The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
o-6 P928 87/7/1
Texas Preventable Disease Vol. 47, No. 30
August 1, 1987
contents:
Impact of Marital Rape on the Victim
Danger Signals of a Marital Rapist
Frank Bryant, Jr, MD, FAAFP Robert Bernstein, MD, FACP Monthly Statistical Summary
Chairman Commissioner
Texas Board of Health
Bureau of Epidemiology, 1100 West 49th Street, Austin, Texas 78756-3180 (512-458-7207)
IMPACT OF MARITAL RAPE ON THE VICTIM
During initial intake interviews completed at rape crisis shelters across Texas in 1985, 1,905
women who were battered by their husbands or partners reported that they also were sexually
assaulted. Among these women, 1,715 were forced to have sex with their batterer, 114 were
forced to engage in sexual activities with another person, 152 were sexually abused with objects,
and 191 were sexually abused by other means.1
Women who report being sexually assaulted by their husbands face the same physical and
psychological traumas encountered by victims of stranger assaults. The forced sexual contact
has denied the woman the most basic right of control over her own body. Victims of marital
rape report being forced to have sex with their husbands after being physically battered or in
order to avoid a threatened beating. Many women are sexually assaulted during periods when
their doctor has prohibited sexual intercourse, such as after giving birth or after surgery.
Others are forced to engage in sodomy or bestiality.
The victim of marital rape feels the same fears that victims of stranger rape do, the difference
being that the fear does not diminish over time. Spousal rape is not a one-time assault. Once a
husband forces sex on his wife, he tends to repeat that type of assault throughout the course of
the marriage. Sexual assault becomes part of the battering cycle. The marital ties themselves
make it difficult for many women to stop the assaults. The wife may feel she has no right to
refuse her husband, no matter how brutal or bizarre his demands become. She may have young
children and no feasible way of supporting them if she leaves her husband. She may know
from past experience that he will resist any attempt on her part to get away, tracking her down
until he finds her and beating and sexually assaulting her more viciously than before.
The sense of betrayal, humiliation, and guilt is often intensified in the victim of marital rape.
The loss of love and trust she expected in her marriage is difficult to face. She is humiliated
by the actions forced on her, especially when sodomy or bestiality plays a part in the sexual
assault by her husband. She feels guilty that she cannot forgive him for violating her, or guilty
that she still loves him after what he has done to her.
Escaping a sexually and physically violent marriage is very difficult for many women. Lack of
financial independence, social and family expectations that she keep her marriage together, and
fears of her children's future often force her to stay in that relationship. Living with fear
lowers her ability to reach out for help; it deters her from taking initiative or independent
action to stop the violence; it reduces her self-esteem and her sense of self-worth.
When she does try to break away, a woman with children must face the continuing contact with
her ex-husband that comes from shared custody or visitations. Many women report that the fear
of sexual assault continues even after the marriage is dissolved. Every time he comes to pick up
- - the children for the weekend, or when he joins the celebration of some milestone in the
children's lives, the threat is still there. That threat is reinforced by the fact that throughout
the marriage there was no recourse to criminal prosecution. The civil legal option she did
exercise does not protect her from his continuing presence in her life, and thus does not end
the continuing fear.
Texas Department of Health