

findings on the level of support

counselors find in the academic and
School Sch G Comm Encourage Discourage
Su rt

surrounding community. and whether

.57

counselors encourage or discourage
reporting.

The second column in Table
C.3. school and community support.

is a combination of seven questions

 

regarding the level of support towards
sexual assault survivors who report a
rape on campus, as witnessed by the counselors. The ratings on the level of support in the
universities and in the communities came out more positively than I had expected. I trust the
. responses of the counselors as being accurate and honest because each of these respondents was

very friendly and helpful and seemed more than willing to do the interview. None of them acted

85
as if they had any reluctance in answering any of the questions and were not keeping any
information from me. I did not get the impression that counselors were attempting to portray their
campus as more supportive than it actually was. I can only expect that these answers reflected
genuine impressions of the campus community.

In answering the support questions. I asked the respondents to rate the various populations
on a scale of l to 5. where 1 was very supportive and 5 was very unsupportive. three was neutral.
The lower the score the more supportive the community is perceived to be.

Following the questions about perceived campus and community support. I asked
counselors whether they ever encouraged and/or discouraged clients from reporting a sexual
assault to the police. I have stated the hypothesis that victims who receive counseling are more
likely to report. In order to really determine the effects of counseling it would be helpful to know
just how much counselors discuss the issue of reporting and how openly encouraging they are to
survivors.

Every counselor that I interviewed said that she does discuss the option of reporting the
sexual assault to the police with her clients. Although they all discuss this issue and feel it is a
very important consideration. four of them make it a practice not to encourage clients one way
or the other in making this decision. They believe it should be solely up to the woman to decide
and may present the option. talk about the complications and consequences of each. but then they
consciously leave the decision up to the survivor and stop their direction before influencing her
decision.

Six of the counselors do take the next step and actually encourage survivors to report a
sexual assault to the police. There were many reasons stated for encouraging a woman to report.

Some take into consideration the facts and evidence available in the case. for example. if the

86
victim can identify the assailant or has information that could lead to his arrest they would be
more likely to encourage her to report it to the police.

Many counselors like to evaluate the pros and the cons of each Option and discuss each
of these with the survivor. Counselors will speculate as to how the report may be received and
they use this to decide whether or not to encourage her to pursue the case with the police. If the
process is expected to empower the victim and give her a sense of control again, then the
counselors encourage it. If they feel she may just suffer more by reporting it. counselors might
not encourage reporting. This depends in part on the victim’s personality. past history and her
apparent c0ping ability. The time lapse between the assault and the initial counseling contact is
also an issue. As demonstrated in the interviews with survivors. some do not go for counseling
until many years after the assault when reporting is far less plausible.

A note should be made here that not encouraging a client to report is not the same as
discouraging her from reporting. thus the two separate questions were asked. Not encouraging.
may simply be failing to discuss the issue. or. failing to present a well-rounded picture of the
options. But. discouraging reporting is definitely a more directive measure. This requires that
the counselor offer their own Opinion. and take a stronger stand against reporting.

Only two schools had anything to say about discouraging reporting. One of these schools
clearly said that they never discourage reporting but that they describe for the client what the
process might be like in that particular situation and this can often sound unpleasant. and thus
informing them can be construed as discouraging them. The other counselor took a much stronger
stance however. This counselor stated. "I think about her feelings. If she is real traumatized and
scared. if she is unclear about the facts of the case. or cannot remember clearly, or if she was

using drugs or drinking. I might point out the problems. . . If there has been a long delay since

 

Te

87
the incident. or if she destroyed all evidence. or if she is less clear about being non-consensual.
then I would discourage it.”

The next table, Table C.4 presents the factors which counselors felt were most influential
in reporting a sexual assault. These questions were asked in an open-ended format. I also asked
counselors why they mentioned the factors they did. None of the counselors had any difficultly
answering these questions. it was obvious that this was an issue the counselors had considered at
length beforehand. Each of them had ideas and concerns about the factors which affect survivor’s
decisions.

Table C.4: Counselor Ratings on Hypothesized Factors

School First Factor Second Factor Third Factor

I lice will believe victim definition situation of r

fear lice will believe ilt feeli a
victim definition lice will believe su rt stem
lice will believe ilt feeli s blicit
reactions of others lice will believe

Jilt feeli s uilt feeli s

situation of ra
ilt feeli a
fear

Victim definition

situation of ra
lice will blame
lice will believe

situation of rape

8U It stern

ilt feeli

situation of rape

 

In the category of most important factors. the most frequently mentioned factor, was a few
of not being believed by the criminal justice system. This factor had been mentioned three times
as the most important.

The remaining responses to the questions about influential factors were pretty well
distributed. TVvo mentioned a somewhat more generalized fear of several things happening as a

result of reporting; fear that the assailant would hurt her again. or fear that nothing will happen

88

to him even if she reports it. or fear that family and friends will respond negatively to her report.
Counselors mentioned this factor because they hear these fears expressed by their clients. So
often these crimes are accompanied by threats to the women if she reports it to the police. She
takes a risk in reporting it because if the man is not found guilty and he is released. she has
placed herself in a very uncomfortable position. Even if the assailant does not harm the victim
again. the fear that he might can be very debilitating. And. the fact that most often the assailant
knows where she lives. and how to contact her. increases the risk that he might harm her again.

Two counselors mentioned that feelings of self-blame and guilt keep women from
reporting. One of the counselors elaborated on this. She did not define this as an issue of how
the survivor defines the assault. as l have hypothesized. Rather. this factor involves feelings of
self-blame that result from believing rape myths that tell women even if it is rape. she is still
somehow to blame and did something to cause it. This was mentioned because the counselors
claimed that we live in a rape supportive culture in which women are taught to feel responsible
for men’s actions. They quoted comments from their clients such as; "what did I do?" and "if
only I hadn’t done this" as examples of this self-blame.

Two counselors mentioned the survivor’s definition of the incident as rape. They went
on to describe this factor as the victim’s perceptions of what has happened. and an assessment of
the balance between her feelings of quilt and her feelings of outrage over the incident. First. she
must come to the realization that she has been raped. then she must assess her role in the event.
Another counselor stated that both of these aspects are crucial. The survivor must realize she was
rapw. and believe she is not to blame before taking steps towards prosecuting the assailant for
it.

One counselor mentioned a situational variable I have formed an hypothesis about;

whether or not the victim was acquainted with the assailant. This works as a deterrent because

ill

 

83k

Wh

Syg

mu

[Of

ad

that

89
often public Opinion tells women. that if it was an acquaintance who raped them. it was not as
serious. Many women integrate this message.

The last comment made about the most influential factor in considering a report to the
police. concerned perceptions of possible repercussions of reporting on the survivor’s immediate
living environment. For example. a woman who was raped by someone on her dorm floor may
feel very hesitant to report the crime when everyone who lives around her and the assailant will
find out about the incident. The counselor said that victims will sometimes attempt to "test the
waters” before reporting. They will tell a few peOple and then evaluate their reactions. If she
receives a negative response. she will be less likely to tell anyone else.

The second time I asked counselors about influential factors the responses were quite
similar to those mentioned the first time. The factors that were mentioned again were. belief on
the part of the police. guilt feelings by the survivor. situational variables. and survivor definitions
of rape.

The third time I asked counselors about factors which influence reporting. some of the
same issues came up as well as new ones. The most frequently cited response the final time I
asked this question. was having the support from family and friends to report the assault. Those
who mentioned this factor said that the assistance of a counselor through the criminal justice
system is not sufficient support for the survivor to continue.

A unique factor was mentioned by only one of the counselors. She claimed that because
many women are poor. they feel they do not have the money. time and other resources necessary
to follow a rape case for its duration. The counselor who mentioned this factor was located at
a community college that has more non-traditional students than most of the other schools in the
sample. Many of the female students are older. single women with children. This was a factor

that I had not previously considered perhaps due to the population I assumed would be covered

90
in my sample. I was calling primarily larger institutions of higher education which often have
students that come from higher income families.

In the last part of the interview. I asked the counselors to rate each of the variables in my
hypothesis as to how influential they believed these factors to be in a rape victim’s decision
whether or not to report to the police. The scale ranged from a score of l for a "great deal of
influence” to a score of 4 for "no influence at all" thus the lower scores meant greater influence.
Table C.5 presents the results of these ratings.

Table C.5 Counselor ratings on hypothesized factors

School Acquainted Violence Resistance Location Cr. Just. Support
3.

NA NA
NA NA
NA NA

1

 

Average

The score which ranked the highest in terms of level of influence was the victim’s
perceptions of the criminal justice system and whether or not the police will believe her. This is
consistent with what was said in the Open—ended questions. Of those who answered this question
(six schools) all of them rated this as having a great deal of influence. they all gave this factor
a score of l.

The level of violence was rated as very influential. with a score of 1.25. but it was

difficult for counselors to answer this question. Many of them commented that a great deal of

 

VlOiCllCt
more 0
back it;
reponir

make a

and 21533
the res

Openen

influenti
responst
Women

um i

 

 

91
violence inflicted during a rape can have two differing affects on a survivor. It can make her feel
more outraged and justified in reporting. Violence can also provide evidence of the assault to
back up her story. A great deal of violence however. can also frighten the woman out of
reporting. If the assailant makes threats and proves he is capable of carrying them out. this can
make a victim too frightened to report the assault.

The next highest score in terms of influence. was the social distance between the victim
and assailant The average score on this variable was 1.35. This is somewhat inconsistent with
the responses to the open-ended questions. since this factor was less frequently mentioned in the
open-ended quesrions.

The amount of support the victim receives from family and friends is the next most
influential factor. The average score on this factor was a 1.67. One counselor expanded on her
response by stating that this may influence a victim but will not always be a deciding factor.
Women will report against the wishes of their families and will also not report even if their family
wishes that they would. There is still an appreciable amount of self-determination involved in this
decision.

A question about the location of the assault was responded to in a mixed manner. It
seems that if the victim is acquainted with the assailant and the assault occurs in a familiar place
(for example in her home and she invited him there. or his home and she went willingly) then the
location becomes an influencing factor. But. if the assault takes place in a familiar location and
she does not know the assailant (especially if he secured entry illegally or under false pretenses)
then the location of assault is much less of a consideration. So this factor depends upon how well
the victim and assailant are acquainted. The overall score for location was 1.88. but this statistic

‘ was calculated without the differentiation made between stranger and acquaintance rapes.

 

C0

311:
cor
r all
eith.

wm

92

The amount of physical resistance the victim showed was rated as the least influential.
It received an overall score of 2. Counselors seemed to believe this matters less to women. One
counselor said that women come to an understanding that they did all that they could and
survived. and their level of resistance is not really an issue for them.

Overall. counselors felt that receiving rape crisis counseling would make women more
likely to report a rape to the police. One counselor mentioned that if women come in for
counseling. only then do counselors have the opportunity to address the debilitating myths women
hold about sexual assault. and eradicate them. However. some counselors were eager to point out
that the counseling does not necessarily cause women to report the assault. So often women do
not contact the counseling center until after they have already reported to the police. Then. the
counseling center does not even have the opportunity to influence clients on this issue.

One final note regarding an important methodological consideration should be taken into
account when conducting research on sexual assault survivors. These counselors are basing their
responses on victims who have contacted their center for counseling. Yet. there are many
survivors that do not contact a center for counseling. In fact. it is very possible that women who
contact a rape crisis center for counseling are in many respects similar to women who report a
rape to the police. but both groug are likely to be very different from women who do not contact
either the police or a counseling center. There is still a significant population of survivors about

which we know very little.

 

93

Discussion of Interviews with Counselors

Tables C.l through C.5 summarize the results of the interviews I conducted with
counselors at the various schools in my sample. The schools in this sample are primarily larger
institutions. The total numbers Of students ranged from 4197 to 41,897. the average was 15,575.
It is difficult from this small sample to determine whether there is a relationship between the
numbers of students. percentage of student population that is female, numbers of services. and
years of Operation. It seems from Table C.l that schools 6 and 7 which have a higher ratio of
services to female students also have a higher percentage of female students. However. school
number 8 in Table C.l also has a high ratio of services but a relatively lower percentage of female
students. I would have expected a much clearer relationship between services and female students.
There may be several reasons for why there is not a clear relationship between these variables.

First. the lack of a relationship may be due to the small sample size that I have used. A
second possible explanation might be that the political atmosphere on various college campuses
affects the extent to which rape crisis services are offered. aside from the size of the student
population. Moreover. shifts in political atmosphere and concerns about rape on campus may
cause an increase in the numbers of services that are offered. A well-publicized rape may cause
a temporary increase in services to female students. at the time of the interview (Amir. 1971).
This was the case in school number two.

Table C.2 again uses the same system of enumeration of schools that is used in table CI.
The second column lists the number of clients each of the centers served in the last academic year.
These clients are not all rape victims. Sometimes family or friends of a rape victim call for
information. Other students may call for crisis intervention. counseling. or just for information.

The numbers do reflect the numbers of individuals who have contacted the center however. Some

94
clients call or have more than one appointment but these numbers only represent the actual
number of clients. not the number of contacts.

One center stands out above the rest with 1700 clients. This center began out of special
circumstances within the university. The idea for such a center grew out of campus concern for
women’s safety. A woman’s group made a petition for changes to be made on campus to make
it safer. and less discriminatory against women. The idea for funding to start a rape prevention
and counseling center was thrown into the language of the petition as a bargaining chip. The
authors had with no real intentions of successfully gaining these funds to start the center. Tb their
surprise. the administration conceded to the budget proposal and granted the funds to start the
center. It now serves as a model to many other schools.

The other school that seems to stand out for its large number of clients is school number
four. This counselor mentioned specifically that this figure of 600 contacts included students who
were calling for information on papers they were writing on rape. So. this may be an inflated
number given the size of the student population.

School number seven also has a proportionally large number of clients. This school had
been awarded special grant money to reach out to male sexual assault survivors. and incest
survivors. and they had funds to try three alternative forms of healing; outdoor. art. and movement
therapy. With the additional services they could offer. it would be expected that they would have
more clients.

The center at school number one on the other hand. has a relatively small number of
clients for its population. This may be a result of the nature of this center and their specific
purpose at that campus. The counselor referred to this program as an advocate team. not a
counseling center. They were housed in the office of women’s studies and were primarily a

prevention oriented program. They do offer all of the services I was looking for in a rape crisis

95
center and do counsel victims. perhaps their limited clientele is due to the name they use. an
"advocate team". in the women’s studies department. This title might discourage some rape
survivors (some who might not consider themselves feminists) to contact this center. It would be
even less likely to encourage men to contact the advocate team.

The rate for school number three also seems particularly low. They also see a smaller
number of clients than might be expected given the size of the school. This program is a separate
rape crisis counseling program but is housed in the university counseling center. Perhaps it suffers
from a lack of visibility in the campus community.

The third column contains the numbers of rapes reported to the rape crisis centers which
had occurred within the last year. This figure in most cases. is much lower than the total numbers
of clients that each center had seen. These figures represent the number of calls received by the
center from a woman stating that she was raped. As expected. the school with the largest number
of clients also had the largest number of reports taken at the center. In general. the schools seem
to follow the pattern of the more clients the center has. the more survivors who report a sexual
assault to the center.

The fourth column in Table C.2 contains the numbers of sexual assaults that were reported
to the police by the students of each of these schools. Not all of the students who reported to the
police may have been clients at the centers. All of the police reporting rates were lower than the
center reporting rates. but both are low compared to the potential pool of victims.

The schools with the greater number of clients and greater number of services to students
also have the greater number of reports to the police. I have operationalized counselor support
in part by the total number of services offered to sexual assault survivors. The results show that

schools which offer more services tend to have higher reporting rates. But. the evidence is not

96
strong. This finding does offer some support of my hypothesis that outside support (from
counselors) increases the likelihood of reporting.

Although it is a still a low rate. at school number 10. all of the clients who reported to
the center also reported their assault to the police. This counselor said that she always discusses
the issue of reporting with her clients and will encourage them to report. There is too little
evidence to clearly determine what affects this counselor has on the clients. but she was also the
only counselor that admitted to making attempts to invoke a sense of responsibility in the clients
to stop the assailant from raping anyone else.

The impact of counselors on survivor’s decisions was also operationalized by four
questions concerning whether counselors ever encourage and/or discourage clients from reporting
and under what conditions they would do so. Six of the counselors said that they would
encourage clients to report. However. these schools do not seem to have higher reporting rates
as a result of the counselor’s encouragement. Only one of the counselors mentioned ever
discouraging a client from reporting. yet the actual police reporting rate for this school is not
comparatively low. The results of the interviews with survivors demonstrates that counselors do
not actually have a great deal of impact on survivor’s decisions regarding reporting. And. the
evidence from the interviews with counselors does not strongly suggest that counselors have any
influence on whether or not the victim decides to report the assault to the police. Therefore. the
path which suggests that counselor support leads to a greater likelihood of reporting will be
dropped from the model.

The Table C.4 gives the first. second and third most influential factors that affect a
woman’s decision whether or not to report a rape to the police according to the counselors that

I have interviewed. These responses signify the test of my predictive model. If the counselors

97
mention the same factors that I have hypothesized to influence survivor’s decisions. then this can
be interpreted as support for these factors.

The most frequently cited responses were victim’s feelings of guilt and fear that the police
(or other ’5) will not believe that they have been raped. If a survivor feels she is somehow to
blame for the assault then naturally she is concerned that others will not believe she was innocent
either. These feelings are fed by the myths the media portrays about rape victims according to
most of the counselors. They claim that there are still many myths about rape and that victims
buy into these myths. The responses to these open-ended questions provide strong support for the
effects of expectations of police reSponse and victim’s guilt feelings. therefore these two factors
will be included in the final predictive model.

Another important factor which showed up was the situational circumstances in which the
rape had taken place. Counselors listed such things as whether or not the victim and assailant
were acquainted. whether or not the victim was drinking at the time. whether or not there was any
physical evidence of the rape. or if another crime was committed in conjunction with the rape.
This factor. situational circumstances. was cited five times by the counselors. This factor again
seems to be related to the above two. Counselors estimated that the women who are raped by
someone they know. after they have been drinking are more likely to feel that they are responsible
for the rape. because public opinion tells them they are reSponsible. As we make our way through
this data. we see ever more clearly that the factors which affect women’s decisions are integrated.

It is not always one variable which affects a woman's decision whether or not to report. more
often various factors work together to influence each other. The effects of situational
circumstances on the likelihood of reporting have been supported by the survivors and counselors.
and also by the contact shats to be discussed below. This factor will also form a path in the final

predictive model.

98

The final notable factor which has been mentioned in this section is fear. Victims are
fearful of retribution from the assailant. fearful of the prosecution process. and fearful of reactions
from others in general. They were fearful that others would blame them. Perhaps the victims
referred to in these responses did not have the benefit of immediate support from a close friend
that some of the survivors I interviewed had. The survivors also provided evidence for the effects
of fear on their decision therefore it will be included in the final predictive model.

In the next section. I asked the counselors to rate each of the factors that I have
hypothesized to influence reporting rates. These factors were rated on a scale of l to 4 where 1
equals a great deal of influence and 4 equals no influence at all. There is no neutral category.
The lower the score. the more influential the factor was rated. The averages for each factor are
given on the bottom of Table C5.

The highest score. and thus the least influential was the level of resistance the woman
offered. However. this factor received an overall of rating of ”2" which is still "somewhat
influential“ and thus it should remain in the final model with the understanding that it may not
be quite as influential for women in this sample. than some of the other factors in the model.

The next highest score is the location of the rape. I asked a follow-up question to this
one in which I questioned whether the location of the assault had a different affect with varying
levels of social distance between the victim and rapist. Seven of the ten counselors said yes.
location has a greater likelihood of discouraging women from reporting when there is less social
distance. The factor ”location" received an overall rating of 1.89 on a scale of 14. This variable
is somewhat influential according to this sample of counselors. and among the sample of
survivors. this variable also seemed to have a relationship to reporting. therefore it also deserves

_ consideration in the final model.

 

 

n.

(A

99

The support from family and friends also seems to be a predictor of reporting. yet again
it is one of the weaker predictors. Support in this questionnaire was defined as long-term support
which would follow the victim throughout the entire prosecution process. However. the survivors
seemed to be much more influenced by immediate crisis intervention than any type of long-term
support. therefore. support will be included in the final model but it will refer to only immediate
support. not long-term.

Factors which are even more strongly supported by the counselors are the level of
acquaintance. the level of violence. and the expectations of the criminal justice system. These
were given average scores of L35. 1.25 and I respectively. These three factors will also be
included in the final model. The level of acquaintance. location. level of resistance. and the level
of violence are components of the situational circumstances and will be listed under this heading.

I would have liked to rely more on the responses from the survivors that I interviewed in
forming a predictive model of rape victimization reporting. However. there are methodological
issues which make that approach questionable. First. I have a nonrandom sample of survivors.
they are all volunteers. Second. it may be very diflicult for a survivor to assess all of the factors
which influenced a very difficult decision. Due to their training. counselors may be more adept
at recognizing these factors. Finally. these survivors are not fully aware of the variation in rape
situations. They were referring to only one specific incident of assault. they are unable to say
whether the same factors would influence them in the same manner. in another rape scenario.

To test whether the presence of rape counseling services increases the likelihood that rape
victims will report an assault. I also called ten schools that do not have such services. and asked

about rape reporting rates at these schools. Below. the results of these interviews are given.

100
Reporting statistics of schools that do not have rape crisis centers

After calling schools that do not have sexual assault services on campus for students. I
found that for the most part. these schools do not have records of reported rapes. Most likely. not
only are women very unlikely to report a sexual assault at these schools. but even if they do. the
school is less likely to keep a record of it because they do not have the resources on campus to
do so. There is no single department that keeps track of these reports and the rates I have
gathered are primarily from various offices that have remembered certain instances.

I would expect the rates of sexual assault reporting to be much lower at schools that do
not have rape crisis services than at schools that do. for several reasons. These reasons primarily
have to do with demographic differences between the schools that have centers and those that do
not. Those that do not provide services are primarily smaller schools. ofien commuter colleges
or community or junior colleges. There are likely to be many differences in reporting rates for
commuter and junior colleges. compared to large 4-year institutions. that are unrelated to the
primary variable being tested - counseling affects on likelihood of reporting a sexual assault. The
students may be less likely to report a sexual assault to a commuter college than to a college
where they live. Smaller. commuter colleges. rarely have a deputized campus police with the
legal jurisdiction to arrest an accused rapist.

There is a second characteristic of the schools in this sample that may affect the number
of sexual assaults reported on campus that is unrelated to the lack of counseling services. These
schools. being primarily commuter colleges and community colleges. tend to have a higher ratio
of females than the larger. more expensive four year colleges. With fewer men on campus. there

is a smaller pool of potential assailants. so the rates are likely to be lower.

101

With all the complications in generalizing this data. the comparison between schools that
do not have centers and those that do was decidedly downplayed. I felt it did not offer as much
valuable information as the other sources of data I have obtained in this study.

Despite the problems with this data collection procedure. we can still infer from these
rates that reporting is very low among this population. college students. Many of the people I
spoke with stated that the local police departments do inform the school when a student has
reported a rape to the police. (Police departments usually provide information on the report only.
not the student's name). The schools then record these incidents and relayed them to me.

I will report only relevant demographics of both the schools and the individuals in my
study. I pledged confidentiality to all those involved in this study and thus any identifying
information will not be reported.

There were two universities in this sample. One of these schools had a total of 5,960
students enrolled Separate figures for the number of men and women were not available. One
rape had been reported in 1987 and none before or since.

The other university in the sample had far more women enrolled than men. There are 892
women registered full-time and 345 registered part-time. Men comprise 447 of the full-time
students and 80 of the part-time. This school had no reported rapes. The respondent I spoke to
at this school claimed that the local police department informs the school of rape reports. and
therefore she was confident that there had been none.

There were three. four year institutions in the sample. all of which had residence halls on
campus. I mention this fact because students that are living on campus away from home may

increase the incidence of rape on campus.

102

One of these four year colleges had 966 full-time and 985 part-time female students.
Again. there are significantly fewer male students with 707 attending full-time and 568 attending
part-time. There has never been a report of rape recorded at this school.

Another of the four year colleges had 554 full-time women and 23 part-time. 500 men
full-time and only 10 part-time. One date rape had been reported in 1990 but the respondent
claimed the woman did not title the event as a rape herself. In 1986. there had been a report of
rape but when it was investigated it was unfounded. The reSpondent at this school claimed to be
particularly aware of the numbers of reported rapes on campus because she meets with each one
of the female students that live on campus at the beginning of the school year. She said students
at this school are not hesitant to talk about rape. She claimed to have an excellent rapport with
both the students and the police department and open channels of communication with both groups
around the issue of rape. The police inform her of any reports of rape by students of the school.
If. for any reason. the police did neglect to inform her of any reported rapes. a printout of police
records appears in the newspaper everyday and there she would see the incidents recorded. This
school also did provide some educational programs on campus regarding sexual assault. but no
counseling services.

The third 4-year private college had 2156 full-time and 174 part-time women enrolled.
There were fewer full-time men. 1822. but the same number of part-time men students. Two
years ago a student reported a rape to the local police department and the police informed the
school. then the woman decided not to prosecute.

The sample contained one four year commuter college. This school had 700 full-time and

50 part-time women and 600 full-time and 50 part-time men. This school had 0 reported rapes.

103

Finally. there were three schools that were two year commuter colleges. The first school
had 2000 female students and 1.987 male students. This school had one report of rape which
occurred in 1988.

The second of these commuter colleges had. 1200 students in total. 80% of which were
non-traditional students. primarily middle aged women returning to school after having a family.
There were no reports of rape at this school.

The last of the schools was a 2-year commuter college for which I do not have the
numbers of students enrolled but the school had 2 reports of rape in the last three years. I had
gathered these rates from the school's campus safety department. This department claimed to
have knowledge of all the reported rapes since the counseling center and the local police
department would inform the campus safety department of any reported rapes.

None of these schools come close to approximating a l in 4 reporting rate. The
respondents expressed a level of confidence in the rates they had given me which was greater than
I had expected. For the most part. these schools do not have records of rapes occurring on
campus. women are not reporting it and the school is not recording it. Or. there is always the
hopeful. yet unlikely possibility that rape is very infrequent at these schools.

The rates of rape reporting are lower for these schools. than for the schools that do have
rape counseling services. Yet. at this point. it is difficult to say whether the differences in
reporting rates are due to the presence of counseling services. differences in the recording of rapes
that occur. or some other factor. At this point. it is interesting to note that there does seem to be
a difference in reporting.

Another explanation might be that schools set up rape crisis centers in response to a high

incidence of rapes on campus. and lack of services could potentially reflect a lower incidence of

rape on campus.

 

Resu

from

the ir

SUPPC
the cr

defini

respor
of my
repor
crosst
812111

Win
like]

Stalin
impre

a lim

the Cr
vfilial

 

104
Results of contact sheets from a sexual assault crisis center

The final source of information I used to test my hypotheses was client contact sheets
from a sexual assault crisis center. The variables on the contact sheets can only be used to test
the influence of certain situational circumstances and demographic characteristics of the victim
and assailant. I am not able to test the other two factors in my model; expectations of police. and
support from family and friends. because there are no variables which ask about these areas on
the contacts sheets. In a crisis telephone call with a survivor. it is unreasonable to query about
definitions of rape in a manner that can be recorded in one blank spot on a form.

Yet. there are useful pieces of information that I can get from these contact sheets that
cannot be obtained from any other source. Although these contact sheets do contain many missing
responses. they are filled out based on contacts with 361 people. a sample much larger than any
of my other data sources. This data set contains information on whether or not these victims
reported to the police. this is my key variable. With this data set I am able to examine
crosstabulations of selected variables by whether or not they reported to the police. I can test
statistically whether certain groups of women or certain situations are more likely to result in a
report to the police. For examme. are women who suffer additional violence during a rape. more
likely to report than women who do not suffer additional violence? I am not able to test
statistically this type of relationship based on the interviews with counselors or survivors. Any
impressions they had about these relationships would only be speculation This data set provides
a little more accuracy than mere speculation.

1 have run crosstabulations on the variables of interest to my thesis which are present on
the contact sheets. First I will present a frequency distribution of the responses to the key
variable. whether or not the victim reported the rape to the police. this is the distribution of

uncoded values. so it is clear where each victim reported. The results are given in Table 8.1.

105
Some clients responded with the particular department to which they reported and some merely
replied ”yes” to indicate that they had reported. These responses were combined into "yes" and
"no” responses for the crosstabulation. ”Campus". "local". "other" and "not specified" were all
placed into the ”yes" category. while "did not report". and "left blank". were placed into the "no"
category.

Table 8.1: Frequency of police reports. missing values left as missing values

Value Frequency Percent Cum. Percent

Campus 18 5‘

Local 15 . 9.18
Other

Not specified

Did not report

Left Blank

 

From Table 8.1. we can see that of all those clients that contacted this center in the last
academic year. 26.8% reported the assault to the police. this reporting rate is higher than the
national average which states that 10% of rape victims report to the police. The frequency
column contains the numbers of clients that have reported to various police departments; campus.
local. other. or a non-specified category in which the client stated that the victim reported. but the
volunteer who filled out the sheet only recorded a ”yes” for reported to the police. The percent
column contains the percentages of the whole population of 361. And. finally the cumulative
percent column contains the cumulated percentage of all the previous frequencies. This column
will always total to 100%. From this table for example. we can see that 18 clients. or 5% of all
the clients reported their assault to the campus police. Of the women who did report. the largest

percentage reported to an unspecified police department. 12.7%.

106

In the subsequent analysis. I have condensed all the variables into two categories in order
to compare the variables more easily.
Variable #1: Level of Acquaintance

The first variable of interest was the level of acquaintance between the victim and
assailant. ”Relative". ”boyfriend”. and "acquaintance". were all grouped into the "acquaintance"
category. ”Stranger" was coded as the "other" category. There are 120 missing values.

I have hypothesized that women who are acquainted with their assailant. are less likely
to report the assault to the police. Table 82 presents the crosstabulation of acquaintance and

reporting status.

 

Level of acquaintance

 

 

 

 

 

 

Count
Table 82. indicates Row Pct Acquaint Other
Col Pct ance Row
A 0 Total
Report status
that more women are raped N 120 32 152
No Report
73.6 41.0
by an acquaintance than a Y 43 45 39
Yes Report
26.4 59.0
stranger. 67.6% versus 32.4%.
Column 163 78 241
Total 67.6 32.4 100.0

Above. I had mentioned that
I had probably made this
assumption when I wrote the

questions to the interviews

 

Number of Hissrnq Observations:

120

 

Table 8.2: Crosstabulation of report status and level of

acquaintance

 

with survivors. perhaps this assumption was not altogether unjustified.
The table also indicates that those women raped by a stranger were over twice as likely

to report (59.0%). as were those raped by an acquaintance (26.4%).

107

Variable #2: Location of Rape

The next situational characteristic in my model was the location of the rape. "Victim’s
residence” was placed in one category. while all other locations were placed into an ”other"
category. I have hypothesized that assaults which take place in the woman’s residence are less
likely to be reported than assaults that take place in another location.

results of a crosstabulation with reporting status and location of assault. There are 101 missing

values.

From Table 8.3 we
can see that more assaults are
likely to take place in a
location other than the
victim’s residence 64.2%
versus 35.8%. Table 8.3 also
indicates that of those women
who were raped in their own
residence. 37.6% reported the

rape to the police. compared

Table 8.3 contains the

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Number of Missing Observations:

Location
Count
Row Pct Other Victim
tol Pct residence
0 V
Report status
N 126 58
No Report
75.4 62.4
Y 41 35
Yes Repcrt
24.6 37.6
Column 167 93
Total 64.2 35.8

101

Row
Total

184

76

260
100.0

 

Table 3.3: Crosstabulation of reporting status with location of

assault

to 24.6% of those raped in some other location.

Many of the counselors that I interviewed mentioned that the location of the rape is more
likely to have an effect on reporting of the rape when the victim and assailant are acquainted titan
when the victim and assailant are strangers. I ran a crosstabulation of reporting and location of
assault controlling for the level of acquaintance to determine if the relationship between reporting

and location remains the same when level of acquaintance is controlled. The results of this

crosstabulation are given in Table 3.4.

 

The results in Table
8.4. display an interesting
change in reporting patterns.
In the first twooby-two table.
when the assailant is an
acquaintance. those who were
raped in their own residence
are now less likely to report
to the police. 22.7%
compared to those raped in
another location. 32.2%.
whereas. in the above
crosstabulation of location
and reporting status. those
raped in their own residence

were more likely to report.

the assailant is a my, those raped in their own residence are more likely to report. 80.0%,
than those raped in another location. 45.2%. This is a relatively large difference in percentages.

These findings disagree with the responses from the counselors. Counselors felt that
location of assault would be more highly related to reporting when the victim and assailant were
acquainted and less predictive when they were strangers. There is one possible explanation for
the above finding. Perhaps in the assaults which took place in some other location. the victim had

willingly gone to the location with the assailant. and thus placed some blame on herself. while in

108

 

 

Assailant is acquaintance

Location of assault

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Count
Row Pct Other Victim
Col Pct resid. Row
0 V Total
Report Status
N 40 51 91
No Report
67.8 77.3
Y 19 15 34
Yes Report
32.2 22.7
Column 59 66 125
Total 47.2 52.8 100.0
Assailant is stranoer
Location of assaUTf‘
Count
Row Pct Other Victim
Col Pct resid. Row
0 V Total
Report Status
N 23 5 28
No Report
54.8 20.0
Y 19 20 39
Yes Report
45.2 80.0
Column 42 25 67
Total 62.7 37.3 100.0

Number

t Hissrng Observations:

169

 

Table 8.4: Crosstabulation of reporting status and location of rape
controlling for relationship to assailant

In the second two-by-two table. the relationship has reversed. When

 

109

the assaults that took place in the victim’s residence, the assailant went into her territory. making
her feel more invaded and more justified in reporting.
Variable #3: Presence of additional violence

The next element of the situational circumstances factor was the level of violence used
in the assault. I have made the hypothesis that those who suffer additional violence or threats of
violence during the assault. are more likely to report than those who do not suffer additional
violence. In order to test this path in the model. I have combined several variables: occurrence
of physical injury. threats of physical injury. threats of death and the use of a weapon. These are
combined into one variable called violence. If any of these threats or occurrences took place.
violence was coded as a "yes". if none were present. it was coded as a "no".

Table 8.5 presents the results of the crosstabulation of report to the police and violence.

 

Once again. in Table 5.5 we

 

 

 

 

 

 

Violence
. Count
can examine the rates of Row Pct No Yes
Col Pct Row
N Y Total
. . Repcrt status
vrolence present in assaults. N 214 47 261
No Report
77.3 56.0
The majority of assaults Y 63 37 100
Yes Report
. 22.7 44.0
76.7% did not involve
Column 277 84 361
Total 76.7 23.3 100.0

additional violence. This

Number of Missing Observations: 0

does correspond with the

stereotype of common rape

 

 

 

Table 8.5: Crosstabulation of report status by presence of

scenarios that I had in mind _ , ,
additional Violence

when designing this study.
In Table 8.5. women who experienced additional violence were nearly twice as likely,

44.0% to report to the police than women who did not suffer additional violence. 22.7%.

Once again. I have
Assailant is acquaintance
Presence of additional Violence
controlled for the effects of Count
Row Pct No Yes
Col Pct Row
. . . N Y T l
acquaintance to determine if Report smug °”
N 90 30 120
No Report
the relationship between 30-4 58.8
Y 22 21 43
. . Yes Report
violence and reporting holds 19.6 41.2
Column 112 51 163
constant for differing levels ““1 “'7 “'3 100:0
Assailant is stranger
. Presence of’additional violence
of acquaintance. These Count
Row Pct No Yes
Col Pct Row
. . N Y T 1
results are given in Table 8.6. Report Status “a
N 22 10 32
No Report
The results in Table “-5 40-0
Y 31 15 46
. . , Yes Report
8.6. again reveal interesting 58.5 60.0
Column 53 25 78
conditions under which 70““ “7'9 32" ”0'0
Number of HiSSIhg Observations: 120
additional violence is related
to reporting. When the
assailant is an acquaintance.

110

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 8.6: Crosstabulation of reporting status and violence

those women who suffer controlling for relationship 10 assailant:

additional violence are twice

as likely to report. (41.2%) than those who do not suffer additional violence. (19.6%). Yet. when
the assailant is a stranger. there is negligible differences in the reporting behavior of women who
experience additional violence and those who do not. 60.% and 58.5% respectively. It seems. the
rape itself is a sufficient act of violence to trigger reporting when the victim and assailant are
strangers. The additional violence. however. may be necessary. in some cases. to trigger reporting

when the assailant is an acquaintance.

111
Variable #4: Race of Victim
Another hypothesis offered was that white women were less likely to report than women
of color. I have combined all racial ethnic groups other than white into an ”other" category and
compared them to white women on their reporting behavior. Table 8.7 presents the results of this

crosstabulation.

 

In the population

Race
Count

 

 

 

 

 

 

from which this was gmhcrw‘ Row Pct white Other
Col Pct Row
C 0 Total
. R C St
85% of the student body is 9p” at“ N 97 82 179
No Report
59.9 83.7
white. Other racral ethnic Y 65 16 31
Yes Report
40.1 16.3
groups make up only 15% of
Column 162 98 260
Total 62.3 37.7 100.0
the pOpulation. Yet. in Table
Number of Missing Observations: 101

8.7 we can see that 37.7% of

the clients. who mentioned

 

 

 

their race. were not white. Table 8.7: Crosstabulation of reporting status and Victim 8 race

Women of color are
overrepresented in this sample. From this data. I cannot determine whether this is because women
of color are more likely to be raped. or are more likely to contact a counseling center. Future
research might examine this relationship.

White women were more than twice as likely (40.1%) to report than other women
(16.3%). This finding is in disagreement with my model.

Again. 1 controlled for level of acquaintance to determine if race maintains a similar
relationship to reporting under all conditions of acquaintance level. Table 8.8 contains the results

of the crosstabulation of reporting and victim’s race controlling for relationship to assailant.

In the first two-by-
two table in Table 8.8. the
relationship between reporting
and victim’s race is reversed,
when the assailant is an
acguaintance. women of color
are more likely to report than
white women. 40.0% versus
25.7%. However. when the
assailant is a stranger, women
of color remain just as likely
to report. but white women
become much more likely to
report. 72.9%. Table 8.8.
This is an interesting finding

which much of the literature

does not address. It was also not mentioned in the interviews with sexual assault counselors.
Variable #5: Race of assailant

Finally. I have examined the assailant’s race. Russell has claimed that all women. white
and women of color. are more likely to report rape by a black man than by a man of another race.

I compared the reporting behaviors of women raped by black men to those raped by men of all

112

 

 

Assailant is acguaintance

Victim's Race

 

 

 

 

 

 

Row
Total

90

36

126
100.0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Row
Total

19

39

58

Count
Row Pct White Other
Col Pct
C 0
Report Status
N 75 15
No Report
74.3 60.0
Y 26 10
Yes Report
25.7 40.0
Column 101 25
Total 80.2 19.8
Assailant is stranger
Victim’s race
Count
Row Pct White Other
Col Pct
C 0
Report Status
N 13 6
Nu Report
27.1 60.0
Y 35 4
Yes Report
72.9 40.0
Column 48 10
Total 82.8 17.2

Number of Missing Observations:

177

100.0

 

other races. This crosstabulation is presented in Table 8.9.

Table 8.8: Crosstabulation of reporting status and victim’s race
controlling for relationship to assailant

 

113
There are more missing observations in this table. so the results must be viewed with
caution especially since one of the cells has only 7 respondents. The missing values are more
likely the result of neglecting

to mention this variable on

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

' Assailant's race
the part of the client rather
Count
Row Pct Black Other
, , Col Pct Row
than not knowrng this a 0 Total
Report status
N 7 110 117
. - No Report
information. Mostofthe 28.0 74.3
_ , Y 18 3a 56
assailants. 85.5%. are white. Yes Report
72.0 25.7
. -13 7
The race of the assailant 7.35:? If: 3%“; 105,3
Number of Missing Observations: 188
seems to more closely model
the proportions in the
population. Table 8.9: Crosstabulation of report status by assailant’s race

Among those women
who were raped by a black man. 72.0% reported. while only 25.7% of those raped by a man of

another race reported to the police. Those raped by black men were far more likely to report.

114

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Table 8.10. level of
Assailant is acguaintance
. Assailant's race
acquaintance was controlled Count
Row Pct Black Other
Col Pct Row
B 0 Total
and the Report Status
N 3 68 71
No Report
relationship between 33-3 7773
Y 6 20 26
, , . Yes Report
assailant 5 race and reporting 66.7 22.7
' Column 9 as 97
was reexamined. When the “3““ 9'3 9°" 1°°'°
Assailant is stranger
. . Assailant's race
assailant is an acguaintance. Count
Row Pct Black Other
Col Pct Row
. B O T 1
women are nearly three times 6......" Status °“
N 4 7 11
No Report
more likely to report a rape 35-0 39-2
Y 12 17 29
Yes Report
by a black man. In the t0p 75.0 70.8
Column 16 . 24 40
two-by-two table. 66.7% 70““ “0'0 °°'° 100:0
Number of Missing Observations: 224
reported a black rapist. while
only 22.7% reported a rapist
of some other race. Yet.

 

 

 

 

Table 8.10: Crosstabulation of reporting status and race of
when the assailant is a assailant controlling for relationship to assailant

stranger, race of the assailant does not seem to matter. 75.0% reported a black rapist. and 70.8%

reported a white rapist.

115
Discussion of the results from the contact sheets

The first table presented in the results of the contact sheets was the frequency of reporting
rates for several different police departments to which a survivor might report; campus. local.
other. and non-specified. Although those not specified may have reported to the campus or local
police, it seems the reporting rates to these particular police departments is low. 5% and 4.2%
respectively. Efforts targeted at increasing the reporting rates to these two police departments may
be well spent.

The next table that was presented was the crosstabulation of level of acquaintance and
reporting. The level of acquaintance is an extremely strong predictor of reporting sexual assault.
The large differences in percentages of survivors who have reported, based on their level of
acquaintance with the assailant. agrees with the results of the interviews I had conducted with
counselors and to a lesser extent the results of the interviews with survivors. This will remain the
initial variable in the predictive model. The level of acquaintance between the victim and
assailant influences all of the remaining predictors in the model of sexual assault reporting.

In the initial crosstabulation of reporting and location of assault. there was a relatively
small difference in percentages reporting on the different categories of the independent variable.
24.6% and 37.6%. Table 8.3. The next table. Table 8.4. controlled for the relationship to the
assailant. In this table. those women assaulted by an acquaintance did not have large differences
on their reporting behaviors based on the location of assault. While. for those women raped by
a stranger nearly twice as many women raped in their own home reported compared to women
raped in another location. Therefore. when the assailant is a stranger. location becomes a stronger
predictor. One potential reason for this finding could be that when a rapist invades not only one's
body. but also their home. there may be a greater desire to reestablish some sense of control and

safety by contacting the police. The results of the interviews with survivors seemed to indicate

 

116
that women raped in their own homes may be more likely to report. There seems to be enough
evidence from all three sources of data to include location in the final predictive model.

The next factor which was tested with the data from the contact sheets was the influence
of violence on reporting behavior. Again. in the initial crosstabulation of violence with reporting
there is a significant difference in percentages reporting along different categories of the
independent variable. Table 8.5. Those suffering additional violence were twice as likely to
report. When the level of acquaintance is controlled for, we see that only in the situation of
acquaintance rape does level of violence yield different reporting distributions. Table 8.6. This
crosstabulation has revealed a condition under which violence seems a predictor to reporting.

Additional violence in rape seems to have a complicated and different affect on different
women. Some victims may be more frightened by the violence and accompanying threats and feel
they should not report to protect themselves from further assaults by the assailant. Survivors
mention fear of the assailant as a reason for not reporting. this fear ofien came from threats made
by the assailant (a form of violence). Counselors also rated the presence of additional violence
as a strong predictor to reporting. on a scale of 1 to 4 it was rated a 1.25 with low scores
representing stronger predictors. Yet. in the results from these contacts sheets. it seems that
violence is more likely to trigger reporting in acquaintance rapes, but it is not necessary to trigger
reporting in stranger rapes. It is conceivable that violence may both encourage and discourage
reporting. depending on the survivor. Violence will remain in the final model because it seems
to be confirmed in each of the three data sources.

The next factor which I examined was the race of the victim. The initial crosstabulation
revealed that white women were more than twice as likely to report to the police than women of
color. Table 8.7. When the level of acquaintance was controlled. in the case of acquaintance rape.

women of color were much more likely to report than white women. Women of color remained

117
just as likely to report when the assailant was a stranger. while white women became much more
likely to report, 72.9%, Table 8.8.

There are many interesting relationships taking place in regards to race of victim in this
data set. First. in the initial crosstabulation of race and reporting, Table 8.7. it seems women of
color are overrepresented in the clientele of this center. but underrepresented among those women
who choose to report. Women of color may feel less secure in making a report to the police
departments. However. level of acquaintance does not seem to be a factor in deciding whether
to report. for women of color. They are just as likely to report regardless of level of acquaintance.
Table 8.8. The numbers in Table 8.8 are very small and must be interpreted with great caution,
again more research with a more reliable data set is needed to reexamine the relationship between
victim’s race and reporting. but suffice it to say at this point. women of color do not seem to
consider the race of the assailant when deciding whether or not to call the police. This variable
will be included in the model as a conditional variable. race is only predictive of reporting for
white women under varying levels of acquaintance. -

The final situational variable examined in the contact sheets was the race of the assailant.
In the initial crosstabulation of this variable with reporting. black rapists were nearly three times
more likely to be reported to the police. Table 8.9. This remains the case in acquaintance rapes,
but there is very little difference in reporting behaviors when the assailant is a stranger. Table
8.10. It seems that when the assailant is an acquaintance. women use the "myth of the black
rapist". to their advantage and decide more often to report. Perhaps believe they may have a
better chance of getting a conviction (Brownmiller. 1975). But. when the assailant is a stranger.
the mere fact that he was a stranger provides enough support for the victim’s claim that she was

raped and the race of the assailant. perhaps becomes less crucial to her claim of rape.

118
The assailant’s race will also be included in the final predictive model with the conditional

term that the assailant is an acquaintance.

Chapter 6

Conclusion

Integrated summary of results

I have presented the results and a discussion of each of the three sources of information.
It would now be helpful to pull the discussion from all three of these areas together into one final
predictive model of rape victimization reporting. Figure 2 presents this final path model based
on the results of this thesis. The model is presented again presented below for review.

The most influential predictor which surfaced in all three areas of data collection was the
situational circumstances of the rape. These situational circumstances include only. the level of
acquaintance and the level of additional violence which occurred in conjunction with the rape.
Survivors who were raped by an acquaintance mentioned this factor as a deterrent to reporting.
and in fact only one of the survivors who did report was raped by an acquaintance. Counselors
also mentioned this characteristic of rape as a deterrent and rated it very highly in terms of
influence on the victim.

Finally. this factor was found to be a significant variable in the data analysis of client
contact sheets. It not only had one of the strongest relationships to reporting. when this variable
was controlled for. the relationships of other variables and reporting changed.

It seems public opinion and victims. have not yet reached an understanding of
acquaintance rape. It remains very difficult to accept that men rape women they know and
pretend to care about. I feel that the level of acquaintance remains the strongest predictor of
reporting. It is the one variable which affects all of the other factors. It affects the guilt the
survivor feels. her expectations of other’s responses. her fear of the assailant, and directly affects
her likelihood of reporting. Therefore. there is a direct line extending from the situational variable

to reporting to demonstrate the direct relationship social distance has on reporting. There are also

119

 

120

 

 

 

 

 

tmnediate
Support
Fear of the
Assailant
Situation ”””/,,””/r
Acqmintance l,
g ice R I
Location ¥ cu. it 4:
Violence
Police, Fanti ly,
and Friends
|—-B°' ”v. Justice
Blame

 

 

 

Figure 2: Final Predictive Model of Rape Victimization Reporting

lines connecting guilt. expectations. and fear of assailant to demonstrate the indirect relationship
social distance has on reporting.

The second component of the situational variable is the level of violence. This variable
has been discussed in the rape literature as simultaneously having two contradictory affects on
reporting. The data confirm that interpretation. Violence can either frighten the victim out of
reporting. or give her a sense of outrage which makes her feel more justified in reporting. There
is no clear evidence. yet. as to why violence affects certain survivors differently or how to predict
its affects. With these contradictory results. it is recognized by survivors and counselors and
supported by the data from client contact sheets that. whether or not encouraging or discouraging.
violence has a strong impact on reporting.

Location and level of resistance were also rated as "somewhat influential” by the

counselors that I interviewed. From the interviews with survivors there seemed to be a correlation

121
between reporting and location. Those raped in their own homes were more likely to report. This
was also confirmed by the client contact sheets. Location seems to have a stronger relationship
to reporting when the victim and assailant are acquainted. so location will be listed under
acquaintance in the final model to reflect this conditional relationship.

The level of resistance was not directly tested in the interviews with survivors nor in the
client contact sheets. However. it still received a fairly high rating by counselors in terms of
influence. therefore it will be retained in the final model, with the recognition that it may not be
as influential as some of the other variables in the model. All of the above factors. acquaintance.
level of violence location and level of resistance are all considered components of one factor,
situational circumstances.

The effects of race were very complicated. Race was found to be influential under certain
conditions, for example when the victim was white and the assailant black. Race as a predictor
to reporting. was not specifically asked in the interviews. so there is little evidence for this
variable from the interview data. Yet. it seems to have very interesting affects on reporting within
different levels of acquaintance and l feel this is a relationship which needs further examination.
l wanted to point out the influence of this variable and felt the evidence from the contact sheets
was strong enough to include it in the final predictive model.

The next factor according to the survivors and the counselors (this factor was not testable
with the client contact sheets). was the expectations of others’ responses. On this factor I have
combined the expectations of family. friends and police responses. The effects all three groups
have on survivors is similar. The counselors rated this factor as higher titan any other factor in
terms of influencing victims. in the Open—ended questions several of the counselors mentioned

concerns over family and friends’ reactions to the report as a strong influence on victims.

122

Five of the seven survivors that I interviewed mentioned a concern over the responses
from all three of these groups. The concerns centered around whether others would believe the
victim and understand that she was raped. and concerns over whether others would blame the
victim for initiating the rape. Police officers may be the first significant and judgmental contact
the victim has after the rape. It can be very intimidating to report to police officers. and women
are aware that victims in the past have been mistreated by the police.

Family and friends may have a greater impact on the victim’s interpretation of the rape
and her role in it. since family and friends are stronger reference groups for the victim. The
victim must go on living with these people so if she feels they are likely to treat her differently
after hearing of the rape. she may opt to keep the news to herself.

There is a direct line drawn from expectations of other’s responses to reporting to
demonstrate the direct relationship between this variable and reporting. There is also a line
extending from situation to expectation of responses. The survivors who expressed concerns over
other’s responses were those who were raped by acquaintances. not the victims assaulted by
strangers. In fact. Cathy. who was violently abducted and raped by a stranger, said she never even
considered that others would blame or disbelieve her. it seems that those who are raped by an
acquaintance are more likely to fear other’s responses. and those who suffer additional violence
are less likely to fear other's responses. The situational variable has an indirect relationship to
reporting through the victim's expectations of other’s responses.

The third most influential factor is the fear of the assailant. The rape literature does not
discuss this factor at any great length. The counselors also did not mention this factor as often
as some others. Although. it was mentioned three separate times. twice as a primary predictor.
Yet. all of the survivors were fearful of the rapist after the rape. Three of the four respondents

who did not report. mentioned fear of the rapist as a reason for not reporting. Cindy, whose

123
roommate actually called the police. initially objected to her roommate calling the police because
she was so fearful of the assailant. Perhaps this is a variable which remains overlooked in the
rape literature and among the counseling community. We cannot ignore the voices of victims.
They are expressing fear which needs to be addressed because it is keeping women from reporting
an assault.

The variable fear is directly related to reporting. and thus a line is drawn from it to
reporting. The situational circumstances are also indirectly related to reporting through the
variable fear. It seems logical to assume that the presence of additional violence is likely to
increase the amount of fear the victim feels. In fact this was the casein the interviews with
survivors. Cindy and Betty were victims of very violent rapes. and both mentioned a fear of the
assailant which they felt subsequent to the rape. The more violence. the more fear.
Acquaintance rape seems to cause less fear in survivors. Only one of the victims of acquaintance
rape mentioned a fear of the assailant. Although an acquaintance is more likely to know how to
reach the victim. she may be less likely to feel he will return to harm her physically when she had
a prior acquaintance with the assailant.

Guilt feelings is the fourth influential variable. Many of the counselors mentioned this
variable. Upon six separate occasions it was mentioned in the open-ended questions. Although
survivors did not mention this factor. I still felt it was influential given the counselor’s responses.
Perhaps this is more difficult for survivors to articulate. Counselors are trained to hear what
clients are feeling but not saying. and they may be more perceptive in picking out these feelings.
It is also possible that since the survivors that l interviewed had been raped an average of 10 years
ago. and many had received counseling since then. they have worked through any guilt feelings

they had and neglected to mention these as factors. Therefore. I have chosen to include this

124
variable in the model because the evidence to back it up seems sufficient. A direct line is drawn
from guilt to reporting.

I believe that women who are raped by acquaintances and experience a lesser degree of
additional violence are more likely to feel guilt. based on what the counselors have told me about
this variable Therefore there is also a line from situation to guilt demonstrating the indirect affect
that situation has on reporting through the variable guilt.

Finally. there are two additional factors. which were obvious sources of influences to the
survivors that I interviewed. All of the survivors who did report had the benefit of immediate
contact with a friend after the rape. who strongly encouraged them to report to the police. This
is not a long term commitment by significant others to support the victim through the prosecution
process. victims might not think that far ahead. But. immediate crisis intervention seems to be
very encouraging to survivors.

One final factor is mentioned by survivors. The three women who did report mentioned
the criminal nature of the event. and the desire to see justice done. They felt not only that it was
important to inform the‘rapist that what he did was wrong. but more importantly. the survivors
wanted to prevent him from raping any other woman. This factor is also drawn with a direct line
to reporting.

This model should be interpreted with caution and the understanding that it is just a
beginning attempt to understand why so many women do not report a rape. It is quite possible
that there are many other factors. which i have not even examined which also have an influence

on sexual assault survivor’s decisions whether or not to report an assault.

125
Policy Implications

I hope to take this thesis and the results I have found. a step further by making a few
policy recommendations based on the factors which have surfaced as strong predictors of sexual
assault reporting. In this manner. this thesis will become a more applied sociological piece. In
the introduction to this thesis. I mentioned several personal and collective reasons for why it is
important for sexual assault survivors to report an assault to the police despite all the difficulties
this may entail for the survivor. Because I feel it is so important for women to report a sexual
assault. I am offering policy recommendations to facilitate that process.

I interviewed Dr. Jayne Schuiteman Director of Michigan State University (MSU) Human
Resources Department. She has worked for many years with the MSU community on safety and
self-defense measures and has advocated for sexual assault survivors with the upper administration
of MSU. Recently. Dr. Schuiteman has begun an ambitious study in conjunction with the MSU
Department of Public Safety (DPS) to evaluate the results of a police-initiated program to increase
the number of student sexual assault victims who report the rape to DPS. She will measure
reporting rates before the program goes into affect. while it is taking place. and after it has run
a course. in order to determine if the program is able to increase the numbers of victims who
report the rape. Her study serves as the ideal follow-up to my own. We discussed several
possible policy recommendations that might follow from the results I have found in this thesis.
These recommendations are presented below.

The strongest predictor of rape victimization reporting seems to be the level of
acquaintance between the victim and assailant. Those who are more acquainted with the assailant
are less likely to report. This seems to be a result. according to many of the counselors that I
interviewed. of the rape myths perpetuated in the media which blame women. It is difficult and

frightening to accept that men hurt women they know. The public wants to believe the victim did

126
something to deserve it. that she was in some way a bad person and thus this act was justified.

Currently. there are efforts to change these attitudes. and my recommendations would be
to continue the efforts being made in this area. The most important effort being made is, perhaps,
educational. There must be a renewed commitment to fund and support educational efforts in
schools. within the criminal justice system. and in the community in general (Koss and Harvey.
1991).

Women’s groups have been working in schools and have made some inroads. Since my
study was based on only the college student population. my recommendations will be made for
this population. However. I believe there may be some insights gained in this study that could
be generalized to other groups.

Within the university setting there are a variety of programs that seem to be helpful in
eradicating rape myths which keep women from reporting a sexual assault. Some schools with
dormitories provide education and training to resident assistants to deal with sexual assault
survivors that live in their dorms. These training programs should include information on the
motivations and myths of rape and the steps a survivor must take if they choose to report it.

Another important educational need involves freshman orientation. This is the initiation
into the college setting for most freshman and a crucial time for both men and women to become
aware of the dangers. This is a time when young women should be told that it is okay to say
“no". and men should be told that no means no. Currently. the MSU Sexual Assault Prevention
and Education Program has tried. but has not been allowed the time to speak to Freshman at
orientation This is a crucial time to reach out to an "at risk" population and the MSU community
could benefit by giving the sexual assault center some time to speak at orientation.

Many schools also sponsor more informal programs throughout the year. Special lectures

and discussions are provided throughout the year. Tables are set up in well-traveled areas on

127
campus with literature on the topic of rape. Men as well as women can be involved in these
efforts. In one university, a male graduate student just recently has been very successful in
gaining access to exclusive. all-male groups such as athletic teams and fraternities to heighten
awareness on the issue of rape.

The policy recommendation that flows from all of this is not to necessarily create any new
programs. but rather to continue supporting and funding existing programs. There is one caveat
to this recommendation. The programs must be of a high quality. Merely having a program on
rape may not be helpful in itself. There must be some quality control measure of the programs
that are employed and supported. And. women must be the judges of quality.

The other area which remains in need of educational efforts are police departments. The
expectation of a negative police response was also a strong hinderance to reporting. Again. there
have been programs conducted within police departments. And, some of them have been good.
Yet. it is the sentiment of Dr. Schuiteman. as well as others working with survivors, that one
program ”is not enough". Women still fear the police department’s response to their report, and
oflicers still subscribe to rape myths which blame the victim. Programs on how to deal effectively
with a rape victim and not blame her should continue to be presented to the police departments
and again. monitored for quality control (K033 and Harvey. 1991).

Another influential factor in the decision of whether to report a rape is the level of
additional violence which occurs during the rape. It has been recognized that this factor may have
two different effects. For some women. violence frightens them out of reporting. for some it
provides just enough outrage and anger that they do report. This factor directly affects the level
of fear that women feel for the rapist and thus the recommendations will be the same for both

factors. fear and violence.

128

For the survivors in which the violence is a hinderance to reporting. increased security
measures may be helpful. Women who report a sexual assault should be able to secure the
benefits of a witness protection program. if they desire.

On the campus setting. survivors may be living in close proximity to the assailant. if they
choose. resources should be made available by the university to assist them in changing residence
with case. In addition. police officers should offer to make regular rounds to check on the
residence of rape victims to insure that she is still safe. This could occur in the community or
on campuses and may help women feel a greater sense of security (Schuiteman. 1992).

Another option to help women feel safer in reporting may be the issue of restraining
orders to men accused of rape. A restraining order is a court order that the man cannot come
within a certain distance of the woman (distance is specified by a judge) or he will be arrested.
There are problems with restraining orders however. The most serious problem is that they may
give women a false sense of security. A restraining order is a piece of paper. it cannot really
prevent a man from contacting or further assaulting a woman. Restraining orders tend to be more
effective with men who do not have a criminal record and are fearful of being arrested. When
used. restraining orders should be fully explained to women so they are aware that they do not
insure complete protection (Schuiteman. 1992).

The efforts geared towards increasing women’s safety unfortunately often serve only to
place added restrictions on her life. Women are told not to venture out alone at night in order to
avoid rape. We must be careful not to put the onus of responsibility on women for preventing
rape. women do not cause rape. Any recommendations for securing women's safety must
examine what men. as well. can do to make women feel safer.

According to the counselors that I interviewed. guilt feelings prevent many women from

reporting a sexual assault. Once again. there are measures in place for helping women to

 

129
overcome these guilt feelings. I found many schools do have rape counseling services available
on campus. Counseling is the best measure for eradicating guilt feelings. Victims also subscribe
to rape myths and trained counselors can work on changing those myths in an empathic and
supportive environment.

It is difficult for some women to seek counseling. There is an unfortunate stigma attached
to counseling. Perhaps if campus rape crisis centers were separated from the school counseling
center. had its own office. and had the term "education" stressed in the title of the office. then
victims may feel less self-conscious about reporting (Schuiteman. 1992).

Some counseling centers have volunteer advocates that can assist women when they go
through the various steps of the criminal justice system. This can be a tremendous source of
support. not only to inform the survivor of the necessary steps she must take. but to assist her in
taking these steps. The volunteer advocate can let the victim know what her rights are and can
combat victim-blaming attitudes when they are encountered. so that survivors are not reinforced
for blaming themselves.

There were two factors which encouraged women to report. The first was the immediate
support from a close friend (although it may be possible for a family member to fill this role, I
did not encounter this case) and strong encouragement to contact the police. The second was a
desire for justice. survivors wish to tell the assailant he was wrong and prevent him from doing
it again.

The long term support of family and friends did not seem to have as much influence on
survivors. but all of those survivors in my sample that did report the assault. had a close friend
within one or two hours that strongly encouraged her to report to the police. Rape crisis centers
can also provide educational services to the community on what to do when a friend is raped and

how to respond. Centers can also provide services to significant others to assist them in dealing

 

130
with the assault as well. This type of service may help friends of a survivor to provide the
appropriate encouragement to call the police. These efforts are put forth by many centers already.
They only need continued support.

The last factor is quite remarkable when considered. In the midst of acute trauma.
survivors are able to consider the long term social consequences of a failure to report the rape.
Almost half of the survivors that I interviewed stated a concern for the safety of other women.
They also wanted to tell the assailant that what he did was wrong. It may be manipulative to
encourage women to consider the future safety of other women if she neglects to report. I would
not advise this. But. the message sent to men who rape deserves consideration. In the
introduction, I mentioned one of the greatest problems with the low reporting rate is the fact that
men are never told that rape is wrong. It is important that every rape is reported to the police and
all rapists are held accountable. Actions will not change unless they are perceived as problematic
and rape myths which keep women from reporting will not be eradicated unless the violence of
men against women is reported.

There are two steps which swm necessary before any of the above recommendations could
be effective. Both of these recommendations are particular to the college at which this research
was conducted. yet the steps may provide helpful suggestions to other settings as well.

The first step involves the methods of data collection on sexual assault reporting rates.
I had used client contact sheets as one source of data for this thesis. There were many missing
values on‘these sheets and the manner in which the data were coded and entered was extremely
difficult to interpret. This seems to be a problem at other schools as well. All of the schools in
my sample seem to have some difficulty obtaining accurate estimates of the numbers of students
who have reported a rape. Rape crisis centers work with very stressful conditions and often the

staff either is not trained or does not have the time to devote to data collection measures. The

131
data collection on rape statistics may be handled better by someone outside of the rape crisis
center. This would involve the second necessary step.

Dr. Jayne Schuiteman suggested that this campus could benefit from some type of
Women’s Resource Center which would have the task of collecting data on rape statistics and
making them available to the entire university. Because this Women’s Resource Center would
not have the task of handling daily crises. which a rape counseling center encounters. it could
devote more energy to accurate data collection measures. It could also hire and train
methodologists rather than counselors. who would have the skills to gather and interpret accurate
statistics. This is a service which could benefit many other departments on campus. For example.
the Department of Public Safety. the Rape Crisis Center. the Student Affairs Office. even the
Women’s Studies Department. could all better direct their services to the populations in need.

Yet. even more important than providing accurate data. the services that are available nwd
to be coordinated. As it stands. on this campus there are a variety of services available to victims
of rape and others in the community interested in learning about rape. But. according to Dr.
Schuiteman. these services are not well-coordinated and communication between providers of the
different services is minimal. Without communication. it is difficult for the different services to
facilitate each other’s efforts. If there was one centralized source on campus which had
information about all of the other services. it could serve as a convenient referral source for
whatever related needs women have. The Women’s Resource Center could also perform the
function of quality control over the various programs offered on campus which was discussed
earlier.

One more related need this Women’s Resource Center could fill is the need for
advertisement of services. Those that provide the services. for example. a crisis counselor. seem

so busy with their work that they assume members of the community are aware of the services

132
that they offer. They may falsely make the assumption that a survivor would know where to go
to receive counseling. or report a tape to the University Judiciary. Yet. there are students who
do not know how to access this type of assistance or are afraid to. A Women’s Resource Center
could assist the other offices on campus in advertising their services to the university community
and help to make them more accessible. The programs and recommendations mentioned above
will not be effective if survivors and others in the community do not utilize them.

The suggestion of a Women’s Resource Center is one that encourages centralization of
this organization. Organizations. it seems. fluctuate between periods of centralization and
decentralization. According to Dr. Schuiteman. this seems to be a period in which MSU needs
to move in the direction of greater centralization of women’s services to effectively serve the
community. The existing services are not able to communicate among themselves to meet all of
the survivor’s needs.

All of the suggestions above have been made by others in the past and many of them
probably actually do achieve the changes they are intended to make. But. they all seem to focus
on what women can do to avoid rape. Yet. it is men’s attitudes regarding rape that must be
changed before the reporting will increase and incidence will decrease. Until the higher levels of
administrations verbally and noticeably take a stand and profess a commitment to women’s safety.
violence against women on MSU campus will never be eradicated. (Jayne Schuiteman, personal
interview. 1992). I would suggest that public figures in this university. (i.e. the president. the
provost. deans of colleges. etc.) need to speak to men and tell them that forcing a woman to have
sex is unacceptable in any situation and it will be dealt with severely by the university. This can
be done by holding well-publicized public forums on the issue of rape. or having administrators
visit large classes to Speak to all the students in the class about the definition of rape and the

university’s response to its occurrence. Men learn their behaviors from other men and if male

133
college students see their role models publicly professing a commitment to women’s safety. this
may have a stronger influence on their actions than any Freshman Orientation or other related
educational program.

The university system must unitedly come out against violence against women. It seems
men and women still operate on the notion that men are aggressors and women are in positions
to accept or refuse men’s advances. This concept must be reshaped to a more equalized view and
men and women’s relationships, where the fundamental principle is one of mutual choice and
consensus. These ideas can be expressed and enforced by the upper administrative levels in this
university. Changing attitudes and responses to violence against women can be made through top-
down changes beginning with public figureheads. It seems more desirable to suggest grass-roots
level changes. but if there is no perceived need for such changes and no backing from groups that
hold power in the community. then the changes are not likely to occur. I am suggesting a top-

down change which begins with demonstrated commitment by university administrators.

134

This thesis will hopefully never actually conclude. It represents only a step in a
continuous struggle to learn more about rape. why it occurs and how to stop it. This is no final
authority. it merely represents ideas. It is my hope that others will build upon these ideas.
Already this process is happening. Dr. Schuiteman’s research mentioned earlier carries ideas
discussed in this thesis a step further and evaluates them.

We need to continue to do research on all aspects of the rape experience - the causes, the
treatment. the myths. and the reporting of rape. The real answers to research questions come from
the survivors themselves. It is difficult to access a random sample of survivors and obtain the
time and money to conduct quality personal interviews with each one of them as I have described
in the methods section. Yet. this may be required to find the information needed to make changes
which benefit survivors.

I have discussed some of the reasons why a woman might choose not to report a rape to
the police. yet. I began this thesis by mentioning why it is important for women to report.
Although it may not seem altogether beneficial to women personally to report. I have argued that
for the collective good of all women. it is important that individual women report to the police.
The first reason I mentioned for reporting was to tell the assailant that his actions were wrong.
The policy recommendation I have offered that upper administrative oflicials in university systems
take a stand against rape and follow through on sanctions against rapists will not be effective nor
enforced if women do not report. This recommendation relies on individual women reporting.

The second reason for reporting was to alert communities to the prevalence and problem
of rape. Through this research. I have found that survivors may avoid contacting the police
because they fear reactions from members of the community. Victim-blaming attitudes which

keep women from reporting will only change if women do report. It is a vicious cycle. but it can

be broken.

135

Finally. there are two personally beneficial reasons for survivors to report. Reporting may
help survivors to regain a sense of control over their lives. Fear emerged as a strong predictor
to reporting. Perhaps actually making the report and potentially seeing the assailant convicted.
(although this may not be the case) can alleviate some fear and reestablish a sense of control.

The second personally beneficial reason offered to report was to insure that survivors
would receive state funded, financial. victim assistance benefits. These benefits involve medical
and legal assistance and can assist women in healing their bodies and might not otherwise be
affordable to women.

Rape remains a difficult issue for many people to discuss. However. if we continue to
publish research and work on college campuses and in communities. it will eventually become
easier to discuss. Open communication around rape will destigmatize it and may make it easier
for women to report. This open discussion can facilitate our research and learning. and help us

to discover changes that need to be made to end rape.

APPENDIX A

QUESTIONNAIRE TO SURVIVORS

The first set of questions are about when the assault occured and to whom you reported the

assault:

1) How long ago did the assault occur?

2) Did you tell anyone about the assault? ----- > If no. go to #7
3) How long after the assault did you tell anyone?

4) Who did you tell first about the assault?

5) Did you report the assault to the police? ---> If no. go to #7
6) How long after the assault did you report it to the police?

136

137

The next several questions are about any counseling you might have received after the

assault:

7)

8)

9)

10)

11)

Did you contact a counselor (someone trained to counsel individuals) alter the assault. to
discuss what had happened?

----> If no. go to #15

How long after the assault did you first contact this counselor?

For how long did you receive counseling for this assault?

Did the counseling change your perception/interpretation of the assault? If so. how?

Did the counseling center you attended give you advice about whether or not to report the

assault? ---> If no. go to #14

12) What did the counseling center recommend or advise you to do in regards to

reporting the assault?

138

13) Did the counseling center’s advise influence your decision?

If she reported:

14) Did the anyone from the counseling center accompany you to legal proceedings?

The next set of questions are about the assailant:

15) Had you ever met the assailant before?

16) How well acqainted were you with the assailant?

17) How long have you known him?

18) Did the assailant otherwise physically injure you during the assault. (aside from the act

itself)?

19) Did the assailant leave any bruises on your body?

139

20) Did the assailant threaten to use a weapon against you?

21) Did the assailant use a weapon?

The next questions are about the location of the assault.

22) Where did the assault take place?

23) Had you ever been in this location before the assault?

24) How familiar were you with the location of the assault?

The next set of questions are about the reactions your family and friends had to the assault.

25) Did you tell anyone in your family about the assault?

---> If no. go to #29

140

26) Who is the first person in your family that you told about the assault?

26a) Did this person encourage or discourage you from reporting the assault

to the police or did they remain nuetral?

26b) Did this person have any influence on your decision whether or not to

report the assault to the police?

27) Who is the second person in your family that you told about the assault?

27a) Did this person encourage or discourage you from reporting the assault

to the police or did they remain nuetral?

27b) Did this person have any influence on your decision whether or not to

report the assault to the police?

141

28) Who is the third person in your family that you told about the assault?

28a) Did this person encourage or discourage you from reporting the assault

to the police or did they remain nuetral?

28b) Did this person have any influence on your decision whether or not to

report the assault to the police?

29) Did you tell any of your friends about the assault?

---> If no. go to #33

30) Who is the first friend that you told about the assault?

30a) Did this person encourage or discourage you from reporting the assault

to the police or did they remain nuetral?

‘4

142

30b) Did this person have any influence on your decision whether or not to

report the assault to the police?

31) Who is the second friend that you told about the assault?

31a) Did this person encourage or discourage you from reporting the assault

to the police or did they remain nuetral?

31b) Did this person have any influence on your decision whether or not to

report the assault to the police?

32) Who is the third friend that you told about the assault?

32a) Did this person encourage or discourage you from reporting the assault

to the police or did they remain nuetral?

143
32b) Did this person have any influence on your decision whether or not to

report the assault to the police?

The next questions are about how you felt about reporting the assault to the police.

33)

34)

35)

36)

In general. how sensitive do you think police departments are these days to women who

report a sexual assault?

In general. do you think police departments believe or disbelieve women who report a

sexual assault?

Now. considering just the police department to which you would have (or did report) the

assault. how sensitively did you think they would treat you when you reported the assault?

Did you think your local police department would believe your report or not believe your

report?

144
The next questions are about the reasons for your decision whether or not to report the

assault to the police.

37) What do you think most influenced your decision whether or not to report?

38) Did you feel any apprehension to reporting. or did you feel confident about reporting?

39) What would you recommend to other survivors. that they report or not report? Why?

Next, I would like to ask you some general questions about rape. These questions may be
difficult for you to answer, but I am trying to get an idea of your definition of rape, thus

these are very essential questions.

40) Under what conditions do you think sexual relations are rape?

41) Did you always define your assault as a tape?

42) Under what conditions do you think sexual relations are not rape?

145

43) Do you think a rape might ever be justified?

Finally, I would like to ask you a few questions about yourself and the assailant, so I have

a general idea of the people I have interviewed.

44) What is your racial or ethnic group?

45) What is the racial or ethnic group of the assailant?

46) What is your age?

47) What is the age of the assailant?

48) Were you a student when the assault occured?

146

49) Was the assailant a student when the assault occured?

That is all the questions I have for you. I want to thank-you for your time and cooperation
in answering these questions. It takes a great deal of strength on your part to talk about
these isuos with me. I expect that your responses will provide me with valuable information
about reporting sexual assaults from the survivor’s perspective that I will be able to pass on

to others. Thank-you again for your time.

APPENDIX B

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

 

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY BERKEY HALL EAST LANSING. MICHIGAN. 48823

TELEPHONE (517) 353-6640

September 21. 1991

Dear Counselor.

1 am a graduate student at Michigan State University conducting research on sexual assault
reporting rates of survivors who receive counseling after an assault. I have hypothesized that
many factors may influence a woman's decision whether or not to report a sexual assault. These
factors include. demographic and situational circumstances surrounding the rape. the survivor's
own definition of rape, society’s definition of rape. and the perceptions counseling centers have
concerning the treatment that rape victims receive from the criminal justice system when they
report a rape.

I have volunteered as a counselor. and public advocate in several women’s centers. both
rape crisis and domestic abuse centers. and my work there has led to my interest in studying
factors which are related to sexual assault reporting rates. I realize the negative effects reporting
a rape can have for individual survivors. I believe this decision should be made by the survivor
herself and she should be supported in whatever decision she makes. Yet. I also feel that an
increase in sexual assault reporting rates may broaden society’s definition of rape and change the
way such reports are handled in the criminal justice system.

College campuses provide the ideal setting for such a study. Sexual assault may be more
prevalent during a college career than at any other time in a woman’s life. and colleges are one
of very few institutions that provide rape crisis counseling to its members. And. more
importantly. I believe you have a wealth of knowledge to share on this issue given your

experience working with survivors. and your position in an educational institution.

147

148

Therefore. I would like to call you in the next week or two and ask you a few questions
over the phone. 1 will ask you questions about the types of services this center offers. the level
of support you perceive on campus and in the surrounding community towards rape victims. the
number of sexual assaults on campus that are reported to your center. to the school safety
department and to the local community, and your perceptions of factors that influence a survivor’s
decision whether or not to report a sexual assault I also hope to more clearly explain my theories
to you at that time and gather your impression of these theories.

This school was randomly drawn from a list of all colleges in the United States.
Participation in this study is completely voluntary. All of the information you give me will be
kept completely confidential. I will not report your nanre. the name of this center, or the name
of this school in the study. 1 will also secure all of the information I collect and delete any
identifying characteristics about this center and school from the data.

The results of this study may provide some useful insights to your center. I will send a
copy of the results to your center in the early part of the year 1992.

I am working under the direction of the Michigan State University Sexual Assault Crisis
Center and Dr. William Ewens. Professor of sociology at Michigan State. Should you have any
questions about this study. please feel free to call either Dr. Ewens at (517) 353-9555, or myself
at (517) 351-4561.

I would like to thank-you very much for your cooperation with this study.

Renee De Groot Dr. William Ewens

APPENDIX C
QUESTIONNAIRE TO COUNSELORS

Hello. my name is Renee De Groot. I am a graduate student at Michigan State University.
I contacted your office a few weeks ago concerning some research I am conducting for my
master’s thesis. I am asking sexual assault crisis counselors some questions about sexual assault
reporting rates on college campuses. At that time I mentioned that I would like to ask you a few
questions about the types of services this counseling center offers. and about the general
atmosphere on campus towards women who report a sexual assault.

From what I have read in the literature. it seems reporting rates of sexual assault remain
low compared to the incidence levels and I think there are many complicated reasons for this.
One theory I have is that receiving counseling affects a woman’s decision whether or not to
report. and thus. as a counselor. I tltink you would have some extremely valuable insights into this
issue. In turn. my analysis of reporting rates at different counseling centers may provide useful
information to you.

Your participation in this study is voluntary. Your answers will be kept completely
confidential. I will report neither the name of this school nor your name. Your answers will not
be linked to this school or you individually. If we come to a question that you don’t want to
answer. we can skip it and go on to the next question. I will be typing your responses into a

computer as we go.

149

150
The first set of questions are about this assault crisis center and the types of services

that are offered.

1. How long has this school had a rape crisis center on campus for the students?

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSED

=>

2. How many clients contacted this center for counseling. crisis intervention. or just for
information in the last year?

clients

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSED

=>

3. Does this center provide referrals to any community services (such as: religious.
medical. legal or counseling services etc.) that a survivor may need after an assault?

1. YES
2. NO

8. DON'T KNOW
9. REFUSE

=>

4. Does this center offer crisis intervention counseling to sexual assault survivors over
the telephone?

1. YES
2. N0

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSE

=>

 

151

Does this center offer one-to-one counseling in mrson. to sexual assault survivors?

1. YES
2. NO

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSE

=>

Does this center offer suppon groups. or mutually supportive gatherings for a group
of survivors?

1. YES
2. NO

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSE

=>

Does this center offer orientation programs to incoming students to provide
information about sexual assault on campus?

1. YES
2. NO

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSE

=>

Does this center sponsor any public demonstrations including rallies. marches. or
protests etc.. which are meant to heighten public awareness about the issue of sexual
assault?

1. YES
2. NO

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSE

=>

152

9. Does this center directly advocate for sexual assault survivors in the legal sgtem. for
example by attending hearings or court trials with survivors?

1. YES
2. NO

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSE

=>
10. Does this center offer any other services to sexual assault survivors that have not
already been mentioned?

1. YES
2. NO ----------- > [go to 11]

8. DON’T KNOW ---> [go to 11]
9. REFUSE ------- > [go to 11]
10a. What other services does this center offer?

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSED

=>

153

Next, I would like to ask you a few questions about the general atmosphere on

campus and in the surrounding community towards sexual assault survivors and the reports
of rapes on campus. Please answer these questions based on your experience at this school
as an assault crisis counselor. Please respond according to how you feel most of the time.

I am defining sexual assault asthe legal definition of rape for this state.

11.

12.

On a scale of one to five. where one equals very supportive gnd five is very
unsupmrtive. please tell me in general how supportive or unsupportive you feel the
administration of this school is towards sexual assault survivors?

(Probe if necessary. i.e. does the administration encourage educational awareness on
campus. counseling services for survivors. encourage reporting and advocating for
survivors when they report?)

. VERY SUPPORTIVE

. SUPPORTIVE

. NEUTRAL

. UNSUI’PORTIVE

. VERY UNSUPPORTIVE

Ut-hbJN—

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSED

=>

On a scale of one to five. where one equals very supportive and five is very
unsupportive. please tell me in general

how supportive or unsupportive you feel the faculty of this school is towards sexual
assault survivors?

(Probe if necessary. i.e. does the faculty encourage educational awareness on campus.
counseling services for survivors. encourage reporting and advocating for survivors
when they report?)

. VERY SUPPORTIVE

. SUPPORTIVE

. NEUTRAL

. UNSUPPORTIVE

. VERY UNSUPPORTIVE

thww

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSED

=>

154

13. (On a scale of one to five. where one equals very supportive and five is very
unsupportive. please tell me) in general how supportive or unsupportive you feel the
students of this school are towards sexual assault survivors?

(Probe if necessary. i.e. do the students encourage educational awareness on campus.
counseling services for survivors. encourage reporting and advocating for survivors when they
report?)

. VERY SUPPORTIVE

. SUPPORTIVE

. NEUTRAL

. UNSUPPORTIVE

. VERY UNSUPPORTIVE

UtwaH

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSED

=>

14a Does this school have a public safety department located on campus (i.e.a campus
police force which would take reports of sexual assault?)

1. YES
2. NO >[ go to Q15]

 

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSED

=>

14. (On a scale of one to five. where one equals very supportive and five is very unsupportive,
please tell me) in general how supportive or unsupportive you feel the department of public safety
or the school security is towards sexual assault survivors?

(Probe if necessary. i.e. does the department of public safety encourage educational awareness
on campus. counseling services for survivors. encourage reporting and advocating for survivors
when they report?)

. VERY SUPPORTIVE

. SUPPORTIVE
NEUTRAL

. UNSUPPORTIVE

. VERY UNSUPPORTIVE

£1!wa—

. DON’T KNOW
. REFUSED
>

WW

I
"L

155

15. (On a scale of one to five. where one equals very supportive and five is very unsupportive,

please tell me) in general how supportive or unsupportive you feel the local community is towards

sexual assault survivors?
(Probe if necessary, i.e. does the local community encourage educational awareness on campus,
counseling services for survivors. encourage reporting and advocating for survivors when they
report?)

. VERY SUPPORTIVE

. SUPPORTTVE

. NEUTRAL

. UNSUPPORTTVE

. VERY UNSUPPORTIVE

1.103in—

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSED

 

==>

16. (On a scale of one to five. where one equals very supportive and five is very unsupportive.

please tell me) in general how supportive or unsupportive you feel the local mlice department is

towards sexual assault survivors?
(Probe if necessary. i.e. does the local police department encourage educational awareness on
campus. counseling services for survivors. encourage reporting and advocating for survivors
when they report?)

. VERY SUPPORTlVE

. SUPPORTIVE

NEUTRAL

. UNSUPPORTIVE

. VERY UNSUPPORTIVE

(II-kWh)—

oo

. DON’T KNOW
. REFUSED

\0

=>

17.(On a scale of one to five. where one equals very supportive and five is very unsupportive.
please tell me) in general how supportive or unsupportive you feel the public prosecutor’s office
is in this community towards sexual assault survivors?
(Probe if necessary. i.e. does the public prosecutor’s office encourage educational awareness
on campus. counseling services for survivors. encourage reporting and advocating for survivors
when they report?)

. VERY SUPPORTIVE

. SUPPORTIVE
NEUTRAL

. UNSUPPORTIVE

. VERY UNSUPPORTIVE
. DON’T KNOW

. REFUSED

\OOOMhyJN—fi

156

Now, I would like to ask you a few questions about reporting rates in your community and
at this school.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

In the past year approximately ltow many students reported a sexual assault to the local
police department which took place within that past year?

8. DON’T KNOW

9. REFUSED

=>

In the past year. how many students reported a sexual assault to the campus
police/safety which took place within the past year?

8. DON'T KNOW

9. REFUSED

=>

How many students reported a sexual assault to this counseling center which took
place within the last year?

8. DON’T KNOW

9. REFUSED

=>

Are there any other places where students might report a sexual assault?

1. YES

2. NO ----------------- > [go to 024]

8. DON’T KNOW --------- > [go to Q24]
9. REFUSED ------------- > [go to 024]
=>

Where else would a Student report a sexual assault?

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSED

=>

23.

24.

27.

25.

26.

157

How many students have reported a sexual assault to this department which took place
within the last year?

Students

 

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSED

=>

Do you ever discuss the option of reporting the sexual assault to the police with your
clients?

1. YES

2. NO -------------- > [go to 29]

8. DON’T KNOW ------ > [go to 29]
9. REFUSED --------- > [go to 29]
=>

Do you ever encourage your clients to report a sexual assault to the police?

1. YES
2. NO ------------ > go to 27

8. DON'T KN()W----> go to 27
9. REFUSED ------- > go to 27
=>

What factors enter into your decision whether or not to encourage a client to report a

sexual assault to the police?

8. DON'T KNOW
9. REFUSED
=>

Do you ever discourage your clients front reporting a sexual assault to the police?

1. YES
2. NO --------------- > go 1029

8. DON‘T KNOW ------- > go to 29
9. REFUSED ---------- > go to 29

=>

158

28. What factors enter into your decision whether or not to discourage a client from
reporting a sexual assault to the police?

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSED

=>

Now I would like to ask you several questions about factors you think may influence a
woman’s decisions whether or not to report a sexual assault to the police. First I would like
to ask you, in general, what factors do you think influence this decision, then I would like
to ask you about some specific factors. When I say reporting a sexual assault, I mean
reporting to the police.

29. Based on your experience as a rape crisis counselor. what three factors do you think
most influence a woman’s decision whether or not to report a sexual assault?

What do you think is the most influential factor in a decision whether or not to report?

 

8. DON’T KNOW ---------- > [go to 30]
9. REFUSED ------------- > [go to 30]
=>

29a. Why do you think this is the most influential factor for many women?

8. DON’T KNOW

 

9. REFUSED
=>
30. What do you utink is the second most influential factor in a decision whether or not
to report?
8. DON’T KNOW --------- > [go to 31]
9. REFUSED ------------ > [go to 31]
=>

30a. Why do you tltink this is an influential factor for many women?

8. DON'T KNOW
9. REFUSED
=>

159

31. What do you think is the tltird most influential factor in a decision whether or not to
report?

8. DON’T KNOW [go to 32]
9. REFUSED [go to 32]
=>

31a Why do you think this is an influential factor for many women?

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSED
=>

Now, I would like to ask you about some specific situational circumstances that characterize
rape situations. I will ask you how much you think each of these factors influence a
woman’s decision whether or not to report a rape. I would like you to rate each of these
factors on a scale of one to four.

32. How much influence do you tltink the level of acquaintance between the victim and
assailant has on the woman’s decision whether or not to report?
Would you say: a great deal of influence. some influence. very little influence or no
influence at all?
(Probe if necessary. what affect does knowing the assailant have on the woman’s liklihood of
reporting a rape as compared to stranger rapes?)

1. A GREAT DEAL OF INFLUENCE
2. SOME INFLUENCE

3. VERY LITTLE INFLUENCE

4. NO INFLUENCE AT ALL

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSED
=>

33. How much influence do you think the level of violence used during the assault has on
the woman’s decision whether or not to report?
Would you say: a great deal of influence. some influence. very little influence or no
influence at all?

1. A GREAT DEAL OF INFLUENCE
2. SOME INFLUENCE

3. VERY LITTLE INFLUENCE

4. NO INFLUENCE AT ALL

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSED

=>

35.

36.

37.

160

How much influence do you think the amount oflphysical resistance the victim used
has on the woman’s decision whether or not to report?

(Would you say: a great deal of influence, some influence. very little influence or no
influence at all?)

1. A GREAT DEAL OF INFLUENCE
2. SOME INFLUENCE

3. VERY LITTLE INFLUENCE

4. NO INFLUENCE AT ALL

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSED
=>

How much influence do you think the location of the assault has on the woman’s
decision whether or not to report? Would you say: a great deal of influence. some
influence. very little influence or no influence at all?

For example:
Probe: do you think if the assault takes place in a location that is familiar to the
victim that she is less likely to report it?

I. A GREAT DEAL OF INFLUENCE
2. SOME INFLUENCE

3. VERY LITTLE INFLUENCE

4. NO INFLUENCE AT ALL

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSED
=>

Is this different for stranger and acquaintance rapes?
=>

How much influence do you think the victim’s perceptions of the criminal justice
system has on her decision whether or not to report? For example. if she doesn’t think
the police will believe her. how likely is this to affect her decision whether or not to
report?

1. A GREAT DEAL OF INFLUENCE
2. SOME INFLUENCE

3. VERY LITTLE INFLUENCE

4. NO INFLUENCE AT ALL

8. DON'T KNOW
9. REFUSED

161

38. How much influence do you think support from family and friends has on a women's
decision whether or not to report?

1. A GREAT DEAL OF INFLUENCE
2. SOME INFLUENCE

3. VERY LITTLE INFLUENCE

4. NO INFLUENCE AT ALL

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSED
=>

39. Do you think victims who recieve immediate assault crisis counseling. by contacting
a center like this one within a week of the assault. are more likely to report an assault
to the police. less likely to report or neither more nor less likely to report. than victims
who do not receive counseling after an assault?

1. MORE LIKELY
2. LESS LIKELY
3. NEITHER MORE NOR LESS LIKELY

8. DON’T KNOW

9. REFUSED
=>

Finally, I would like to ask you a few questions about yourself.

40. What is your current position at this center?
=>
41. How long have you been employed in this position?

8. DON’T KNOW
9. REFUSED
=>
42. Altogether. how many clients do you usually personally meet with in an average
month?

8. DON'T KNOW
9. REFUSED
=>

162

That is all the questions I have for you. I would like to thank-you for your participation in
this study. I will send this center a copy of the results after the beginning of next year.
Thank-you again.

 

162

That is all the questions I have for you. I would like to thank-you for your participation in
this study. I will send this center a copy of the results after the beginning of next year.
Thank-you again.

Thesis Bibliography

Acock. Alan C.. and Nancy K. Ireland. 1983. "Attribution of Blame in Rape Cases: The Impact
of Norm Violation, Gender and Sex-Role Attitude." Sex Roles 9:179-193.

American Journal of Psychiatry. Sept. 1974. "Rape Trauma Syndrome." 131: 981-986.
Amir. Menachem. 1971. Patterns in Forcible Rape Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Anonymous. 1990. Unpublished Paper. University of Michigan.

Ashworth. Clark, D.. and Shirley Feldman-Summers. 1978. "Perceptions of the Effectiveness of
the Criminal Justice System." Criminal Justice and Behavior 5: 227-240.

Baron Educational Services. Inc.. 1988. Baron’s Profiles of American Colleges.

Baron. Strauss. 1989. Four Theories of Rape in American Society. New Haven:
Yale University Press.

Bart. Pauline. 1981. ”A Study of Women Both Who Were Raped and Who Avoided Rape."
Journal of Social Issues 37: 123-137.

Berger. Peter. and Luckman. Thomas. 1966. The Social Construction of Reality Garden City:
Doubleday Publishers.

Bessrner. Sue. 1984. The Laws of Rape New York: Praeger.

Best. Joel. 1989. Images of Issues: T‘ypifving Contemporary Social Problems New York:
Aldine De Gruyter. Inc.

Best, Joel. 1990. Threatened Children: Rhetoric and Concern About Child-Victims Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press.

Black. Donald. 1976. The Behavior of Law New York: Academic Press.

Blumer. Herbert. Winter 1971. "Social Problems as Collective Behavior." Social Problems
18.

Boston Women’s Health Book Collective. 1984. The New Our Bodies. Ourselves New York:
Simon and Schuster. Inc.

Boria. Mary Scott. ed. December 1989. "July 18. 1988. At A Sexual Assault and Battered
Women’s Center." Gender and Society 3: 533-540.

Brainerd. Polly Marie. 1982. "Difficulty Sexual Assault Victims Encounter Seeking Community
Services". Thesis. Michigan State University.

163

164

Bridges, Judith. and Christine A. McGrall. 1989. "Attribution of Responsibility for Date and
Stranger Rape." Sex Roles 21: 273-286.

Brownmiller. Susan. 1975. Against Our Will New York: Simon and Schuster.
Brush. Lisa. March 1990. "Violent Acts and Injurious Outcomes in Married Couples:
Methodological Issues in the National Survey of Families and Households." Gender and

Society 4: 56-67.

Bumiller. Kristen. May 1990. "Fallen Angels: The Representation of Violence Against Women
in Legal Culture". lntemational Journal of the Sociology of Law 18: 125-142.

Caringella-MacDonald. Susan. December 1983. "A Comparison of Sexual and Non-Sexual
Assault Prosecution" Ph.D. Dissertation. Western Michigan University.

Caringella-MacDonald. Susan. April 1985. "The Comparability in Sexual and Nonsexual Assault
Case Treatment: Did Statute Change Meet the Objective". Crime :1er Delinquency 31: 206-
222.

Dawson. Brettel. 1987-1988. "Sexual Assault Law and Past Sexual Conduct of the Primary
Witness: The Construction of Relevance." Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 2: 310-
334.

Deitz. Shelia R.. Madeleine Littman. and Barbara Bentley. 1984. "Attribution of
Responsiblity for Rape: The Influence of Observer Empathy. Victim Resistance. and Victim
Attractiveness." Sex Roles 10: 261-280.

Delamont. Sara. 1980. The Sociology of Women London: George Allen and Unwin. LTD.

Delorey. Anne Marie. 1989-1990. "Rape Trauma Syndrome: An Evidentiary Tool."
Canadian Journal of Women and the Law. 3: 602-614.

Deming. Mary Beard. and Ali Eppy. July 1981. "The Sociology of Rape". Sociology and
Social Research 65: 357-380.

Dukes Richard and Christine Mattley. 1982. "Predicting Rape Victim Reporting" Sociology
and Social Problems 62: 63-84.

Dworkin. Andrea. 1988. Letters From a War Zone New York; E.P. Dutton.

Dworkin. Andrea. 1976. Our Blood :Pmphecies and Discourses on Sexual Politics New York:
Harper and Row. Publishers.

Dworkin. Andrea. 1974. Woman Hating New York: E.P. Dutton.

Dworkin. Andrea. and Catherine MacKinnon. 1988. Pornography and Civil Rights: A New
Day for Women’s Equality New York: Skaggs Foundation.

165

Feldman-Summers. Shirley and Clarke Ashworth. 1981. "Factors Related to Intentions to
Report a Rape." Journal of Social Issues 37: 53-70.

Feldman-Summers. Shirley. and Jeanette Norris. 1984. "Differences Between Rape Victims
Who Report and Those Who Do Not Report to a Public Agency." oumal of Applied Social
Psychology 14: 562-573.

Fine, Michelle. December 1989. "The Politics of Research and Activism: Violence Against
Women." Gender and Society 3: 549-558.

Flynn. Lorna. May 1974. "Women and Rape". Medical Aspects of Human Sexualm 183-190.

Forrest. Linda Mac. 1979. "Rape Victim Characteristics and Crime Circumstances: Their
Relationship to the Victim’s Perception of the Treatment Received from Criminal Justice
Personnel." Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Washington.

Galvin. Jim. 1985. "Rape: A Decade of Reforrtt.” Crime and Delinquency 31: 163-167.

Galvin. Jim. and Kenneth Polk. November 1982. "Attrition in Case Processing: Is Rape
Unique?" Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of The American Society of Criminology.
Toronto. Canada.

Gardner. Carol Brooks. August 1987. "Safe Conduct: Women. Crime, and Self in Public Places.”
Social Problems 37: 311-328.

Gilmartin-Zena. Patricia. August 1983. "Immediate Reactions to Rape: A Symbolic Interactionist
Perspective.” Ph.D. Dissertation. Kent State University.

Gornick. Jane. Martha R. Burt. and Karen J. Pittman. April 1985. "Structure and Activities of
Rape Crisis Centers in the Early 19805." Crime and Delinquency 31: 217-268.

Griffen. Susan. 1978. "Rape: The All-American Crime." Feminism ytnd Philosophy
Littlefield: Adams and Co. VerHerling-Braggin. Ellistone English eds.

Griffin. Susan. 1979. Rape: The Power of Consciousness San Francisco: Harper and Row.

Hall. Eleanor. Judith Howard. and Sherrie Borzio. 1986. "Tolerance of Rape: A Sexist or
Anti-Social Attitude?" Psychology of Women Quarterly Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press 10.

Groves. Robert M.. Paul P. Biemer. Lars E. Lyberg, James T. Massey. William L. Nichols
11. Joseph Waksberg eds. 1988. Telephone Survey Methodology New York; John Wiley and

Sons.

Hamlin, John E.. June 1986. "Images of Rape: Rape Reporting in the New York Times.
1950-1980." Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Delaware.

166

Hanmer. Jalna and Mary Maynard. 1987. Womenerolence and Social Control Great Britian: The
MacMillan Press.

Harding. Sandra ed. 1987. Feminism and Methodology Bloomington: Indiana University
Press.

Hawkins. Richard. 0.. Spring 1973. "Who Called the Cops?: Decisions to Report Criminal
Victimization.” Law and Society Review 7: 427-444.

Hazelwood. Robert. R.. and Ann Wolbert Burgess. 1987. Practical Aspects of Rapg Investigation:
A Multi-Disciplinary Approach New York: Elseveier.

Herzog. Elizabeth ed. 1963. Research Interviewing in Sensitive Subject Areays New York:
National Association of Social Workers.

Hinch. Robert. Fall 1988. ”Enforcing the New Sexual Assault Laws: An Exploratory Study.”
Atlantic 14: 109-115.

Hindelang. Michael and Michael Gottfredson. 1976. "The Victim’s Decision Not to Invoke
the Criminal Justice System.” in Criminal Justice and the Victim by William McDonald ed..
Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.

Holmstrom. Lynda Lytle. and Ann Wolbert Burgess. 1978. The Victim of Rape:
Institutional Reactions New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Howe, Florence. Suzanne Howard. Mary Jo Boehm Strauss. 1982. Everywomen’s Guide to
Colleges and Universities New York: The Feminist Press.

Jacoby. Liva Hertz. 1983. ”lnfonnal Social Support in the Aftermath of Sexual Assault." Ph.D.
Dissertation. University of Pittsburgh.

Jacobson. Marsha and Paula Popovich. Fall 1983. ”Victim Attractiveness and Perceptions of
Responsibility in an Ambigous Rape Case." Psychology of Women Quartem 8: 100-104.

Jafee, D.. and MA. Strauss. April 1987. "Sexual Climate and Reported Rape.” Archives of
Sexual Behavior 16: 107-123.

Johnson. James D.. and Russ Inger. 1989. "Effects of Salience of Consciousness-Raising
Information on Perceptions of Acquaintance versus Stranger Rape." Journal of Applied Social
Psychology 19: 1182-1197.

Kilpatrick. Dean. G.. Patricia A. Resick. Lois J. Veronen. 1981. ”Effects of a Rape
Experience: A Longitudinal Study” Journal of Social Issues 37: 105-122.

King. Elizabeth. H.. and Carol Webb. 1981. "Rape Crisis Centers: Progress and Problems.”
Journal of Social Issues 37: 93-104.

167

Koss. Mary et. al.. April 1987. "Tlte Scope of Rape: Incidence and Prevalence of Sexual
Aggression and Victintzation in a National Sample of Higher Education Students." Journal of
Consulting and Clinical Psychology 55: 182.

Koss. Mary P. and Mary R. Harvey. 1991. 2nd ed.. The Rape Victim: Clinical and
Community Interventions Newbury Park: Sage Publications.

Kurz. Demie. December 1989. "Social Science Perspectives on Wife Abuse.” Gender and
Society 3: 489-505.

LaFree. Gary. April 1985. "Jurors Responses to Victims’ Behavior and Legal Issues in Sexual
Assault Trials." Social Problems 32: 389.

LaFree. Gary. 1989. Rape and Criminal Justice: The Social Construction of Sexugl_Assault
Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Co.

LeBeau. James. April 1988. ”Statute Revision and the Reporting of Rape.” Social Science
Research 72: 201-204.

Largen. Mary Ann. Autumn 1981. ”Grassroots Centers and National Task Forces: A Herstory of
the Anti-Rape Movement.” AEGIS 32.

Lee. Raymond. and Claire M. Renzett. May/June 1990. ”The Problems of Researching Sensitive
Topics.” American Behavioral Scientist 33: 510-528.

Lizotte. Alan. J. 1985. ”The Uniqueness of Rape: Reporting Assaultive Violence to the Police."
Crime and Deliquency 31: 169-190.

Loh. Wallace. D.. 1981. "Q: What has Reform of Rape Legislation Wrought? A: Truth in
Crintinal Labelling.” Journal of Social Issues 37: 28-52.

Lorber. Judith and Susan Farell. 1991. The Social Construction of Gender New York: Sage
Publications.

Lurigio. Arthur J.. Wesley G. Skogan. and Robert Davis. 1990. Victims of Crime:
ProblemsyPolicies and Programs Newbury Park: Sage Publications.

MacKinnon. Catherine. 1983. "Feminism. Marxism. Method. and the State: Toward Feminist
Jursiprudence.” Signs 8: 635-658.

Malamuth. Neil M.. and Edward Donnerstein. 1984. Pornography and Sexual Aggression
Orlando: Academic Press. Inc..

Martin. Patricia Yancey. and Robert A. Hummer. Decemeber 1989. "Fraternities and Rape
on Campus." Gender and Society 3: 457-473.

Mauss. Armand. L.. 1975. Social Problemsys SOCQI Movements New York: J.B.
Lippincott Co..

168

Mauss. Armand. L.. and Julie Camille Wolfe. 1977. This Land of Promises: The Rise and
_F_all of Social Problems in America Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co.

McCahill. Thomas ed.. 1979. The Aftermath of Rape Lexington: Lexington Books

McCormack, Mary. 1989. "The Social Construction of Child Sexual Abuse as a Social
Problem". Ph.D. Dissertation. Michigan State University.

McNickle Rose. Vicki. October 1977. "Rape as a Social Problem: A By Product of the Feminist
Movement.” Social Problems 25: 75-89.

Miller, Dale T.. and Carol A. Porter. 1983. ”Self-Blame in Victims of Violence.” Journal of
Social Issues 39: 139-152.

Muehlenhard. Charlene L.. and Melaney A. Linton. April 1987. ”Date Rape and Sexual
Aggression in Dating Situations: Incidence and Risk Factors.” Journal of Counseling
Psychology 34: 186-196.

Myers. Martha. and Gary LaFree. 1982. ”Sexual Assault and its Prosecution: A Comparison with
Other Crimes.” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 73: 1282-1305.

Norris. Jeannette. and Susan Feldman-Summers. 1981. ”Factors Related to the
Psychological Impacts of Rape on the Victim.” Journal of Abnormal Psychology 90: 562-567.

Orcutt. J.D.. and R. Faison. Winter 1988. ”Sex-Role Attitude and Reporting." Sociological
Quarterly 29: 589-604.

Peterson’s Guides. 1991. Peterson’s Register of Higher Educatitm. Princeton.

Price. James. and Sharon Desmond. 1987. ”The Missing Children Issue.” American Journal
of Diseases of Children 141: 11-15

Rafter. Nicole Hahn. and Elizabeth Stanko. 1982. Judge, ngyer, Victim, Thief. Northeastern
University Press.

Resick. Patricia A.. October 1987. ”Psychological Effects of Victimization: Implications for
the Criminal Justice System.” Crime and Delinquency 33: 468-478.

Reynolds. Janice. Winter 1974. ”Rape as Social Control." Catalyst 8: 62-67.

Riger, Stephanie. and Margaret Gordon. 1981. "The Fear of Rape: A Study in Social Control.”
Journal of Social Issues 37: 71-92.

Roberts. Albert. 1990. Helping Crime Victims: Research. Policy, And Practice. Newbury
Park: Sage Publications.

 

Roberts. Cathy. 1989. Women and Rape. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.

169
Roberts. Helen ed.. 1981. Doing Feminist Research. Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Rowbotham. Sheila. 1972. WomenJesistance and Revolution New York: Pantheon Books.
Rubenstein. Carin. July 1990. "Self -Blame Can Help.” Psychology Today 14: 111.

Rubington. Earl. and Martin S. Weinberg. 1971. The Studyytf Social Problems New York:
Oxford University Press.

Russell. Diana. 1984. Sexual Exploitation: Rapey Child Sexual Abuse; and Workplace
Harassment Beverly Hills: Sage Pub.

Russell. Diana. 1975. The Politics of Rape: The Victim’s Perspective New York: Stein and Day
Publishers.

Sanday. Peggy Reeves. 1981. "The Socio-Cultural Context of Rape: A Cross-Cultural Study.”
Journal of Social Issues 37: 5-27.

Scheyett. Anna. Winter 1988. "Marriage Is the Best Defense: Policy on Marital Rape.” Affilia
3: 8-23.

Jayne Schuiteman. 1992. MSU. Department of Human Relations. personal conversation.

Schwendinger. Julia R. and Herman Schwendinger. 1983. Rape and Inequality Beverly Hills: Sage
Publications.

Scully, Diana. 1990. Understanding Sexual Violence: A Study of Convicted Rapists Boston:
Unwin Hyman.

Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center. 1989. University of Michigan, Pamphlet.

Smart. Carol. 1989. Feminism and the Power of Law New York: Routledge.

Smith. Catherine Begnoche. Pltilip Marcus. and Polly Brainerd. 1984. ”Defining a Social Problem
and Its Solution: The Case of Services to Victims of Sexual Assault.” Victimology: An
International Journal 9: 234-246.

Smith. Cyril. 1974. ”History of Rape and Rape Laws." Women Lawyers Journal 60.

Snider. Laureen. 1985. "Legal Reform and Social Control: the Dangers of Abolishing Rape,"
International Journal of the Sociology of Law 13: 37-356.

Spector. Malcolm. and John 1. Kitsuse. ”Social Problems: A Re-Formulation” Social Problems
145-159.

I Steffensmeier. Darrell J.. April 1988. ”The Uniqueness of Rape? Disposition and
Sentencing Outcomes of Rape in Comparison to Other Major Felonies.” Social Science
Research 72: 192-195.

170

Steketee. Gail. and Anne H. Austin. June 1989. ”Rape Victims and the Justice System:
Utilization and Impact." Social Service Review 285-303.

Sudman. Seymour. 1976. Applied Sampling New York: Academic Press. Inc.

Svalastoga. Kaare. Spring 1962. ”Rape and Social Structure." Pacific Sociological Review
5.

Thornton. Bill. et. al. 1988. "Reaction to Self-Attributed Victim Responsibility: A
Comparative Analysis of Rape Crisis Counselors and Lay Observers." Journal of Applied
Social Psychology 18: 409-422.

Uebergang. Jane. August 1989. ”What Happens After Sexual Assault?" Healthn hrig ht 8: 26—27.

Universiy of Pennsylvania Law Review. December 1968. ”Police Discretion and the Judgment
That a Crime Has Been Committed - Rape in Pltiledelpltia.” 117.

Valentich. M.. and J. Gripton. September 1984. ”Perspectives on the Sexual Assault of
Women.” Social Service Review 58: 448-461.

Vandervoort, Lucinda. 1987. "Mistake of Law and Sexual Assault: Consent and Mens Rea”.
Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 2: 233-309.

Walker, Marcia J.. and Stanley Brodsky. 1976. Sexual Assault: The Victim and the Rapist
Lexington Massachusetts: Lexington Books.

Ward. Colleen. 1988. ”The Attitudes Toward Rape Victims Scale." Psychology of Womep
Quarterly 12: 127-146.

Warner. Barbara. Dawn. 1989. "The Impact of Social Structure on the Reporting of Crime:
A Study in the Mobilization of Law.” Ph.D. Dissertation. State University at Albany.

Warshaw. Carole. December 1989. ”Limitations of the Medical Model in the Care of Battered
Women.” Gender and Society 3: 506-517.

Wharton. Carol. 8.. 1982. Redefining Woman Battering: The Construction of 1 Social Problem
Ph.D. Dissertation. Michigan State University.

Webster. Linda 1989. National Directory of Victim/Survivor Services and Prevention
Programs Pheonix: Oryx Press.

Weiner. Richard. L.. and Nora Rinehart.1986.”Psychological Causality in the Attribution
of Responsibility for Rape. ” Sex Roles 14: 369- 382.

Weis. Kirt. and Sandra Borges. Fall 1973. ”Victimology and Rape: The Case of the Legitimate
Victim." Issues in Criminology 8.

171

Williams, Linda 8.. April 1984. "The Classic Rape: When Do Victims Report?" Socygl Problem
31.

Wilson. Paul. 1978. The Other Side of Rape St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press.

Windischman, Diane, 1991. Director of the Michigan State University Sexual Assault
Prevention and Education Program, personal interview.

Yassen. Janet. and Lois Glass. May-June 1984. "Sexual Assault Survivors Groups: A Feminist
Practice Perspective." Social Work 252-256.

"11111111111111.1111