Citation

Mantak FJ. J. Public Health Policy 1995; 16(1): 13-28.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1995, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group -- Palgrave-Macmillan)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

7738157

Abstract

This paper reviews literature on injury prevention and rape; defines the hazard involved in rape; and applies Haddon's model to present a more encompassing framework for rape prevention. For the purposes of this paper, rape is defined as forced sexual penetration of victim by an offender. This paper focuses on heterosexual rape, since the overwhelming majority of victims are female and perpetrators are male. Heterosexual rape is a serious problem; the National Crime Survey estimated that approximately 12 of every 100,000 women were victims of rape or attempted rape during its 1986 surveillance. The Law Enforcement Assistance Administration estimated that for every reported rape, 3-10 rapes are not reported. The most common form of rape is acquaintance rape, yet there is widely held conception that stranger rape is the only genuine form of rape. In spite of the magnitude of this problem, injury prevention strategies aimed at rape remain inadequate. Sociocultural beliefs that place blame on the victim and ignore the importance of male behavior fail to address the systematic causes of rape. A potential way to remove these cultural blinders lies in applying William Haddon's 10 general strategies for injury prevention to rape. These strategies are intended to encompass all injury reduction measures potentially available to reduce damage to animate and inanimate structures and symptoms from any and all environmental hazards.

Language: en