had no prior acquaintance or relationship.
There is an epidemic of violence in the United States (Arbetter, 1995, pp. 6-12). According to Federal Bureau of Investigation crime reports, 92,486 rapes of women were reported to police in 1988 (American Medical Association Council on Scientific Affairs, 1992, pp. 3184-3189). Law enforcement agents reported 102,555 forcible rapes during 1990, generating 80 rapes per 100,000 American females (Boxley, Lawrance, & Gruchow, 1995, 96-100). In the United States in 1993, there were 38.6 reported forcible rapes per each 100 thousand inhabitants. Estimates based on the National Crime Survey, which includes incidents not necessarily reported to the police, are nearly twice as high. An aggregate of data proposes that rape incidence may be six-to-10 times greater than that measured by the National Crime Survey. Prevalence studies using epidemiologic methods indicate that at least 20 percent of adult women, 15 percent of college women, and 12 percent of adolescent girls have experienced sexual abuse and assault during their lifetimes.
The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) found that only about half the women who suffered domestic abuse between 1987 and 1991 reported the incidents to the police (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1994, p. 110). The NCVS found differences of less than a 10 percent in the rate of family violence between those with household incomes of less than $10,000 and those earning more than $50,000.
Prior to the 1970s, the focus was on the danger of assault or rape by strangers or acquaintances (American Medical Association Council on Scientific Affairs, 1992, pp. 3184-3189). Violence in the family was thought to be infrequent and to result from psychopathology in the individuals involved rather than being viewed as a society-wide problem. Rape laws have been amended to protect victims of assault by marital partners. Nearly every state has established new legis...