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Abstract
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This study examined differences between gang and individual offender rape incidents reported to the Chicago police. Analyses showed that victims and offenders in gang rape incidents were younger, more likely to be unemployed, but not different in marital status or race than victims and offenders in individual rapes (e.g., single offender, single victim crimes). Gang rapes were characterized by more alcohol and drug involvement, fewer weapons, more night attacks, less victim resistance, and more severe sexual assault outcomes compared with individual rapes. Regression analyses revealed distinct correlates of physical injury outcomes for gang and individual rape incidents. Implications for treatment and prevention of these types of assaults are discussed.
VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this article by Ullman was to explore differences between gang and individual rape incidents.
METHODOLOGY:
Two samples of Chicago-area reported rapes were use for the study. One sample contained 1,530 rape and attempted rape occurrences. The other sample was random and contained 550 complaint incidents. The difference between the two samples is that the former sample was derived from cases that had been either charged or cleared, and the other sample contains "complaints," some of which were later discovered as unfounded. A 171-item questionnaire was used to explore characteristics of the attacks, offender and victim behavior during the attack, sexual abuse levels, and physical abuse levels. Offenses were included that contained both one victim and one perpetrator, or one victim and multiple perpetrators. Demographic data (race, age, marital status, and employment status) were also collected. Data on the victim-offender relationship, weapon, time of day, assault location, degree of physical violence, threats, forceful and non forceful physical resistance, verbal resistance, rape outcome, and sexual acts were collected. Logistic regression was employed.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
Demographic data revealed that a majority of both individual and gang rape victims were unmarried, employed and were a member of an ethnic minority; most were African American. Most offenders were also members of an ethnic minority. One-third of offenders were unmarried and unemployed. Victims were on average 25 years of age, as wee offenders. In what the author the author mysteriously termed the "founded" sample, over two-thirds of the rapes were individual, and one-third of rape complaints were gang rapes. Two-thirds of attacks in both samples were committed by perpetrators who were strangers to the victims. Weapons were used in one-half of the cases and the event occurred at night and indoors. Most of the attacks (90%) resulted in a completed rape and about one-fourth of all victims endured other forced sexual acts. Most offenders used physical violence in the founded sample; however, this number was less in the unfounded sample. Less than 6% of women used forceful physical resistance in both samples. About two-thirds of all victims used non forceful verbal resistance, such as pleading, crying, or reasoning. In the complaint sample, one-third of the victims reported using alcohol, however this number was significantly less in the founded sample. Offender data revealed less than 10% of all cases showed alcohol or drug use by the offender.
In both samples, statistical analyses revealed marital status and race of offenders and victims did not differ significantly between the two types of rape. In the founded sample, gang-rape perpetrators and victims were less likely to be employed and were younger than those involved in individual rape. In both the founded and complaint samples, victims and offenders were younger in the gang-rape incidents than in the individual rape incidents. In the founded sample there were no significant differences between individual and gang rape incidents by the following characteristics: physical violence or verbal threat, victim-offender relationships, presence of weapon, attack location, and physical injury to the victim. This was also the case in the complaint sample; however, gang rapes occurred more often outdoors and without weapons than individual rapes. In both samples the gang rapes had the following characteristics: more completed rapes, less forceful physical resistance by victims, more sexual attacks, and more night attacks. In both samples of individual rapes, forceful fighting was associated with less likelihood of completed rape. In the founded sample, older victims had greater odds of being the victim of a completed rape. In both samples, individual rapes were more likely to result in physical injury to the victim when the victim fought back and did not show verbal resistance. The level of offender violence did not differ in either sample for either category of rape. The fact that there are more completed rapes in gang rape incidents is understood by the author as reflecting the fact that it is simply harder to avoid a completed rape in a gang rape situation. That there were more variable sexual acts in gang rape situations reflects, according to the author, the theory that the purpose of gang rape is to humiliate the victim and "demonstrate male dominance." Caucasian victims found that the presence of, say, a weapon, may be less related to injury sustained by the victim than where the incident was a gang or individual rape. This may be because gang rapes may last longer and involve more destructive sexual acts. The author also reported that there is little evidence supporting the idea that the majority of rape results in "serious" injury or death. Due to fear, according to the author, victims are found to resist less in gang rape incidents than in individual rape incidents.
(CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
Violence Against Women
Female Victim
Adult Female
Rape Victim
Rape Offender
Adult Male
Adult Offender
Adult Violence
Stranger Violence
Male Offender
Male Violence
Illinois
Offense Characteristics
Gang Rape
Sexual Assault Victim
Sexual Assault Offender
Language: en |