Date Rape

The problem of date rape is one that has been much discussed along with the related issues of sexual harassment and spousal abuse. All three may be a function of male aggression and socialization. Colleges and universities have to face the issue of date rape in particular and have had to develop policies intended to counter such tendencies and to make it known that date rape is wrong and will not be tolerated. It is not clear that these policies are effective in changing attitudes and in reducing the incidence of the problem, nor is it clear that a written policy can ever be fully effective in altering this sort of behavior. Cognizant of this uncertainty, many institutions are trying a number of strategies to counter the incidence of date rape, including holding seminars, instituting codes, informing incoming students of the school policy and of all measures that will be taken to deal with offenders, and similar approaches. How effective these efforts will be will only become apparent when they have been tested over time.

Date rape is defined as coerced sex between people who are acquainted, while the more commonly understood crime of rape usually takes place between strangers. As might be expected by the name, date rape is seen as coerced sex in a dating situation, though it can be defined more broadly to include coerced sex between husband and wife or even some forms of molestation by a relative or family friend coercing a younger member of the family. The FBI estim

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men have been subjected to date rape--show flexible definitions being used to reach such conclusions. Critics point out that nearly any sexual consent after male urging could be called "date rape" in some surveys. It is suggested that the actual rate of sexual assault is not one woman in two but 113 women in one hundred thousand ("Where no means no" 12). John Leo points out that the feminist view of rape is political: "Men run the world through patriarchal power, and rape is an expression of this power and a useful form of control" (Leo 17). However, the fact that some commentators may exaggerate the problem or have a political agenda does not negate the problem or change the fact that it must be addressed. Among colleges and universities, Swarthmore College led the country in developing a program to reduce the incidence of date rape or acquaintance rape. This was in 1985 when the college produced its own video to teach students about the problem, and the video is shown to freshmen at the beginning of the academic year. The message of the video was that both men and women must communicate in the relationship so that the woman says "no" forcefully, while the man must make his intentions clear. The national media played up

Category: Psychology - D