Introduction
What would it be like for a woman to be imprisoned in a marriage where she is
constantly violated and insulted by her husband? How must she deal with the fact that
due to her commitment to her marriage, she is obligated to gratify her husband in every
way? How can she stop a man, who is physically bigger, from forcing himself on her
with out her consent? Who could she turn her grieves and sorrows to when the rest of the
society is supporting the husband? These are some of the questions that a married woman
might ask herself when she is dealing with marital rape.
In this paper, I plan to discuss several important issues that occur in marital rape
and its impacts on the victim. I will start by comparing marital rape with stranger rape.
Then I will review its legal history, and mention several laws, which have kept some
woman captivated in abusive marriage, while freeing others. I will also discuss the three
types of rape. In addition, I will mention the physical and mental effects on the victim,
and on the assaulter. It is also important to arouse awareness to the fact that marital rape
still exists in the third-world countries; therefore, I will describe two countries where
women are continuing to struggle to free themselves, yet unable to. Finally, I will
conclude my essay with several given explanations for why husbands rape their wives,
the effects of marital rape on the workplace, and why some victims refuse to seek help.
Marital Rape vs. Stranger Rape
To start, it is important to discuss the differences, that is, if there are any, between
marital rape and stranger rape. Not long ago, our society believed that marital rape did
not exist. When they finally realized that this violent act does occur, they charged it as
one of the lowest crimes, when in fact, it should have been ranked as one of the highest.
It is because the common law previously referred to women as the male’s property, that
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the legal definition of marital rape prevented the law from recognizing the crime at its
fullest impact (Whatley, p. 29). Today, marital rape is recognized as any sexual act that a
wife is unwillingly forced to perform by her husband, that is, vaginal or anal penetration.
Stranger rape is any forced sexual act that is placed on a woman by a person with whom
she shares no personal relationship. Although there is not much difference in their
definitions, the impact they have on women are unmistakably different. First, when it
comes to fighting off the violator, a woman who is being raped by a stranger has not
previously formed a mutual bond that would contradict her respect and trust for that
person. She has no limit to how loud and physical she can be with the violator, in order to
fight him off. However, once a husband sexually violates his wife for the first time, he
disrupts the safety of his household, his wife’s loyalty, their comfort zone, and her self-
respect (Bergen, Raquel Kennedy 1999). Since husbands tend to rape their wives during
the night, the children’s presence in the house may prevent the wife from fighting back.
In any case, the shock of what is occurring during that moment paralyzes her body, and
fighting back may not be possible. It seems that even while her husband is violating her,
the wife still thinks about the consequences of her actions that could result if she fights
back, and about the safety of her husband, rather than her own. Similar to the victim of a
stranger rape, the victim of a marital rape undergoes similar after–incident questions such
as, asking herself if she somehow sent the wrong message to him, or if she did not put
herself in that situation in the first place, the results might have been different. In
addition, the wife may also think that it was her wifely duty to help gratify her husband’s
sexual needs.
Legal History
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First of all, it is safe to say that marital rape can go back as far as the 17th century,
if not earlier. During that time, no law prevented a husband from raping his wife. This
problem still exists throughout the world. Sadly to say, there are still women who have
not been set free from their overpowering husbands. Prior to the 1970’s, most people
believed that a husband could not rape his wife. Blindfolded from the truth, our society
continued to follow the Hale doctrine, which, by itself, contradicted their beliefs. The
Hale doctrine first came into action in England, and is credited to be written by Chief
Justice, Sir Matthew Hale during 17th century. In the doctrine, he stated that “the husband
cannot be guilty of rape committed by himself upon his lawful wife, for by their mutual
matrimonial consent and a contract the wife hath given up herself in this kind unto her
husband which she cannot retract” (Whatley, p. 29). However, the Hale doctrine never
stated that marital rape is impossible. Brainwashed with these manipulative and
confusing teachings, most women continued to bare such repulsive treatments. Clearly,
society turned its back on the crime as well as women, forcing the wives to endure their
husband’s repulsive actions. This continued until the 1970’s. Since then, we have seen
improvement in the laws, which have been changed from little exemptions, to some
exemption, to no exemption for the husbands who rape their wives.
Although these laws have been installed, we continue to hear cases about martial
rape. Finkelhor & Yllo (1985) claim through the official rates that “United States has one
of the highest official rape rates of any Western country and the exact degree of
America’s rape status is difficult to determine, since most of the rapes in this country go
unreported” (Whatley, 1993).
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In the Russell’s (1990) study, he surveyed 930 women asking them whether they
have experienced any form of assault. The statistics shown that the ratio of married
woman being raped per year is between 10 to 14 per cent. Through this study, Russell
(1990) also discovered that the first sexual insult usually occurs before the victim turns
25 years old. Although today, all the states in this country claim to have made marital
rape a crime, over half of these states allow husbands some exemptions from harsher
punishments. In California, stranger rape and spouse rape have the same penalties. Some
states give the victim a time limit to how long they have to report the accident, while
others require that the husband use some type of force, threat, and or coercion with
intercourse, before the assault could be called a rape. This is considered somewhat
misguided, because in most cases, the husband only puts enough physical pressure on his
wife to hold her down, so threat and abuse is not always necessary. In this case, the wife
would not be able to hold her husband accountable for his actions. Some states order the
wives who have been raped, to report their incident to a police officer, limiting them to
the variety of sources to call for help, while other states extend that law towards
councilors, police, firefighters, and rape crisis centers. This contradicts the so-called
“help” that the female victim receives from the police officers and rehab utilities, because
in most cases, when the police learn that the violator is her husband, they tend to back
away (Bergen 1996, Frieze 1983, Russell 1990). While the lack of experience that people
in the rehab centers have to deal with in this type of situation, prevents them from fully
helping the victim to cope with the experience (Bergen, 1996, 2005a). It is also
interesting to know that even though police tend to hesitate to get involved in these kinds
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of cases, they are more likely to accompany the victim of marital rape to the hospital
(Stermac et al. 2001).
Types of Rape
Since there are many ways in which a husband could pressure of force his wife to
have sex with him, it is important to place them into different groups, in order to make it
easier for the police to classify the category of the assault. Therefore, the law has
simplified this matter into three different groups.
The first type of rape is called the “violent” or “battering” rapes, during which a
husband uses different forms of vigor, other than holding, to control his wife’s movement
prior to rape. This is considered as one of the most harmful types of rape, for it leaves the
victim physically injured. This type of assault begins with the husband beating his wife
and then he forces her to have sex with him, as a way of punishing her for refusing him in
