Date and Acquaintance Rape

Endemic to college campuses in North America and elsewhere, date and acquaintance rapes are the most common threats to female students' safety. Many researchers, rather than restricting their focus to forced sexual intercourse, now define date and acquaintance rape as involving a wide range of unwanted sexual acts stemming from physical force, threats of physical force, verbal coercion, and emotional coercion. Contrary to popular belief, an alarmingly high number of women experience these harms on an annual basis, as shown by surveys conducted in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. For example, the Canadian National Survey on Woman Abuse in University and College Dating Relationships found that 28% of the female participants stated that a male dating partner sexually assaulted them in the past year, while 11% of the males reported having sexually victimized a female dating partner during the same time period. The U.S. National College Women Sexual Victimization Survey estimated that 9 of 10 women knew the male perpetrator who raped them. Of course, the types of assaults uncovered by these and other widely cited studies begin to occur well before women reach college age, as documented by several North American surveys.

Even though a broad spectrum of college students is affected by sexual assault, the problem appears to be of little concern to many students, faculty, and [Page 170]administrators. Date and acquaintance rapes are often dismissed as “boys will be boys,” or as some sort of exaggeration by the woman or something she was “asking for.” There are a number of reasons for this, including ideologies of gender inequality.

Researchers have gathered quantitative data on these crimes. Most studies use some rendition of the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES). Developed by Mary Koss and Cheryl Oros in 1982, the SES consists of 12 yes/no items that can be examined in their totality for one measure of sexual abuse or can be divided into four types of sexual abuse:

• Sexual contact, which includes unwanted sex play (fondling, kissing, or petting) arising from menacing verbal pressure, misuse of authority, threats of harm, or actual physical force
• Sexual coercion, which includes unwanted sexual intercourse arising from the use of menacing verbal pressure or the misuse of authority
• Attempted rape, which includes attempted unwanted sexual intercourse arising from the use of or threats of force from the use of drugs or alcohol
• Rape, which includes unwanted sexual intercourse arising from the use of or threats of force and other unwanted sex acts (anal or oral intercourse or penetration by objects other than the penis) arising from the use of or threat of force or from the use of drugs or alcohol

Social scientists have also identified various risk factors, including male peer support, alcohol and drug consumption, men's adherence to the ideology of familial patriarchy, and experiencing sexual abuse prior to coining to college. However, theoretical developments in this field have not kept pace with the empirical literature. Theories attempt to explain what many people define as deviant or criminal behaviors. In response to calls for theory integration in explaining male-to-female victimization, Alberto Godenzi, Martin Schwartz, and Walter DeKeseredy have offered a relatively new theory of conformity. This social bond/male peer support theory asserts that since so many college men sexually abuse their female dating partners and acquaintances, it is college men who do not victimize women who are the deviants and whose bond to the dominant social order is weak or broken.

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