Page 2982 - Week 13 - Thursday, 23 November 1989
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in the comparison by their partners than did the women in the comparison group ... 24% of the battered women reported that their partners had used physical force to obtain intercourse, whereas only 15%of this group said that they had been "raped". This apparent under-reporting of rape was not found in the comparison groups. There are a number of possible explanations for this finding.
It might be argued, for example, that the battered women in the present ,study may have endured a great deal of forced sex for the sake of preserving their relationships or marriages, and if these women had labelled forced sex as rape, the act would have been removed from the realm of social acceptance and the marriages or relationships might have been at risk. In addition, after she has experienced physical abuse over a long period, an individuals distinctions between sexual and non-sexual abuse may become blurred. The outcome of the abuse (e.g., sexual intercourse) may have appeared to the women to be unrelated to the force. On the otter hand, it may have been that, after being beaten, the women had no strength to resist and they may have regarded their lack of resistance :.c the unwanted sexual act as agreement to participate, despite their physical or psychological inability to resist. Perhaps forced sex was simply viewed as less serious in the womens lives than other life-threatening incidents. In contrast, the comparison group may have been more willing to identify the incidents of forced sex as cane, precisely because they ad not been preoccupied with life-threatening violence. °
Sommers and Check conclude as follows (at page 205):
"Although the results of the present study do no provide direct evidence of a casual link between the use of pornography and violence against women, certain observations can be made specifically about the data collected for this study. These observations are consistent with a link between pornography and violence against women and may ultimately add to the growing body of evidence showing that the use of pornography increases males aggressiveness toward women. Since other studies have suggested that certain forms of pornography contribute to aggressiveness against women, was assumed that a higher consumption of pornography among the partners of the battered women than among the partners of non-battered women would be reported. This assumption was in fact confirmed. Second, it was expected that a significant difference would be found between the two groups in the: response to Russells question, "Has you partner ever upset you by trying to get you to do what he'd seen in pornographic pictures, movies, or books?" As expected, a significant difference was found between the two groups in their response to this question. (39 of the battered women and 3% of the comparison group answered yes) And, finally, the results of this study provide the most direct evidence to date that battered women are frequently also the victims of sexual abuse by their partners."
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