Rape tactics from the survivors' perspective: Contextual dependence and within-event independence

This study uses sexual assault data drawn from both standard questionnaires and unstructured narratives to examine the association between the victim/perpetrator relationship and the tactics used to commit sexual assault. Participants, who were raped by strangers, acquaintances, dates, steady boyfriends, husbands, ex-husbands, and other relatives, provided narrative accounts of their rape experiences and responses to standard questionnaire items. Narratives were coded for the occurrence of different perpetrator behaviors such as use of force, threats of negative consequences, and use of alcohol or drugs to commit the rape. Based on factor analysis, these narrative-derived items were combined with questionnaire items to form two tactic scales: Power Tactics and Drug Tactics. Analysis revealed that tactic use varied according to the relationship between perpetrators and victims, and the use of Power Tactics was uncorrelated with use of Drug Tactics across all relationship types.