A LITTLE MORE ON FIGHTING BACK

A quote from:
Rape: A Century of Resistance, Patricia D. Rozee and Mary P. Koss, Psychology of Women Quarterly, 25 (2001), 295-311,

“Because of the view of women’s chances against a rapist that these news reports instill, it is not uncommon for families, friends, or male partners to undermine women’s confidence in their ability to defend themselves.

Women who do not resist are more likely to be raped; more often blamed for the rape and are likely to suffer the associated deleterious physical and psychological aftereffects.

The evidence is consistent: resistance may prevent rape and resistance poses no increased risk of injury. For example, Sarah Ullman found that more forceful victim resistance (verbal and physical) was related to less severe sexual abuse even when partialling out level of situational danger and offender aggression. In addition, these researchers found the victim resistance was not related to the level of physical injury. When sequence of events is considered, it is found that women resist more when they are being hurt rather than the reverse.

Self-defense mastery has a strong empowerment effect on women including enhanced perceived control and coping, decreased perceived vulnerability to assault, reductions in negative thinking and anxiety about safety, decreased avoidance behavior, and most potent of all, increased freedom of action.

Consciousness of one’s own ability to resist leads women to feel stronger, more insightful, and more capable of responding effectively to future danger. On the one hand, there is the strong cultural message that rape resistance is both futile and dangerous, and women have been conditioned to believe it. On the other hand, women who do not resist are more likely to be raped, more often blamed for the rape, and are likely to suffer the associated deleterious physical and psychological aftereffects. In addition, if the victim-survivor wants to prosecute the man who raped her, she will encounter negative reactions from juries, because the absence of verbal or physical resistance in creased judgments of victim-survivor consent. The more the victim-survivor resisted, the more certain are the observers that a rape occurred. Although the law does not require resistance, juries still rely on it to decide conflicting claims about consent. Immediate physical or forceful verbal resistance is more likely to successfully prevent rape and, in the case of completed rape, convince the jury that the victim-survivor did all she could to avoid being raped. The evidence is consistent: resistance may prevent rape and resistance poses no increased risk of injury. Self-defense mastery has a strong empowerment effect on women including enhanced perceived control and coping, decreased perceived vulnerability to assault, reductions in negative thinking and anxiety about safety, decreased avoidance behavior, and most potent of all, increased freedom of action.”