The author of a report which has revealed shocking details of rape within marriage in Victoria's north-east says she believes the problem is more widespread. The report was launched today in Benalla and author Deb Parkinson told The Age she had been surprised at what the interviewed women had been through and the brutality some had endured.
Researchers from Women's Health Goulburn North East and the local Centre Against Sexual Assault, interviewed almost 80 people over a two-year period from across the region, including victims, community workers and police.
"We had suspected that partner rape happened from some previous research we'd done but the extent of it really quite shocked us,'' Ms Parkinson said. "I think that the community doesn't recognise that partner rape exists in that way.
"I don't think there's anything particular about here that's any different. There's certainly issues about rurality but I think a lot of the findings relate equally well to women in cities, like the effects on women - why women won't seek help, why they don't want to report. What's particular about rurality is that conservativeness that often comes with it.''
Researchers interviewed one woman whose back was broken while being anally raped and another whose husband hit her around the head and then held a pillow over her face while he raped her. A third raped his wife of six weeks.
One victim told researchers she reported her rape case to her church minister, who told her to pray about it.
"It wasn't just the rape, it was hitting and verbal abuse and theft and drugs. It was a text book abusive marriage. I said to them, 'What if he kills me first?' They said, `At least you'll go to heaven','' the victim said in her interview.
The interviewed women were uneasy about the research and questioned where the line was drawn between rape and "just getting it over and done with''. They also suggested "it's just part of the compromise'' and that "you don't feel like it, but you do it for him''.
Ms Parkinson said many women were not aware they had been raped until after the event, or when they were told that their partner's actions constituted rape.
During interviews, police said many men believed they had a right to have sex within their marriage and would not describe their actions as rape. "If they had to be 100% honest they'd say, 'I did take advantage of her, but stuff it, she's my wife, it's Saturday night','' one officer surveyed for the report said.
Ms Parkinson said rape within marriage was not recognised as a problem in the community because its attitudes had not caught up with the law.
"The law was changed in 1985 to say that rape in marriage is a crime, and it's a serious crime, but as a community we're still hung up on a sense of conjugal rights that a man has - his entitlement to sex from a wife and I think that across the community that people think you can't really have rape in marriage.''
#######################Our 5th major campaign to Break the Silence on Domestic Violence launches on Monday, and not a moment too soon. I hope we can educate our customers that any form of rape is a crime and any form of sexual abuse including partners pressuring, manipulating, tricking, forcing or blackmailing is an inexcusable violation of human rights and unacceptable in our community. We want friends of people in abusive relationships to do a lot better than the priest mentioned in this article!
~ Adam
