Citation

Munge BA, Pomerantz AM, Pettibone JC, Falconer JW. J. Interpers. Violence 2007; 22(10): 1332-1339.

Affiliation

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0886260507304553

PMID

17766730

Abstract

To what extent does the length of the marriage or the wife's faithfulness to the husband influence the perception of responsibility or trauma in marital rape? In the current study, each participant was presented with one of four marital rape vignettes. The vignettes varied only in the length of the marriage (3 years or 15 years) and the fidelity status of the wife (continuously faithful or involved in an ongoing sexual affair with another man). Results indicate that both length of marriage and fidelity status significantly influence perceptions of marital rape. Specifically, participants assigned greater responsibility for the rape to unfaithful wives than to faithful wives. This finding is particularly salient for wives in long-term marriages as compared to wives in short-term marriages. Additionally, participants perceived rapes within long-term marriages as more traumatic than rapes within short-term marriages.

Language: en