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Date rape, or sexual assault in dating and acquaintance relationships, is forced sexual activity in a dating or social situation. Although this is most commonly perpetrated by men while in high school, college, and university, date rape, and any form of dating violence can offur in relationships anytime. The assialant meight be a co-worker, boss, neighbor, friend of a friend and so on. This is referred to as acquaintance rape. Date rape is when the assailant is a man she is dating.
Men who commit date or acquaintance rapes have usually spent time and energy gaining the trust of the women they violate. They gain access to women through social situations and seek and create opportunities to assault through isolation, impairment, coercion, and threats. Often the assailant is very presentable, well-liked, and "gentlemanly" until the woman resists his sexual advances. The assailant appears credible in the eyes of the woman's friends and to the authorities reducing the likelihood of the women being believed.
Perpetrators exploit societal beliefs which blame the women they assalt, by using societal "myths" about women to excuse their violence. Some of these include the idea that women are responsible for avoiding the actions of potential prepetrators by changing their own behaviour. Victims of stranger rape range from infants to women in their 90's, but the majority of date rapists attack women between the ages of 15 and 25. Most date rapists use just emough force to gain compliance, so severe physical injuiries are rare. This may be partly because date rapists see their action as normal sex, not as assault. 1 in 12 males students had committed acts that met the legal requirements of rape or attempted rape, but fully 84% of the men who committed rape said that what they did was definitely not rape. Men who assault women they know often call the women afterwards to see if she would like to ahve another "date". Men's attitudes towards sexuality and women contribute significantly to these warped behaviours. A recent survey of 114 undergraduate male students in two American universities revealed, among other findings, a disturbing level of agreement with the following statements:
Spousal assault often called "wife assault", "domestic violence", "family violence", or "wife battering" is assault in marriage or other intimate, adult relationships. Spousal assautl takes many forms including emotional, sexual, physical and financial. As in other forms of violence, the motivation of the abuser is to gain and maintain power and control. Spousal assault shares characteristics and tactics with other forms of torture including physical violence, coercion, isolation and threats. Sexual violence is often common in relationships where abusers use other, more recognizable forms of violence, such as battery.
Stalking, or criminal harassment, is persistent and menacing unwanted behaviour directed at (usually) a woman by a man. Criminal harassment is behaviour that is intimidating, threatening and persists long after it has benn clearly communicated that the behaviour is unwanted. Some examples of criminal harassment include: stalking/following a person, lurking near her home and workplace, appearing at places she usually goes; repeated phone calls, regardless of the content; unwanted contact through other means such as the mail, mutual friends or family members and terrorism - direct physical and sexual violence, criminal acts directed at the property of the victim and sabotage of the victim's reputation. Most often, the stalker is the former partner of the victim.
