Wives' subjective definitions of and attitudes towards wife rape

Abstract

This study was based on subjective attitudes towards wife rape of 85 women and detailed interviews with 20 of them. It aimed to measure the relation between traditionalism and use of the term wife rape, awareness of wife rape and of its criminalisation; and to understand women's experiences and subjective definitions of wife rape and their coping strategies. Once wife rape was problematised, definitions varied. Women holding more traditional attitudes (informal settlement women) were less likely to define the wife's experience in a vignette as wife rape than women holding less traditional (shelter women) and non-traditional attitudes (Network identified women). Additionally, women holding more non-traditional attitudes were more likely to define the event as wife rape than were other women. Similar intergroup differences in traditionalism on awareness of wife rape and its criminalisation emerged. The line between sexual violence and violent sexuality was a thin one at times.