MANAGING RAPE: EXPLORATORY RESEARCH ON THE BEHAVIOR OF RAPE STATISTICS*

This article explores interpretations of the UCR-NCS disparity in rape rates within the context of recent debates and research about the UCR-NCS relationship. Analysis of a variety of survey, organizational, and employee data together with UCR and NCS crime data yields a pattern of findings that makes sense if two assumptions are made: Downward trends in NCS data are an approximation of trends in the real rate of rape, and upward trends in UCR data are primarily a product of changes in the management of rape cases. The common attribution of disparities between UCR and NCS rape data to changes in public or victim reporting receives little support when compared with explanations stressing organizational change. Upward movement in official attention to rape could, in fact, account for downward movement in NCS rape rates. The implications of recent NCS efforts to improve the official measurement of rape for the future behavior of rape statistics are also considered.     

DNA指纹技术在强奸案和亲子鉴定中的应用

在同一张膜上测定了18例无关个体血样,并计算出α-珠蛋白-3'HVR探针DNA指纹图的相关机率为4.0×10~(-12),平均每条谱带的相关机率为0.21。用此探针检验的14起强奸案和6起亲子鉴定案均获得肯定的结论。     

PROTECTION OF MALE SEXUAL RIGHTS IN THE CRIME OF RAPE

Crimes relevant to sexual offence in the current Criminal Law of the PRC, such as the crime of rape, the crime of forcible molestation and humiliation of women, the crime of indecency with a child, establish a relatively close net for protecting female sexual rights. However, the protection of male sexual rights is surprisingly neglected or disregarded. In current China, sexual offences against males （including sexual offence against a male by male and sexual offence against a male by female） are getting worse. Unfortunately, male victims of sexual offences cannot seek for legal remedy due to the lack of legal provisions. In theory, the Criminal Law needs to bring in the protection of male sexual rights. This thesis will focus on the issue relevant to sexual offences against males on the crime of rape. The authors will present increasing evidence of sexual offences against males and explore the reasons. We will analyze the necessity of amending the provisions of the crime of rape based on theoretical and practical research, and learn from the advantages of legislations of different times and places in China and other countries. We will conclude with suggestions for amending the current Criminal Law about the crime of rape in order to fill up the gap in legal protection of male sexual rights in China.     

CHANGES IN POLICE NOTIFICATION FOR RAPE, 1973–2000*

We use data from the National Crime Survey (NCS) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) to explore changes in the likelihood of police notification in rape incidents. The findings indicate that during the 1970s and 1980s there was a significant increase in police notification by third parties and by victims raped by non‐strangers. During the 1990s the increase in rates of police notification in rape incidents accelerated and broadened in scope. In addition, differences in police notification between stranger and non‐stranger incidents diminished during the 1970s and 1980s and, by the early 1990s there was no significant difference.     

SERVICE UTILIZATION AND SATISFACTION WITH SERVICE PROVIDERS IN VICTIMS OF RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT

The aim of the present study was to investigate service utilization and satisfaction with service delivery among victims of rape and sexual assault. The victims completed a questionnaire comprising questions about whether they felt they received the appropriate help following an assault and whether they were met with positive staff attitudes within the public treatment system. The victims completed the questionnaire at three different time points： one month, three months and six months following an assault. Results showed that a high number of victims were satisfied with the support and treatment they received from psychologist and other part of the public help system. However, a high number of victims also reported receiving insufficient help from the social service and the police. Results are discussed in terms of consequences for victim recovery and the importance of receiving feedback from the victims in order to improve public service provision for victims of rape and sexual assault.     

THE DEMOGRAPHIC AND SPATIAL PATTERNS OF RECORDED RAPE IN A LARGE UK METROPOLITAN AREA

The present study details a social contextual analysis of 172 rapes and attempted rapes that occurred in a large metropolitan area in the UK. The main focus of the present study concerns the demographic characteristics of rape victims and offenders, including their age and ethnicity, vis-à-vis their relationship. The study also considers the geographic distribution of offences and their relationship to ethnicity and socio-economic status. Our data clearly indicate that the age of offenders is significantly associated with the nature of the victim–offender relationship, and that rape tends to be intra-racial. The data also provide unique comparisons to be made with contextual data on rapes in rural settings. The implications of these findings for the prevention and deterrence of rape, the recording of rape by the police, and the impact of such findings on public education are considered.     

SEX RATIOS AND RAPE RATES: A POWERCONTROL THEORY*

Guttentag and Secord (1983) hypothesize that sex ratios (the number of men per 100 women) affect the roles of both men and women. They suggest that although high sex ratios decrease men 3 dyadic power, when sex ratios are high men use their structural power to control women. Their theory can be combined with the routine activities approach of Cohen and Felson (1979) or with a version of the power-threat/power-competition hypothesis of Blalock (1967) to develop a power-control theory dealing with the relationship between sex ratios and rape rates: i.e., when sex ratios are high, rape rates should be relatively low. Analyses of data from the United States for the years 1962, 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982, and 1987 support this hypothesis.     

THE CRIMINOLOGY OF GENOCIDE: THE DEATH AND RAPE OF DARFUR

Nearly 400,000 Africans may have been killed in racially motivated, lethally destructive, state supported, and militarily unjustified attacks on the farms and villages of the Darfur region of Sudan. Using victimization survey data collected from Darfurian survivors living in refugee camps in Chad, and drawing on conflict theory, we present evidence that the Sudanese government has directly supported violent killings and rapes in a lethally destructive exercise of power and control. In the language of the Geneva Genocide Convention, these attacks have inflicted on African tribal groups "conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction in whole or in part." The data include explicit evidence of the central mediating role played by racism in the attacks. There is little or no evidence from the surveys to support the claim of the Sudanese government that the attacks have been aimed at rebel groups as a counter-insurgency strategy. The Sudanese government claims are by this analysis not credible as self-defense arguments, but rather of the exercise of power and control through denial. Further forms of such denial are considered, including the slowness of modern American criminology to advance the study of genocide.     

THE INFLUENCE OF BLAME AND BELIEVABILITY FACTORS ON THE PROCESSING OF SIMPLE VERSUS AGGRAVATED RAPE CASES*

In this study we test two hypotheses concerning the processing of simple and aggravated rape cases. First, we test the hypothesis that aggravated rape cases are taken more seriously than simple rape cases by decision makers in the criminal justice system and, thus, aggravated cases will result in more serious outcomes. Second, we test the hypothesis that the influence of factors relating to the blame and believability of a victim on case processing is greater in simple than in aggravated rape cases. Our results indicate that the characteristics and outcomes of aggravated and simple rape cases are surprisingly similar, and that there is little evidence of an interaction between type of case and victim characteristics.     

WHEN A WOMAN NEEDS TO BE SEEN, HEARD AND WRITTEN AS A WOMAN: RAPE, LAW AND AN ARGUMENT AGAINST GENDER NEUTRAL LANGUAGE*

While moves towards gender neutral language may seem to be desirable for reducing sexism and discrimination, this paper argues that at least in the case of rape␣such gender neutrality is not appropriate. A recent Australian appeal is examined to show that despite significant ‘verbal hygiene’, [D. Cameron, Verbal Hygiene (London: Routledge, 1995)] traces of discrimination against women are still linguistically discernable. This suggests that simply changing language will not change attitudes. Rather, for women to be treated well in rape cases, their voices and experiences need to be represented appropriately. I would like to thank Dr. Clare McManus for the title inspiration.     

“THE LAW'S THE LAW,BUT FAIR IS FAIR:” RAPE SHIELD LAWS AND OFFICIALS' ASSESSMENTS OF SEXUAL HISTORY EVIDENCE*

Recently enacted rape shield laws, which restrict the introduction of evidence of the complainant's prior sexual conduct, have engendered considerable controversy. This paper examines the responses of judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys in six major urban jurisdictions to a set of hypothetical cases in which evidence of the victim's past sexual conduct is at issue. The different kinds of sexual history evidence evoke different responses from officials, and the specific provisions of the six rape shield statutes also affect officials' judgments.     

ALIENATION IN PRISON ORGANIZATIONS:

The deprivation modelsuggests that prisonization and inmate opposition the prison organization are a function of the deprivations imposed by organization. Compliance theory maintains that alienationof the organiza tionf participants covaries with the coerciveness of the organization. Data obtained from inmates and officers in six adult correctional institutions are examined to test the hypothesis that inmate alienation is a result of the coer civeness of the institution and a cause of inmate opposition to the institu tion. The findings lend support to the hypothesized model and, further more, suggest the need to distinguish between absolute and relative deprivation.