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The Rape Problem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

T.C.N. Gibbens  and
K.L. Soothill
T.C.N. Gibbens
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, London - United Kingdom
K.L. Soothill
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Lancaster University, Bailrigg, Lancaster - United Kingdom
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Extract

There is no crime which has attracted so much enquiry, complaint and controversy in recent years, nationally and internationally, as rape. Three factors seem to be involved. First, a surprising, and for some people alarming, increase in complaints of (and convictions for) rape in many countries. Secondly, the rise of women's organisations to relieve the distress of those who have been raped and sometimes to secure justice for them — such as Rape Crisis centres, Rape Aid, etc. Thirdly, increasing complaints about the ineffectiveness of the criminal law and especially its male-orientated bias which tends to treat the woman victim almost as if she were the offender by implying that she is making a false accusation or is anyway an immoral woman. It seems almost certain that these three trends are related to one another, and that it represents a shift in culture and mores which the criminal law has to adjust to as best it can.

Information

Type
IV. — Micro-Criminology
Information
International Annals of Criminology , Volume 17 , Issue 1-2 , 1978 , pp. 103 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © 1978 International Society for Criminology

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References

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