Marital Violence in Great Britain and its Relationship to Marital and Non-Marital Rape
| Date | 01 May 1998 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026975809800500404 |
| Published date | 01 May 1998 |
International
Review
ofVictimology,
1998,
Vol.
5,
pp.
257-276
0269-7580/98 $10
©
1998
A B
Academic
Publishers-
Printed
in
Great
Britain
MARITAL
VIOLENCE
IN
GREAT
BRITAIN
AND
ITS
RELATIONSHIP
TO
MARITAL
AND
NON-MARITAL
RAPE
KATE
PAINTER
and
DAVID
P.
FARRINGTON
Institute
of
Criminology,
University
of
Cambridge,
UK
ABSTRACT
The
National
Survey
of
Wives
in
Great
Britain
was
carried
out
to
estimate
the
prevalence of violence
by
husbands
against
wives
and
the
prevalence
of
rape
of
wives
inside
and
outside
marriage.
A quota
sample
of
1,007
wives,
drawn
from
each
of
the
10
standard
regions
of
Great
Britain,
were
interviewed.
The
results
showed
that
28%
of
wives
had
been
hit
by
their
husband,
while
13%
had
sexual
intercourse
with
their
husband
against
their
will.
Lower
class
wives,
and
separated
or
divorced
wives,
were
particularly
likely
to
have
been
assaulted.
The
assaulted
wives
were
dispro-
portionally
likely
also
to
have
been
raped.
Also,
13%
of
wives
had
been
forced
to
have
sex
by
someone
other
than
their
husband,
and
altogether
22%
had
been
raped
inside
or
outside
marriage.
INTRODUCTION
Despite two decades
of
research and increased public awareness of diverse forms
of
family violence in Great Britain, there is no authoritative national estimate
of
the extent
of
physical and sexual abuse
of
women in the home or
of
the overlap
between these types
of
abuse. Nonetheless, most
of
the research evidence
supports three facts. First, violence
in
the home is a frequent occurrence; second,
in the majority
of
cases, violence is perpetrated by men against women; third,
violence escalates in frequency and intensity over time
in
a manner which all too
often results in serious injury or death (Dobash and Dobash, 1979; Dobash et al.,
1992; Lees, 1997; Pahl, 1985; Smith, 1989). This paper
is
based on the first
national survey designed to investigate physical and sexual violence against
wives in Great Britain and it also explores the relationship between marital rape,
non-marital rape and physical violence. The main aims
of
this paper are:
(a) to estimate the prevalence
of
violence by husbands against wives in Great
Britain;
(b) to estimate the prevalence
of
rape
of
wives within marriage and its relation-
ship to marital violence; and
(c) to estimate the prevalence
of
rape outside marriage and its relationship to
marital violence and to rape within marriage.
258
PREVIOUS
LARGE-SCALE
BRITISH
SURVEYS
OF
MARITAL
VIOLENCE
IN
GREAT
BRITAIN
Smith, (
1989;
p.
11)
concluded that 'there
has
been
no
large
national study in this
country specifically concerned
with
investigating domestic violence
in
the
general population
by
means
of a large representative sample.' Apart from the
present
survey,
this
is
still
true.
The major survey measure of crime
in
England
and
Wales
is
provided
by
the British Crime (Victimization)
Survey,
which has
been carried out
six
times (for
the
years
1981,
1983,
1987,
1991,
1993
and 1995).
This survey includes questions about assault
that
are
designed
to
be
comparable
to
the
legal definitions of wounding
and
common assault. However, very little
information specifically about marital violence
has
yet
been
published from this
survey.
In
the
report ofthe
1991
BCS
(Mayhew
et al.,
1993),
seven
types of violence
were distinguished,
one
of
which
was
domestic violence.
However,
this included
incidents involving household members
and
relatives
as
well
as
partners and
ex-partners. Overall,
0.9%
of
women
suffered domestic violence
in
1991, includ-
ing
2.2%
of those
aged
16-29,0.7% of
those
aged
30-59,
and
0.1%
ofthose aged
60
or
over.
There were
21
incidents per
1,000
women,
92%
of offenders were
male, and
21%
of incidents were known
to
the
police.
In
1995
(Mirrlees-Black
et al., 1996), the prevalence
was
1.3%,
and
it
was
stated that
60%
of offenders
were current partners
and
21%
were ex-partners. Consequently,
1.0%
of women
suffered domestic violence
from
partners or ex-partners.
Mirrlees-Black
(1995)
provided
more
detailed information about domestic
violence
in
the
1987
and
1991
BCS.
The questions specified deliberately hitting
or kicking or using other force
or
violence,
so
all
incidents that were counted
involved some degree of physical force against
the
victim. The relative risk of
domestic violence for
women
(not
all
committed
by
partners)
was
higher for
separated or divorced
women,
in
low
income families,
in
council (public)
housing, and
in
low
social class families.
The
1991
BCS
also asked about the
life-time experience of physical violence
in
relationships,
and
11%
of women
who
had
lived with a partner
said
that there
had
been physical violence. However,
it
was
not
clear that the physical violence
had
been
perpetrated
by
the
man
against
the
woman
in
all cases.
The
BCS
collects information using face-to-face interviews
in
the household.
While this method
has
many
advantages,
the
problem
in
collecting data
on
marital violence
is
that
the
woman
may
be
inhibited
from
reporting because her
husband might overhear. Marital violence
is
likely
to
involve painful, embarrass-
ing
and traumatic events which women
may
be
unlikely
to
report
to
interviewers
in
the absence of special training
and
special methods for eliciting information.
Also,
many
women
live under a self-imposed curfew
and,
because of their fear
of crime,
are
unwilling
to
answer
the
door after
dark,
especially
in
inner city
areas.
In
1991,
the
BCS
response
rate
was
71%
in
inner cities
and
64%
for ethnic
minorities (Mayhew et al.,
1993;
p.
155).
Two
further problems
are
that
the
victimization questions
in
almost
all
cases cover a relatively short period (the
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