Marital Rape And Domestic Abuse

In order to understand marital rape you need to understand what domestic abuse is. Domestic abuse/violence is assault, battery, intimidation, sexual assault or any other abusive behavior that is perpetrated by an intimate partner against another. Marital Rape is when a partner forces another partner to engage in sexual activity; this occurs in all types of marriages regardless of race, age, economic status, race or ethnicity. Marital rape occurs in domestic abusive situations. The two types of abuse go hand in hand.

This is more common problem then you may think, about 12 percent of all married women are raped some time during their marriage. Men are raped and abused as well but there are fewer statistics due to the lack of reporting. The percentage of women who are raped could be higher as well because all officials have to go on is reported cases of sexual assault.

Marital rape also accounts for about a quarter of all rapes. Some women or men may never know that they are rape victims. For along time rape wasn't considered 'possible' in marriages because apparently when you say 'I do' at the alter; you are saying yes to everything. Some people feel that because you are married that doesn't mean you can say no to sex. You have the right to say no at anytime in a relationship!

Women who are raped and battered by their partners usually experience sexual violence in many ways. For example after a battering incident the abuser may want to make up after a 'fight' and coerce his partner into having sex. Coercion dose not equal consent.

Some of the consequences of marital rape are other injuries. Very few women will seek medical attention after an assault because either they feel ashamed or fear for their safety. Survivors of intimate partner abuse are at a higher risk of having physical and psychological problems. The economic impact because of this is overwhelming. It costs about 5.8 billion dollars a year and of that 4 billion dollars are spent on medical care. The cost for employers is phenomenal as well; it ranges from about 2-12 billion dollars a year.