REVISIONS/REPORTS

Investigatingthe Causes and

Consequences of Marital Rape

Irene Hanson Frieze

Introduction
Marital rape is a concept that many finddifficultto comprehend. Until
the Oregon trialof John Rideout, who was accused of rape by his wife
Greta,therewas littlediscussionof maritalrape by the general public or
by researchersand counselors skilledin dealing withothertypesof rape
cases. However, the extensivemedia coverage giventhe Rideout case has
raised a number of questions about this subject. For example, what ac-
tionsshould be definedas rape when the acts involvehusband and wife?
When women are forcedto have sexual relationswiththeirhusbands,do
theyaccept this as part of their maritalduties or does the use of force
have long-termnegativeconsequences forthe marriage?And finally,in
whattypesof marriagesdoes forcedsex or maritalrape occur?This paper
attemptsto answer some of these questions based upon interviewdata
gathered fromnearly300 women.

Portionsof thispaper were presentedat the National Research Conferenceon Family

Violence in Durham, New Hampshire, fromJuly21 to 24, 1981. Funds for this research
were provided by the National Instituteof Mental Health (grant no. MH 30193 fromthe
Rape Center). I would like to thankDavid Finkelhorforcommentson an earlierversionof
thismanuscriptand Jamie Knoble, Barbara Shipley,Carol Washburn,and GretchenZom-
nir for assistance in interviewingand data collection.Of related interestis the National
Clearinghouse on Marital Rape, a libraryand membershipnetwork.For furtherinforma-
tion, see the United States Notes sectionin thisissue.

Journalof Womenin Cultureand Society1983, vol. 8, no. 3]

[Signm:
1983 bv TIhe Universits of Chicgo. All rightsreserved.0097-9740/83/0803-0007$01.00

532
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Signs Spring1983 533

WhatIs MaritalRape?

Legal definitionsof rape vary from state to state as do the def-

initionsused by researchers.' Definitionsgenerallyinvolve three sepa-
rate factors:vaginal penetration,sexual intercourse,or "carnal knowl-
edge"; force or threat of force; and nonconsent of the victim.These
broad guidelines allow for a varietyof specificinterpretations.In some
areas of the country,ejaculation throughsexual intercoursemustoccur
for a crime to be considered rape. At the other extreme, some police
departmentsand feministwriterssuch as Susan Brownmillerdefinerape
as any sexual intimacyforcedon one person by another.2"Rapes" often
do involve anal or oral intercourse,and many states and most re-
searchersnow include any forced genitalpenetration(includinganal or
oral penetration)as evidence of rape.3
The definitionof marital"rape" is complicated furtherby the fact
that forced sex may not be considered a crime in marriage. Laws in
twenty-nine statesspecificallystate thata man cannot be prosecuted for
raping his wife.4For example, Pennsylvania'slegal definitionof rape
states:"A person commitsa felonyof the firstdegree when he engages in
sexual intercoursewith another person not his spouse: (1) by forcible
compulsion; (2) by threat of forciblecompulsion that would prevent
resistanceby a person of reasonable resolution;(3) who is unconscious;
or (4) who is so mentallyderanged or deficientthatsuch person is inca-
pable of consent."
Legal definitionsaside, maritalrape willbe defined in thispaper as
forcedsexual activitydemanded of a wifeby her husband. This maywell
include cases in which the parties involved do not define this type of
sexual situationas rape. Among the issues addressed willbe how women
define various types of forced sex with their husbands and whethera
woman's definitionaffectsher reactions.

Is MaritalRape a Problem?
The specificexclusion of maritalrape fromthe valid categories of
illegal acts in many rape laws implies that maritalrape does occur with
sufficientfrequency for the legal systemto be concerned. However,
there is littledirectevidence about the extentof thisproblem. In one of
the few survey studies of marital rape, Julie Doron reported that 7

1. Sedelle Katz and Mary Ann Mazur, Understanding theRape Victim:A Synthesis
oj
ResearchFindings(New York: John Wiley& Sons, 1979).
2. Susan Brownmiller,AgainstOur Will: Men, Women,and Rape (New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1975).
3. Katz and Mazur.
4. "The Marital Rape Exemption," New YorkUniversityLaw Review52 (May 1977):
306-23.

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534 Frieze MaritalRape

percentof the respondentsto a newspaper surveyreported experienc-

ing maritalrape, while fewer than 1 percent of the respondentswere
general rape victims.5Diana Russell reportsthat 12 percentof the mar-
ried women in a random sample of San Francisco women had experi-
enced some formof forcedsex in marriage.6Clearly,the formulationof
questions asked affectsthe resultantdata.
Most of the other available evidence for the existence of marital
rape tendsto come fromtwo sources: researchon rape in whichsome of
the victimsturnout to have been raped by theirhusbands, and research
on wifebatteringin which batteredwomen also report sexual abuse by
theirhusbands.
Studies of rape victimstypicallyfind that few of the rape cases
involvemaritalrape.7 Similarly,in a studyof women at a familyplanning
center, David Finkelhor and Kersti Yllo found that .5 percent of the
married women had been forced to have sexual relations with their
husbands or some otherregularsexual partner,and nearly10 percentof
the separated and divorced women reported such experiences.8 How-
ever, these data suggest that, even though rare, these rapes were
traumaticfor the marriages.
Finkelhor and Yllo present eight case studies, four of which in-
volved maritalrape and two rape by men withwhom the women were
living.In all cases, the rape was associated withother typesof physical
violence in the relationship.However, two of the six were not extremely
violentrelationships,and the primarysource of conflictappeared to be
sexual. In the others,the women experienced severe violence of several
types.
One of the mostdetailed discussionsof maritalrape in thegenerallit-
eratureon rape is thatof Russell,who includes an entirechapterentitled
"Fathers,Husbands, and Other Rapists"in her book ThePoliticsofRape.9
In it she presentsa detailed case studyof a woman who was raped as a
child, molested by her stepfather,and then raped by her husband on
numerous occasions. In another chapter, she describes a situation in
which a woman was raped by a strangerand hospitalizedwithinjuries.
5. Julie B. Doron, "Conflictand Violence in IntimateRelationships:Focus on Marital
Rape" (paper presented at the annual meetingof the American Sociological Association,
New York, August 1980).
6. Diana E. H. Russell,"The Prevalenceand Impact of MaritalRape in San Francisco"
(paper presented at the annual meetingof the American Sociological Association,New
York, August 1980). For more detail,see Diana E. H. Russell,Rape in Marriage(New York:
Macmillan PublishingCo., 1982).
7. See reports by Richard Gelles, "Power, Sex, and Violence: The Case of Marital
Rape," FamilyCoordinator 26, no. 4 (October 1977): 339-47; and by Pauline Bart, "Rape
Doesn't End witha Kiss," Viva (June 1975), pp. 39-42, 100-102.
8. David Finkelhorand KerstiYllo, "Forced Sex in Marriage: Reporton the Pre-Test"
(Durham, New Hampshire: Universityof New Hampshire, Department of Sociology,
1980).
9. Diana F. H. Russell,The PoliticsofRape: The Victim's
Perspective (New York: Stein &
Day, 1975).

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Signs Spring1983 535

When she returnedhome, her husband raped her, sayingthatifshe had

wanted sex, she should have come to him. Russell's suggestion is that
maritalrape may be precipitatedby a wife's past historyof other rape
experiences.
Similarly,the general rape literatureassociates marital rape with
other forms of marital violence; it is not surprisingthat research on
battered women has given us some data on marital rape as well. For
example, Richard Gelles describesfourcases (identifiedthrougha larger
studyof familyviolence) in whichwomen were raped bytheirhusbands.
The women involved reported that their husbands accused them of
being "frigid"and not affectionateenough.10In Men WhoRape, Nicholas
Groth outlines a similarcase study."
Other researchersstudyingbatteredwomen have also found cases
of marital rape. Elaine Hilberman and Kit Munson report that sexual
assaults were a common part of marital violence, and many of the
women in theirstudydescribedbeing beaten and raped in frontof their
children.l2 Del Martin, Mildred Pagelow, and Suzanne Prescott and
Carolyn Letko also describe batteredwomen being raped by theirhus-
bands.13 Lenore Walker includes an entire chapter on sexual abuse in
her book The BatteredWoman.14 In it, she outlines brief studies of a
number of battered women, but most of the sexual abuse described
involvesexcessivesexualjealousy on the partof batteringhusbands. The
cases of maritalrape appear to stemprimarilyfromthisjealousy or from
a heighteningof the husband's interestin violent sex. Groth also de-
scribes a number of "sadistic" marriages in which violent sex occurs,
presumably,in his terms,withthe wife'sconsent.15
Although it provides only indirectevidence, this research suggests
thatmaritalrape is mostlikelyto occur in a relationshipwhichis violent
in other ways as well.'6 Still at issue, though, is the question of how

10. Gelles.
of the Offender(New York:
11. A. Nicholas Groth, Men Who Rape: The Psychology
Plenum Press, 1979).
12. ElaineHilbermanand KitMunson,"SixtyBatteredWomen,"Victimology 2,no. 3/4
(1978): 460-71.
13. Del Martin,Battered
Wives(San Francisco:Glide Pubs., 1976); MildredDaley
Pagelow,"SecondaryBattering:Breakingthe Cycleof DomesticViolence"(paper pre-
sented at the annual meetingof SociologistsforWomen in Societyat the annual meetingof
the AmericanSociological Association,San Francisco,September 1977); Pagelow, "Double
Victimizationof Battered Women: Victimizedby Spouses and the Legal System"(paper
presented at the annual meetingof the American Societyof Criminology,San Francisco,
November 1980); Suzanne Prescott and Carolyn Letko, "Battered Women: A Social
PsychologicalPerspective,"in BatteredWives:A Psychosociological
StudyofDomesticViolence,
ed. Maria Roy (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1977).
14. Lenore E. Walker, The BatteredWoman(New York: Harper & Row Publishers,
1979).
15. Groth. Diana Russell argues that many of these supposedly consensual sado-
masochisticrelationshipsare actuallyexamples of rape (Rape in Marriage[n. 6 above]).
16. Pagelow, "Double Victimizationof Battered Women."

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536 Frieze MaritalRape

commonlyrape occurs in batteringrelationships.Even in violentmar-

riages, there is reason to believe that marital rape is typicallynot re-
ported. As Gelles and Grothpointout, women maynot defineforcedsex
in marriageas a problem,and therefore,theymay not reportit to rape
centers or to interviewersunless asked the proper questions.'7 Both
Gelles and Grothpostulatethat,in actuality,maritalrape occurs at a far
higher frequencythan nonmaritalrape. In order to studythisquestion
more fully,we need to definerape clearlyand thenask women questions
about the activitiesdefined as rape-without using the "rape" label.
Hypothetically,there are several reasons to suspect a relationship
betweengeneral maritalviolenceand maritalrape. Some men appear to
be sexuallyaroused by violentactions,and sexual relationsoftenfollow
violentincidents.18However, as M. Faulk pointsout, sex may be used as
a form of reconciliationin these cases. Wolfgang Lederer believes, on
the other hand, thatwifebatterersneed to subjugate women in order to
feel sexually potent.19It is true that both physical violence and rape
involve,though in an extreme form,traitsof aggression, dominance,
and physical strengthwhich our culture tends to value generally for
men.20

WhyDoes MaritalRape Occur?

As we have already seen, a number of factorshave been suggested
either implicitlyor explicitlyby various researchersas causal factorsin
maritalrape. Table 1 presentsan analysisof these causal explanations
and otherswe have heard, classifyingthem in two ways. First,there are
those related to the question of who is perceivedas being responsiblefor
the rape: is it the wifeor the husband or the nature of theirrelationship
as a couple? Presumably,women who see themselvesas responsiblewill
be less motivatedthan othersto get protectionfromrape although they
may themselvesseek therapy.21Second, some of the explanations point
to temporarystates or situationsthat mightbe expected to disappear
over time, while others indicate more enduring or stable factors.At-
tributionsto stable factorsimplythat the rapes will continue,while un-
stable attributionsmay mean that the tendencyto rape is shortlived.22
Many of these causal explanations for maritalrape tend to blame
17. Gelles (n. 7 above); Groth.
18. M. Faulk, "Sexual Factorsin MaritalViolence,"MedicalAspectsofHuman Sexuality
11 (October 1977): 30-38; Martin.
19. Wolfgang Lederer, The Fear of Women(New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
1968).
20. Russell, "Marital Rape in San Francisco" (n. 6 above); Martin.
21. Irene H. Frieze, "Perceptions of Battered Women," in New Approachesto Social
Problems:Applications ofAttribution ed. Irene H. Frieze, Daniel Bar-Tal, and John S.
Theory,
Carroll (San Francisco:Jossey-LassPubs., 1979), pp. 79-108.
22. Ibid.

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 Table 1

HypotheticalCausal Explanations for Marital Rape

Stable Factors Uncertain Factors

Wife is to blame She was raped in the past. She is not affectionate
She is unresponsivesexually. enough.
She doesn't love himanymore.
She doesn't like men.

Jointresponsibility Their sex drivesare different. They have a communication

problem.
They are not compatible.
He does not respect her.

Husband is to blame He has emotional problems. He is insensitive.

He enjoys using force. He needs to prove his
He is an alcoholic. manhood.
He is a sex maniac.
He feelsit is his maritalright.

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538 Frieze MaritalRape

the wife. A common explanation for maritalrape, for instance,is that

the wife does not willinglyhave sex with her husband. If the husband
believes thathis wifeshould be willingto have sexual relationswhenever
he wants them,then he will feeljustifiedin raping her and will see her
unwillingparticipationas the cause of the rape. As mentioned above,
this attitudeis quite commonlyreflectedin our legal statutes;in fact,
men in many statesdo have a legal rightto rape theirwives if theyso
wish. Unfaithfulnesson the part of the wife is also seen by many to be
justificationfor the husband to rape, as well as to beat, his wife. Russell
furthersuggeststhat a woman who is raped by a strangermay Le per-
ceived as being unfaithfulto her husband and thereforedeservingof the
latter's rape as well.23Other more long-termcausal explanations im-
plicating the wife include her lack of love for her husband, her un-
affectionatenature, or her general dislikeof men.
Causal attributionsmay also be made to the husband. His drinking
or temporaryemotional upsets are sometimesgiven as reasons for his
forcinghis wife to have sex, even against her will.24More long-term
factorsthatare cited to explain the husband's behavior include his emo-
tional problems,his overlysexed nature,or his enjoymentin associating
violence withsexuality.25Finally,some causal explanations reside in the
couple as a unit. The rape may be seen as a resultof incompatiblesex
drives or more general formsof incompatibility.
We willexamine the evidence for manyof these hypotheticalcausal
explanations as we analyze the resultsof our interviews.

WhatAre theEffects
ofMaritalRape?
As we have seen, at least some legal thinkersapparentlyfeel that
maritalrape has few,ifany,long-termconsequences forthe women who
are raped, even thougha numberof negativeeffectshave been reported
among women who are raped by strangersor by acquaintances other
than theirhusbands. Although these specificeffectsdepend on the vic-
timherselfand on the reactionsof othersto her rape, mostwomen who
have experienced the violationof rape will suffereffectsthat are often
severe,such as physicalinjury,anger, depression,fear,and loss of inter-
est in sex.26
The intensityand varietyof reactionsto rape by a strangermake it
reasonable to expect consequences formaritalrape victimsas well. How-

23. Russell, "Marital Rape in San Francisco" (n. 6 above).

24. Walker (n. 14 above).
25. Pagelow, "Double Victimizationof Battered Women" (n. 13 above).
26. Ann W. Burgess anidLynda I,. Holmstrom,"Rape Trauma Syndrome,"American
JournalqofPsychiatr,131, no. 9 (September 1974): 981-86; Katz and Mazur (n. 1 above); and
Andrea Medea and Kathleen Thompson, AgainstRape: A SurvivalManualjor Women:How
to Cope withRape Physicallyand Emotionally (New York: Farrar,Straus & (;iroux, 1974).

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Signs Spring1983 539

ever, a major determinantof these consequences was predicted to be a

woman's attitudetoward her sexual assault. Women who defined them-
selves as being "pressured to have sex" by theirhusbands were expected
to have milderreactionsthan those who defined theirhusbands' actions
as "rape." Several typesof reactionswere investigated:we asked how the
wife felt after the rape; we also checked a number of behavioral
indices-for example, a wife'sdesire to leave her husband and her over-
all assessmentof maritalhappiness-to see whetherthese were affected
by the presence of maritalrape in the relationship.

Method
Sample
In order to investigate more fully the determinantsand conse-
quences of maritalrape, we interviewed137 women who had reported
physicalassaults fromtheir husbands about the violence in their mar-
riages and about marital rape. We used a structuredinterview,asking
standard questions in a prearranged order. These questions assessed
many aspects of the maritalrelationshipas well as various background
characteristicsof the husbands and wives and theirreactionsto the vio-
lence and to the rape. The respondentswere solicitedfromsheltersfor
batteredwomen, fromlistsof women who had fileda legal action against
a physicallyabusive husband, and from posted notices requesting vol-
unteers for a study of violence in marriage. Each of the 137 battered
women interviewedwas matchedwithanother woman, also interviewed,
who came from the same neighborhood. The relativehomogeneityof
neighborhoodsin Pittsburghin termsof socioeconomicstatus,ethnicity,
and, to some degree, age, made this the best strategyfor finding a
comparison group which would have nonbattered women. (When the
resultsof the interviewswere tabulated,we found thatfortyof the com-
parison women had themselvesbeen physicallyassaulted by their hus-
bands. These women were considered as a separate "batteredcompari-
son" group.)
Matching was generallysuccessful,although there were some dif-
ferencesbetween the groups. There were slightlymore black women in
the batteredgroup (18 percent) than in the batteredcomparison group
(13 percent)or in the nonviolentcomparisongroup (9 percent).Also the
women in the battered group were younger than those in the entire
controlgroup (the average age in the formergroup was 33, in the latter,
in age (37-42 on
42), although the husbands did not differsignificantly
the average). There were no significantdifferencesin the numbers of
children in each family(on the average, each couple had two) or in the
wives' income (on the average, $3,000-$6,000 per year). Comparison
group husbands earned more on the average than husbands in the bat-

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540 Frieze MaritalRape

tered group ($10,000-15,000 per year versus $6,000-$10,000 per year).

There were no differencesin religious affiliation,although both com-
parison groups tended to go to religious servicesmore often.2'

Procedure
All subjects were asked to respond to a standard structuredinter-
view,during which we asked questions about maritalrape. We phrased
these questions in differentwaysin order to determinewhatthe women
themselvesdefined as maritalrape. Subjects were given ten dollars for
participationand were given informationon wife batteringand local
women's shelters at the end of the interview.All questions were an-
swered as fullyas possible.
1. In the context of other questions about whether sex was ever
unpleasant for her, a wife was asked if her husband ever made sex
unpleasant by forcingher to have sex when she did not want it or by
making her performsexual acts against her will.
2. After questions about violence in the marriage, a woman was
asked whetherher husband had ever pressured her to have sexual re-
lations and, if so, how he had pressured her.
3. Afterthe questions about sexual pressuring,she was asked ifher
husband had ever raped her. If she said yes to the rape question,she was
asked to describe the rape and her feelingsabout it. Using the coding
systemdescribedin table 1,we analyzed the women'scausal explanations
of the rapes.
Interviewers,who were always women, talked withthe subjectsaf-
terwardabout theirreactionsto the interview.Most of the women were
quite positiveabout the study.Those women who were upset were en-
couraged to talkout theirfeelingsand were giventhe interviewer'semo-
tional support. Interviewersattemptedto be as nonjudgmentalas possi-
ble during and afterthe interview.

CodingProceduresand Analysis
Most questions were rated by subjectson standard five-pointscales
(from never to always). Open-ended questions were coded by trained
coders, who agreed witheach other more than 80 percentof the time.
A number of typesof statisticalanalyseswere done withthe data in
addition to the reportingof overall frequencies of various responses.
The firstof these was a factoranalysis,done to look foroverall patterns
of correlationsamong itemson the questionnaire. Items forminga fac-
27. For more informationon the demographiccharacteristics
of the threegroups,see
Irene H. Frieze,Jaime Knoble, Carol Washburn,and GretchenZomnir,"Characteristicsof
Battered Women and Their Marriages"(Universityof Pittsburgh,Departmentof Psychol-
ogy, 1980).

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Signs Spring1983 541

tor all relate to one another more than theyrelate to other items. The
type of factor analysis done here involved independent (orthogonal)
factors.One way of interpretingthe resultsof this factoranalysis is to
think of each factor as representinga type of person. However, any
particularindividual may have characteristicsfrommore than one fac-
tor. The factorsrepresent general patternsin the data, not individual
cases.
Multipleregressionwas the second typeof analysisused. This is also
a correlationalprocedure thatmathematicallyallows one to separate the
contributionof one variable froma set of related variables.

Resultsand Discussion
Frequency ofMaritalRape
As we suspected,the women did not respond in the same wayto the
various questions which were asked about rape, although table 2 shows
thatthe women in the threeinterviewgroups were in overall agreement
concerningthese questions. As can be seen, sexual pressuring,or being
forced to have sex, was the most commonlyreported formof "marital
rape." Far fewerwomen reported being raped or being forced to per-
form sexual acts that they found repugnant. Being forced to have sex
was more commonlyreported.
Table 2 clearly indicates that all formsof sexual force were more
common in the battered group. Over a thirdof these women reported
being raped by their husbands, and over two-thirdsfeltthat they had
been pressured into having sex with their husbands. Over 40 percent

Table 2

DifferentialResponses to Questions about Forced Sexual Activity(%)

Women in Agreement

Battered Nonviolent Combined

Battered Comparison Comparison Comparison
Group Group Group Groups

92b. Sex is unpleasant

because he forces
you to have sex .... 43 13 2 6
92e. Sex is unpleasant
because he makes
you do thingsyou
do not want to do .. 33 10 1 4
180. He pressures you
to have sex ........ 73 60 37 45
184. Husband has raped
you ............... 34 6 1 3

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542 Frieze MaritalRape

also reported that sex was unpleasant for them because they were
forced.The reported frequenciesof forced sex were lower in the com-
parison groups, withsexual pressuringmost often reported. However,
in those relationshipsin whichthe husband had notbeen violentin other
ways, marital rape was rare, although there was still a relativelyhigh
percentageof reportedsexual pressuring.Other data indicatedthatthis
"pressuring"was more likelyto involve threatsof violence in the bat-
tered groups than in the comparison groups, while it often took more
subtle formsof pressuringin the nonviolentcomparison group.
The reportedpercentagesof maritalrape shown here are consistent
withfindingsof other studiesof batteredwomen. About a thirdof Pres-
cott and Letko's and Pagelow's samples also reported sexual abuse in
addition to battering.28 Other studies have found even higher percent-
ages of battered women to have been raped. Nancy Shields and Christine
Hanneke found thisfor46 percentof theirsample, and Angela Browne
reportsthat59 percentof Walker's sample of batteredwomen were also
raped.29Thus, our data and that of a number of other studies support
the suppositionthatmaritalrape is oftenassociated withother formsof
maritalviolence.
A more controversialissue is whethermaritalrape exists in other-
wise nonviolentrelationships.The data in table 2 suggest that marital
rape is rare in nonviolentmarriages.Shields and Hanneke concur that
maritalrape is almost always associated withbattering,but Russell dis-
agrees.30In her random sample of San Francisco women she did find
some marriagesin which sexual violence was the only formof physical
violence. However, these typesof marriageswere not common even in
her data. Further research that carefullycontrolsthe sampling proce-
dures used and the questions asked is needed on this issue.
Anotherquestion to be answeredconcernsthe prevalenceof marital
rape as compared with that of other forms of rape. Looking at the
percentagesof maritalrape victimsfor the combined comparison sam-
ples, whichserve as a rough approximationof the general population of
marriedwomen in the Pittsburgharea, we can see thatonly 3 percentof
the women reportedmaritalrape and less than 10 percenttold us about
experiencingother formsof sexual force in theirmarriages.One inter-
pretation of these data is that marital rape is not a major problem.
However,looked at anotherway,the same data show thatmaritalrape is

28. Prescottand Letkow (n. 13 above); Pagelow, "Double Victimizationof Battered

Women" (n. 13 above).
29. Nancy Shields and ChristineR. Hanneke, "Battered Women's Reactionsto Mari-
tal Rape" (paper presented at the National Conference for FamilyViolence Researchers,
Durham, New Hampshire, July 1981); Angela Browne, "Lethal Incidents in Battering
RelationshipsbetweenAdult Intimates"(paper presentedat the Union forExperimenting
Colleges and Universities,FeministAnalysisSeminar, Deckers, Colorado, March 1981).
30. Shields and Hanneke; Russell,Rape in Marriage(n. 6 above).

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Signs Spring1983 543

a problem experienced by up to 10 percent of all married women.

Although percentages of women experiencing any form of rape are
extremelydifficultto obtain,31marital rape may be one of the most
common formsof rape in our society.
In a furtheruse of the basic data in our study,table 3 shows some of
the relationshipsamong the different"rape" questions. As can be seen,
mostof the women who feltthattheyhad been raped by theirhusbands
also reported sexual pressuring (about which they were asked before
being questioned on theirexperience of rape). Many more women told
us that theyhad been pressured to have sex but would not define their
experiences as "rape," even though their descriptionsof the incidents
met all the standard legal criteriaforrape. The question about whether
they found sex to be unpleasant because of the use of force appeared
empiricallyto be quite different.Ten women reported being raped but
did not feel that force made sex unpleasant. Perhaps these women did
not thinkof the rape situationwhen speaking in general about theirsex
lives,the contextin which theywere asked about the unpleasantnessof
sex. Or, to come at the problem from the opposite way, twenty-seven
women reported that they had been forced but did not report rape.
These women maynot be definingrape as the use of forcein sex bytheir
husbands.

The Causes ofMaritalRape

As outlined in table 1, many causal explanations have been
suggested for marital rape. Although a correlational study does not
allow one to draw definiteconclusionsabout causality,itdoes allow us to
see what variables appear to be systematicallyassociated with marital

Table 3

Relationshipbetween Responses to Questions about Forced Sexual Activity

Husband Has Pressured You Husband Makes Sex Unpleasant
to Have Sex throughUse of Force

No Yes No Yes

Husband has raped you:

No ................ 106 116 101 27
Yes ............... 5 46 10 40

31. For some of the complexitiesin determiningoverall frequenciesof rape in our

society,see Allan G. Johnson, "On the Prevalence of Rape in the United States,"Signs:
Journalof Womenin Cultureand Society6, no. 1 (Autumn 1980): 136-46; and Albert E.
Gollin, "Comment on Johnson's'On the Prevalence of Rape in the United States,'" Signs:
Journalof Womenin Cultureand Society6, no. 2 (Winter 1980): 346-49. Gelles and Groth
have also argued that maritalrape is the most frequentformof rape in our society.

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544 Frieze MaritalRape

rape. Using ideas discussed earlier about the causes of maritalrape, we

tested a number of possible correlatesof rape.
First,we looked at why the women themselvesfeltthey had been
raped. Of those who provided such information,78 percentfeltthatthe
cause lay in theirhusband's beliefthatsuch an action served to prove his
manhood. Fourteen percentattributedthe rape(s) to his drinking.The
others felt that rape resulted from frustrationor from some outside,
triggeringincident. Thus, all of the women saw the rape as the re-
sponsibilityof the husband. Differences were evident only in their
estimationsof the stabilityof the causal factors.Some of the women
attributedthe rape(s) to unstable factors,but most saw theirhusband's
behavior as part of his personality.
Another strategyfor betterunderstandingmaritalrape lies in de-
terminingwhichof the variablesin our studyempiricallydifferentiated
the maritalrape victimsfromthe other women. In order to do this,an
exploratoryanalysis was done through a series of t tests to see which
variables showed significantdifferences(or at least the .05 level of
significance).In doing these analyses,we found thatone of the strongest
differentiators between the maritalrape victimsand nonvictimswas the
presence of violence in the marriage.The mostviolentmen were also the
most likely to rape their wives. (The overall correlation between the
husband's worstviolence and his frequencyof maritalrape was .34.)
This relationshipbetweenrape and violencepresenteda problemto
our exploratoryanalysissince manyof the differencesfound were more
related to the maritalviolencethan to maritalrape.32In order to control
for the presence of violence in the marriage,the analyses were redone
withinour clearlyidentifiedsample of batteredwomen. By lookingonly
at thisgroup, we were able to determinewhich factorscould be related
specificallyto maritalrape.
Within the battered group, a number of characteristicsdistin-
guished those who had experienced marital rape from those who had
not. Those wives who had several children, or who had never been
employed before marriage,or who had less formaleducation than the
others were the more likelyto have been raped. Thus, the raped wives
may have been less able to leave their husbands since they had more
familial responsibilityand fewer resources to draw upon. The raping
husbands were especiallydominantin the maritalrelationships,and they
were more likelythan other husbands to have a (drinkingproblem.
Sexual relatiolnsin the rape couples were more negativeforthe wife
in many ways,and these women were more likelyto reporthaving sex
more often than theywished. Their husbands pressured them into sex
32. 1lhespccificd(iff
ercnces have beeCndiscussed in dletailin Irene H. FIrieze,"'Ilhe
Causes and Collsequelllcesof MaritalRape" (paper presented at I)vision 3's ()OpenSym-
posiLum at the annual meeting of the AmerlicanPsychological Association, Montreal,
Canada, Septemler 1980).

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Signs Spring1983 545

more and were more likelyto want to have sex afterbeating them. The
raping husbands were also even more likelythan otherviolenthusbands
to have sadomasochisticsexual relationswith their wives.33They were
morejealous of theirwives,even though the latterwere no more likely
than other batteredwomen to be having extramaritalaffairs.
The raping husbands were more violentin other waysas well,both
withtheirwives and withother people outside the home and withinit.
Their violence also included sexual abuse (often leading to injury re-
sultingfromforced anal intercourse)and physicalabuse of a wifewhen
she was pregnant.They were more likelyto be drunk when violent.
The raped wife was significantlymore likelythan other battered
women to have been raped as an adult by someone other than her
husband, but she was no more likelyto have been sexuallymolestedas a
child. The marital rape victimswere also more violent to their own
children than other batteredwomen. Perhaps because of theirown ex-
periences, the raped women believed marital rape was more common
than other batteredwomen did.
These data tend to support the attributionsmade by the women
about the rapes. It does appear thatmaritalrape is broughton by factors
in the husband's personalityratherthan by the wife'sprovocation.
Since the overall sexual relationshipof the couple showed itselfto be
in dynamiccorrelationwithmaritalrape, we analyzed responsesto other
questions in the entire sample about their sexual interactions.These
questions assessed both positiveand negativecomponentsof the sexual
relationship: How much does the wife like sex? Who initiatessexual
relations?How often does the couple have sex? Is the sex pleasant for
both the wife and the husband? Does the wife use her willingnessor
unwillingnessto have sex as a way of influencingher husband? Does
either the wife or the husband have extramaritalaffairs?Does either
findsex the occasion forguilt?Is eithersexuallyjealous? Althoughindi-
vidual analyses were done for each of these variables,space limitations
prohibita detailed discussion,and only the summarydata will be pre-
sented here.
In order to see general patterns withinthe sexualityvariables, a
factoranalysiswas done forthese items.34Resultingfactorsare shownin
table 4. As can be seen, factor1, which included the maritalrape item,
also included a number of other indicatorsthatthe wifewas forcedinto
sexual relationsaftershe refused the advances of her husband. Other
loadings indicatedthatthe husband in thispatterntends to be jealous of
33. Althoughwe did not ask ifthese relationshipswere voluntarilyentered intobythe
wives,some of them spontaneouslytold us thattheywere forcedto engage in bondage or
other formsof violentsex. Russell argues thatmostof the violentsex in marriageis forced
on wives by their husbands (Rape in Marriage[n. 6 above]).
34. The resultingfour factors with eigenvalues over 1.5 (which accounted fior45
percentof the total variance) were rotated witha varimax rotation.

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546 Frieze MaritalRape

the wife,although he, not the wife,is the one most likelyto be having
extramaritalaffairs.The presence of sadomasochismwas also related to
maritalrape. Overall, one patternof maritalsexualityemerged: a highly
dominant husband sexuallyaggressivetowarda passive wifewho is un-
happy in her sexual relations.
Another patternis representedby factor2. Here we see the same
patternin which the husband wants sex more than the wifedoes, while
she refuseshis sexual advances. But, in thispattern,the interactionstops
here; there is no force,and the husband apparentlyaccepts his wife's
lower sexual interest.He does nothave extramaritalaffairs,nor does his
wife.
In factor4 the situationis reversed. Here the wife is the partner
with the higher level of sexual interest.She pressures her husband to
have sex and is likelyto have extramaritalaffairs,but she reports no
jealous feelingson the part of her husband.

Table 4

Factor Analysisof SexualityItems fromthe Questionnaire

Factor Loadings

Item Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4

Wife likes sex more than husband does ...... ... -.39 ... .28
Sex is unpleasant for wifebecause: .
... .67
Husband wants sex too often ............. .. .37 ...
Husband forceswife ..................... .56 .35 ...
Husband compares wife to other women .. .59 ... ...
Husband makes her do things .......... .65 ... ...
Husband is insensitive ................... ... ... ... .38
Sex is unpleasant for husband because: ... .. .46
Wife wantssex too often ................. ... ... ... .67
Wife refuseshusband's initiations......... .29 .82 ... ...
Wife compares husband to other men ..... .34 -.26 ... .57
Wife is insensitive ........................... ... .36 ... .42
Wife has sex more than she wants to ........ ... .42 ... ...
Husband has guilt feelingsabout sex .......... -.35 ... ...
Wife has guilt feelingsabout sex ............ .. ... .38
Husband has extramaritalaffairs ........... .31 ... .42
Wife has extramaritalaffairs ............... ... ... ... .39
Husband is jealous of wife ................ .32 ... .47 .
Wife is jealous of husband ................. ... -.39 .26 ...
Husband pressureswife to have sex ......... .27 ... .48 ...
Wife pressures husband to have sex . ...... . ... .45
Husband wants sex afterviolence ........... .60 ... .35 ..
Wife wants sex afterviolence ............... .38 ... ... .
Husband raped wife ...................... .70 ... .26 ...
Sex and forcerelated (sadomasochism) ...... .33 ... ... ...

No-r:.-Factor loadings representthe coirrelationsamong itemson the questionnaire. Highest loadings indicate the
a negativevalue indicatesa relationshipwiththe
mostcommonlyassociated characteristicsin thatfactor.A loading wsith
reverseof that item. ILoadingsunder .25 are not shown.

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Signs Spring1983 547

Finally,factor3 appears to representa slightvariationof the pattern

seen in factor 1. Factor 3 partnersboth find sex unpleasant. The hus-
band uses pressure (and sometimesrape) to get sex fromhis wife,and he
has extramaritalaffairs.However, such a husband is less aggressivethan
the factor1 man.
These data imply that the wife's refusal alone is typicallynot suf-
ficientcause for maritalrape; rape is more likelywhere,in addition,the
husband associates sex with violence, has extramaritalaffairs,and is
unreasonablyjealous of his wife.
We also gave detailed analysis,across the entire sample, to the un-
expected finding reported earlier that marital rape victimsreported
more nonmarital rapes as well. First,it was noted that while nearly a
thirdof the victimsof repeated maritalrape had also been raped as an
adult bysomeone otherthan theirhusbands,only8 percentof thosewho
did not suffer marital rape reported this. Most of these other rapes
outside marriage were single rape incidents,although a few were re-
peated. One woman had been raped by four differentmen. Although
few women had these experiences, it was noteworthythat maritalrape
victimswere more likelyto have been raped as adults by familymem-
bers; manyof these had experienced repeated rapes bythe same person.
Overall, 18 percentof thebatteredgroup women had been raped by
someone other than their husbands, while 10 percent of the battered
comparison group and 3 percent of the nonviolentcomparison group
reported general rapes. If both comparison groups are combined, the
percentage is 6 percent. Of this 6 percent, 4 percent reported actual
rapes, and 2 percent described rape attempts.
To be properlyunderstood,these percentagesshould be compared
withother data on the general frequencyof rape. Such frequencies,as I
mentionedearlier, are quite difficultto obtain because so fewrapes are
reported. Estimatesof the percentage of women in the population who
have been or will be raped range from a high of 20 percent (a figure
based on the assumptionthatonly 20 percentof rapes are reported)35to
an estimate,based on federal crime surveys,thatonly 1 percentof the
women in the population are raped in a twelve-month period.36Another
way to assess the overall of
frequency rape in the general population is to
survey a small but identifiable sample about a varietyof forced sexual
experiences. One such studyby Edward S. Herold, Debra Mantle, and
Olga Zemitis found that 1 percent of a sample of college women had

35. Johnson.
36. See U.S. Departmentof Justice,Crimein EightAmericanCities(Washington,D.C.:
Law EnforcementAssistanceAdministration,National CriminalJusticeInformationand
StatisticsService, 1974); and U.S. Departmentof Justice,Crimein theNation'sFive Largest
Cities(Washington,D.C.: Law EnforcementAssistanceAdministration,National Criminal
JusticeInformationand StatisticsService, 1974).

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548 Frieze MaritalRape

been raped and 16 percenthad been victimsof attemptedrapes.37In a

similarstudy,Bernice Lott, Mary Ellen Reilly,and Dale Howard found
thatnearly30 percentof the women in theirsample at the Universityof
Rhode Island reportedsome formof sexual assault; however,theirdef-
initionof sexual assault covered a broad range of forced sexual contact
in addition to rape.38
Clearly it is impossibleto know withconfidencehow our reported
rape percentagescompare with those of the general population. How-
ever, we suspect thatthe figureof 6 percentof women in the combined
comparison groups reportingrape is close to the national norm. It also
appears that women in the battered and battered comparison groups
were more likelythan average to be raped by someone other than their
husbands.
Earlier, we had speculated that one of the causes for maritalrape
mightbe a husband's anger that his wife had been raped by someone
else. In our data, it did appear that the men who raped theirwives had
used her outside rape as an excuse forabusing her. However, oftenthis
meant physicalabuse, not rape. Also, mostwomen who had been raped
by someone other than their husbands, but who had not experienced
maritalrape, had managed to keep theirhusbands fromknowingabout
their rapes. Stranger rapes were easiest to keep from the husband's
knowledge; rapes by familymemberswere typicallyknown to the hus-
band and used by him as justificationin his abuse.
All these data do provide some support forthe idea thatan external
rape, by making the husband more violent,can have negative effects
upon a marriage.They mayalso indicatethatsome women have learned
to accept rape. One of the women in our battered group sample de-
scribedto us her experiencesof sexual abuse fromher fatherand grand-
fatherboth as a child and as an adult and of rape by her brother-in-law
as well as her husband. For her,rape is one of thewaysmen interactwith
women.

ReactionstoMaritalRape
Our concern,as mentionedbefore,was to collectcorrelationaldata
that dealt with the marriage as a whole. The reactions to maritalrape
that we gathered were numerous but could be divided into two
categories: emotional and behavioral. We investigatedboth.
The emotional reactions of the women to marital rape were
classified and coded into four categories: self-blame(which included
37. Edward S. Herold, Debra Mantle,and Olga Zemitis,"A Studyof Sexual Offenses
against Females,"Adolescence14, no. 53 (Spring 1979): 65-72.
38. Bernice Lott, Mary Ellen Reilly,and Dale Howard, "Sexual Assault and Harass-
ment: A Campus CommunityCase Study,"Signs:JournalofWomenin Cultureand Society8,
no. 2 (Winter 1982): 296-319.

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Signs Spring1983 549

guilt, regret,a sense of having been foolish,and embarrassment);no

allocation of blame (sadness, depression, surprise,concern, and other
negative affects);blame of the husband (anger, hatred, outrage, and
feelingsof degradation); and positiveaffect(happiness, well-being,and
other positivereactions). Results are shown in table 5. The majorityof
the women feltanger or some other formof negative emotion toward
the husband. However, other analyses indicated that the women who
had been raped most frequentlywere the ones whose emotional re-
actions turned most toward self-blame.
Less directindicatorsof the emotional reactionsof the maritalrape
victimswere theirreportsof overall maritalhappiness and its transfor-
mationover the course of theirmarriages.The raped women were those
most likelyto tell us that their marriages had been gettingworse over
time. This was true even when theywere compared withthe other bat-
tered women who had not been raped. Battered women in both groups
were less likelythan women in the nonviolentcomparison group to feel
theirrelationshipswere gettingbetter.Overall maritalhappiness and the
general patternof sexual relationswere also more negativeforthe raped
women.
Our questionnairealso assessed a numberof behavioralreactionsin
the maritalrape victims.As shown in table 6, raped women were more
likelyto seek help in a varietyof ways than were women who had not
been raped. This was true even when the raped women were compared
withother batteredwomen. Battered women who had also been raped
were more likelyto seek help for maritalproblemsfromfriends,family,
religioussources,and social serviceagencies. They were also more likely
to call the police and to filelegal charges.
Even this group did not find such help seeking easy. Some of the
most common reasons for theirhesitationincluded feelingsof helpless-
ness (29 percent), embarra3sment(29 percent), fear of retaliation(19
percent), and feelingsthat their problems were not serious enough to
warranthelp (10 percent). Fear of retaliationwas cited by 19 percentof

Table 5

Wife's Affectabout Marital Rape (%)

Frequency of Marital Rapes

One Two or Three Several Often

Blames self .................. 6 8 0 20

Neutral ..................... 33 33 33 40
Blames husband ............. 61 58 67 40

Total ..................... 100 99 100 100

N .......................... 18 12 9

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550 Frieze MaritalRape

Table 6

Behavioral Reactionsof Wives to Marital Problems(%)

Wives Who Wives Who

Experienced Experienced Violence; Wives Who
No Violence No Marital Rape Were Raped

Sought psychologicalhelp for

maritalproblems .......... 53 83 94
Called the police ............. 0 45 62
Pressed legal charges ......... 0 33 59
Expressed desire to leave
husband .................. 39 57 67
Attemptedto leave husband . 20 57 96
Returned to husband after
leaving .................... 69 88 91
Carried out a separation or
divorce ................... 6 35 49

the raped and batteredwomen, while only 3 percentof the other bat-
tered women mentionedthis.
Nor did theyalwaysget the help theywantedor needed. Calling the
police, the most obvious legal recourse for battered women, was only
effectivefor about a thirdof the women, whethertheyhad been raped
or not. Equal numbers of raped and nonraped battered women also
reported negative results from calling the police. Filing legal charges,
another source of legal help, was even less helpfulforthe raped women
than for the other batteredwomen. Thus, it appears thatour data sup-
port Pagelow's: the legal systemdoes not tend to be particularlyhelpful
to batteredwomen and especiallynot to maritalrape victims(see table
7).39
A second behavioral reaction (and possible recourse) was to break
up the marriage.We asked three questions relatingto a wife'sdesire to
leave, her actual departure,and her departureand subsequent returnto
her husband (a commonlyreportedbehaviorof batteredwomen). Again
in table 6, we can see thatthe raped women were the mostlikelyto want
to leave theirhusbands and thatthe large majorityof them had actually
lefttheirhusbands at least once. However, thisgroup was also the most
likelyto follow the patternof subsequent return.Eventually,many of
them had leftpermanently,since almosthalf of thisgroup was divorced
or separated at the time of the interview.When asked their primary
reason for wanting to leave, half of the raped women-but only 30
percentof the batterednonraped women-cited the physicalabuse they
had received fromtheirhusbands.
In order to see whichof these and other emotional and behavioral
Victimsand TheirExperiences(Beverly
39. Mildred Daley Pagelow, Woman-Battering:
Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications,1981).

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Signs Spring1983 551

Table 7

Effectof Seeking Legal Help for Battered Wives (%)

Called the Police Pressed Legal Charges

Battered Battered and Battered Battered and

Wives Raped Wives Wives Raped Wives

Positiveeffect........ 31 36 83 65
No effect............ 35 32 10 25
Blame placed on
wife ............... 16 16 0 0
Retaliationby
husband ........... 12 12 3.5 5
Other ............... 6 4 3.5 5

Total ............ 100 100 100 100

N ................... 49 25 29 20

reactionswas most typicalof the raped women, we performeda regres-

sion analysis to determine the reaction that was mathematicallymost
related to marital rape. Possible variables included withdrawingemo-
tionally,ending sexual relations,being physicallyaffectionate,having
extramaritalaffairs,leaving,seeking help, using drugs, blamingoneself
for the rapes, and acting violentlytoward the children.These variables
were entered in a stepwiseregression.The resultsindicated that trying
to leave the husband was the most likelyreactionof those in the raped
group. Other importantrelated items, in order of their mathematical
importance,were filinglegal charges, having lesbian affairs,having a
husband who would not seek help, and wantingto leave the husband.
None of these findingswas unexpected; theysuggestthatbehavioral
reactionsare more evident than emotional ones. A wife'shaving homo-
sexual relationshipsmay be in reaction to rape or her homosexuality
may be one of the factorsthat precipitatesthe rapes. We suspect the
former,but furtherresearchis needed on thisquestion.40We would also
like to see more careful studies of the emotional reactionsof rape vic-
tims.Of necessity,we could onlyask a fewquestions about these,and we
may not have asked the correctones.
Since leaving the husband seemed to be the predominantresponse
of rape victims,we decided to turn this question around and see how
importanta rape experience was in influencinga woman to leave her
husband. Another regressionwas done to predictthe likelihoodof leav-

40. Unfortunately,we asked only one question about whetherthe women had ever
had a lesbian aff'air.We did not ask when thisrelationshiphad occurred in relationto the
maritalrape(s). The overall frequencyof lesbian relationshipswas too low forthisvariable
to be entered in the factoranalyses reported earlier in the paper.

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552 Frieze MaritalRape

ing; it included all the variablesthathad been identifiedas factorsdistin-

guishingbatteringand maritalrape relationships.Violence was the most
importantpredictorof the wife'sdeparture; nextcame the wife'sfinding
her sex life unpleasant and her husband's drinking.Sexual pressuring
was also a factorhere, although maritalrape did not enterthe equation.
The rape variable was probably too low a frequencyto be an overall
predictorof a wife'sdeparture. It was interesting,though,thatthe pres-
ence of sexual pressuringwas such an importantfactor,second only to
the husband's violence. Clearly this findingsupports the idea that the
health of the marriage is closely associated with the quality of the
couple's sexual relationship.4'However, the presence of physical vio-
lence in the marriage appears to be an even more important de-
terminantof an unstable,unhappy marriage.

Conclusions
It was fortunatethatwe decided to studymaritalrape in the context
of a larger study of wife battering,since it appears that batteringand
rape are verycloselylinkedand thatrape is more closelyassociated with
higher levelsof physicalviolencein a marriageand withproblemsin the
familyupbringingof the husband than witha couple's sexual dynamics.
Overall, the resultsof thisinterviewstudyconfirmthatmaritalrape
is indeed a serious crime and that women who have experienced this
type of rape need bettersources of help. Victimsundergo a varietyof
emotional and behavioral reactions,some of them quite severe. It was
also clear that rape by one's husband leads to even worse consequences
than "only" being battered. In every comparison done, the raped and
batteredwomen demonstratedmore extreme reactionsthan other bat-
tered women who had not been raped. However,itwas also truethatthe
raped women tended to have experienced the most extreme levels of
violence. Furtheranalyses and research are needed to separate clearly
the effectsof rape fromthose experienced throughother typesof vio-
lence.
The reported frequencies of marital rape in the control samples
suggestthatmaritalrape is one of the mostcommon formsof rape, and
as such, deserves more attentionfromresearchersand fromcommunity
sources of help. Our data also indicate that marital rape is typically
associated withbatteringand may be one of the most serious formsof
battering.Our data suggest furtherthat manyof the stereotypesabout
marital rape and its causes are not valid. There is littleevidence that
women provoke the rapes by refusingreasonable sexual requests or by

41. John Carlson, "The Sexual Role," in Role Structure and AnalysisoftheFamily,ed. F.
Ivan Nye et al. (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications,1976), pp. 101-10.

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Signs Spring1983 553

being unfaithful.Instead, the husbands who raped theirwivesappear to

like violentsex. Many of the raped women reportedthattheirhusbands
seemed to want sex "all the time"or at particularlydifficulttimes(such as
aftersurgery).From the perspectiveof theirwives,these men appeared
to devalue women and to feel that theirwiveswere obligated to service
them sexually in whateverways theydesired.
All of the conclusions from this study are based on reports of
women. It is possible that interviewswith their husbands would have
presenteddifferentperspectiveson these marriagesand sexual relation-
ships. Perhaps futurestudies of these men will help us to understand
betterthe dynamicsof maritalrape.42

Department
ofPsychology
ofPittsburgh
University

42. In a pilot study,we have interviewedsome men. Althoughnone has yetadmitted

raping his wife,several have admittedbatteringtheirwives (and children). At least some
appear to believe that it is their rightas men to batterwiveswho disobey them.

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