Rape: the myths hide a grim toll

Press, 20 April 1982, Page 21

Rape: the myths hide a grim toll

Gory stories about rape cases regularly capture newspaper headlines. But shocking though they are, such cases reveal only a small part of the rape toil. It is estimated that as many as one in 10 rapes are not reported.

In New Zealand last year, there were 316 reported rapes. More than 2800 may have gone unreported. The number of very violent rapists is comparatively small. Far more commonly, a woman is forced to have sexual intercourse against her will because she is threatened with violence or terrorised into passivity. These are the cases which often do not come to the attention of the police. Along with wife-bashing, rape is probably the most under-reported crime in New Zealand. It is a hidden crime, surrounded by myths. Most of the myths stem from the mistaken belief that women invite rape and secretly want it.

If a rape victim has not suffered other injuries to show she resisted the attack, she is likely to lace the attitude that she is pleading rape as an excuse.

Research on the subject is still sparse, but enough is known to upset these myths. One of the most damaging myths is that “nice girls” do not get raped. The attitude that a rape victim must have led on her attacker or dressed provocatively ■is common. A third of people questioned in a British survey beloved rape victims were at least partly to blame.

Newspaper reports, however, show that any woman can become a rape victim, regardless of age, race, or class. Already in New Zealand this year, rape victims have included an 11-year-old girl, a nun, and a 77-year-old single woman, who was murdered.

Parents warn their daughters against talking to strange men or accepting lifts froiji strangers, but they are more likely to be raped by someone they know. About 70 per cent of victims know their attackers. At

least a quarter are raped in their own homes. Rapists are not usually men who are suddenly overcome by an uncontrollable lust. A National Organisation of Women study in New Zealand in 1977 found that 70 per cent of rapes were planned and another 10 per cent partly planned. Only 20 per cent were spontaneous. Neither are rapists madmen. In fact, most men who rape are “normal" British psychiatrists have found that the number of rapists who are mentally ill is no higher than the national average. Most police and rape counsellors now agree that rape is not a sex crime, but a crime of violence. It is seen as a physical assault — an aggressive act which uses sex as the final humiliation.

“Rape is not a sexual thing, but a physical assault of a very vicious nature,” says Heather Brown, from the Christchurch Rape Crisis Group. This view is supported by the theory that men use rape as a way of putting women “back in their places.” Supporters of this idea argue that the incidence of rape in Britain increased ■ just after the Second World War and again in the early 19705; Both surges followed periods when women were getting “uppity” — large numbers of women had joined the workforce during the war and controlled . their lives mr the first time, while the early 1970 s marked the start of the women’s liberation movement.

Many women see rape as the product of a society which stereot'- -.3 men as assertive, strong, and unemotional, while women are weak and passive. Men who are not taught to communicate their feelings and frustrations bottle them up until they vent them on the nearest weak object — often a woman.

Feminists place particular blame on advertising and the news media for portraying women as pow'erless sexual objects. “Rape is part of our culture. It. is the way men relate to women sexually.

We see women’s bodies plastered all 'over as bodies for sale. Women are not people. They are objects. People have the right to say no to sex and not be coerced. Objects do not," Ann Mowbray, a Wellington rape counsellor, was quoted in a recent “Listener” report.' A quick look at a few billboard advertisements around Christchurch confirms her comments.

They are also supported by the findings of psychiatrists who work with rapists. In the words of one, the man most likely to rape is “not very intelligent, unsophisticated, gauche, and socially inexperienced.” “There are some very complex, unspoken messages — body language — involved in sexual encounters and a man who is inexperienced will not be able to interpret them. He might think that when a woman says ‘no’ she does not mean it ... He probably believes the way to show he is a real man is to be violent,” the psychiatrist said in a British report. The Rape Crisis Group in Christchurch tries to counter this by running a programme for schools. “Most of the Western world is fairly backward in talking about sexual matters. In schools, they teach the biological things, but nobody talks about the feeling side of it,”.says Heather Brown.

■ “At . schools we have trouble getting to the boys. They want us to talk to the girls and tell them how not to be raped. But it is not the girls' problem — it is everyone’s problem.” There has been a fairly steady increase.in the number of reported rapes in New Zealand over recent years. In 1975, 258 cases of rape and attempted rape were reported to the police. Last year 316 rapes and 80 attempted rapes were reported, a total of 396. Between 1980 and 1981, the number of reported rapes increased by 28.4 per cent. Most of the increase occurred at the end of the year. With 31 rapes reported in Christchurch in the first 12 weeks of this year, that trend appears to have continued.

The police expect an increase in the number of rapes reported during summer.

"Spring and summer are always busy times for rapes, perverts, and assaults. Warm weather brings them out,” says Detective-Sergeant Jim Dwight, of Christchurch. Nevertheless,. the police were surprised at the size of last year’s increase. The police statistician, Mr Grant Pittmans,' says it was “way beyond expectations and we have no reason for it.”

Rape counsellors believe that the number of rapes is on the increase. They say it is unlikely that many more victims lay complaints with the police now than in the past. The main reason women fail to report rape is the myths which make them feel they are to blame. After being raped, they feel ashamed and humiliated, in no condition to withstand police questioning and medical examinations.

Many women claim that the police and the. court process make them feel as though they are on trial. It will be even more embarrassing if the attacker is a family member or friend. There may. also be family pressure to keep quiet.

Linda Mitchell, another member of the Rape Crisis Group, believes the police could be more sympathetic to rape victims.

“The women who do not report rapes just do not want to go to the police. It is because they recognise they will have a hard time. Some women feel they do not have any evidence to offer. They also have the underlying feeling that they may somehow have provoked the attack,” she says. It seems that the first reaction of a rape victim is to go home, clean up, and try to forget it ever happened. Of the 30 or 40 calls to the Rape Crisis Group each year, very few come from women, who have just been raped, “Quite often we are rung by women who were raped a couple of weeks ago and didn’t do anything about it. It is very frustrating,” says Heather Brown.