Raped by a Partner: A research report

This report has implications for health professionals, GPs, ministers, community members and anyone who works with them. Partner rape is prevalent in our society

The project proposal describes how the research was undertaken to fill a gap in the available evidence about partner rape. It is qualitative research based on interviews with 21 women from the Goulburn Valley and north east Victoria; and interviews and focus groups with 30 police officers and 23 sector workers.

The 170 page final report contains an executive summary and a number of recommendations. Key amongst these is the need for awareness amongst men and women in our community that partner rape exists and is a crime. Even if a marriage or relationship exists, men have no entitlement to sex. Hard copies are available for $25, please contact WHGNE.

Download Report - Raped by a Partner
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Partner Rape: KNOW ABOUT IT, RESPOND EFFECTIVELY, PREVENT IT
This is an educational film for health and legal professionals, for women affected by partner rape, for men's groups and for the community, based on the research report.

View the Partner Rape DVD

Post Cards and Posters

If you would like to distribute the postcards or posters within your own networks, please contact us to have them sent to you. Post cards come in packs of 50 and posters are A4 in size.

Alternatively, if you would like a bigger distribution within your region, feel free to have them printed. The pdfs are ready to send to a printer, and the State-wide information (Victoria) is correct as of 16th April 2009.

Download Post Card
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Download Poster
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Health Professionals

A four-step plan has been developed for health professionals, GPs, ministers, community members and anyone who works with women. Our aim is that workers begin to name women's experiences for what they are and to understand how to respond effectively.

As a health professional, you can do something in just four steps:

ASK - 'Are you safe within your relationship?'
NAME IT - 'What you’ve just described to me is rape and it's a crime'.
RESPOND - 'Give contact details:
- Centre Against Sexual Assault 1800 806 292
- Women's Domestic Violence Crisis Line 1800 015 188
- Victoria Police 000 or your local Victoria Police Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Units
FOLLOW UP - 'Last time you spoke about your safety. I'd like to know how you are now.'

Launch

Raped by a Partner: A research report was launched Tuesday the 15th July 2008.

Introduction of Raped by a Partner: Susie Reid
Presentations by Women: Janet, Jacqui, Kim
Keynote Presentation: Zoe Morrison, Coordinator, Australian Centre for the Study of Sexual Assault (ACSSA), at the Australian Institute of Family Studies
Presentation of Research: Researchers, Kerry Burns, and Debra Parkinson
Presentations by Women: Elizabeth, Julia

Raped by a partner: Nowhere to go, No-one to tell

Introduction and background
WHGNE and Upper Murray Centre Against Sexual Assault (UMCASA) formed a partnership to research partner rape in the Hume region to contribute to an evidence base and fill a gap in our knowledge and understanding. The need for the research became increasingly apparent as we realised our society does not recognise partner rape as a problem. We don't talk about it. We don't even name it as rape.

Twenty years ago men could rape their wives without fear of criminal charge. In 1985, this changed.

Section 38 of the Crimes Act 1958 a person must not commit rape.
Penalty: Level 2 imprisonment (25 years maximum).

Sub-section 62(2) of the Crimes Act 1958 states:
The existence of a marriage does not constitute, or raise any presumption of, consent by a person to an act of sexual penetration with another person or to an indecent assault (with or without aggravating circumstances) by another person. (The Crimes (Amendment) Act 1985 s 10)

Yet, society does not seem to have caught up with the change. We wonder about what rape by a partner is. We put it in a different class to stranger rape, 'real rape' where a woman is literally dragged into the bushes as she walks home from work. We don’t take it seriously.

As researchers, we encountered unease from people when we mentioned the research we were about to undertake. Women, in particular, said things like:

'Hmm, it's such a grey area.'
'What's the line between rape and just getting it over and done with?'
'You don't feel like it, but you do it for him.'
'We've all done it.'
'It's just part of the compromise.'

In this research, we consulted 21 women (including five from Aboriginal communities) covering a range of geographic locations and ages; 23 workers (from DV, sexual assault, health, community and police sectors and included workers with the Indigenous community); and 30 police officers (from Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Unit, Criminal Investigation Unit, and uniformed police from both sides of the region). Consultations have been through focus groups and in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Ethics approval was gained from NHMRC and the Victoria Police Research Coordinating Committee.

As we spoke to women and workers, it became clear that what makes it rape is a culture of fear and control in the relationship; or knowing 'No' is not an option; or where consent is not gained.

For women, it is like this ...

I was crying, yelling, screaming, saying, 'It's hurting, let me go'. But he never stopped.
I was too naïve and too scared to say no, but I do remember saying no … it was useless, he went and did it anyway.
He said, '…lay down and take it and I'm having some and I'm gonna take it, and that's what he told me. I said, 'No you're not', and we ended up in a big fight, but he was stronger than me.
It was useless saying no, so you stop.

For him, she thinks it is like this…

He thought it was his right. He owned me with his piece of paper [the marriage certificate].
He didn't think there was anything wrong with doing what he did. 'All men do that'. He said, 'You're my wife - we had sex'.
At counselling, he said there was nothing wrong in our marriage. It was normal.
He wouldn't say it was rape. I don't think he would even remember the night and what happened if I asked him today.

This research suggested to us that increasing isolation means increased risk for women. There is more opportunity for entrapment and monitoring and a greater prevalence of conservative attitudes towards gender roles. To exacerbate this, there are few support services for violence and sexual assault against women in rural and remote areas.

As a health professional, you can do something in just four steps:

ASK - 'Are you safe within your relationship?'
NAME IT - 'What you’ve just described to me is rape and it's a crime'.
RESPOND - 'Give contact details:
- Centre Against Sexual Assault 1800 806 292
- Women's Domestic Violence Crisis Line 1800 015 188
- Victoria Police 000 or your local Victoria Police Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Units
FOLLOW UP - 'Last time you spoke about your safety. I'd like to know how you are now.'

May 2007

Raped by a Partner project activities and acheivements:

Forthcoming: Parkinson, D. ‘A man’s right?’ in Louise McOrmond-Plummer, Jennifer Levy-Peck & Patricia Easteal AM, Perpetrators of Intimate Partner Sexual Violence: Prevention, Recognition, and Intervention. UK: Routledge.
Parkinson, D., & Zara, C. (2013). Issues Faced by Intimate Partner Sexual Violence Survivors in Rural Areas In L. McOrmond-Plummer, P. Easteal & J. Levy-Peck (Eds.), Intimate Partner Sexual Violence: A Multidisciplinary Guide to Improving Services and Support for Survivors of Rape and Abuse. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Parkinson, D., & Reid, S. (2013). "Invisible" Intimate Partner Sexual Violence: Prevention and Intervention Challenges. In L. McOrmond-Plummer, P. Easteal & J. Levy-Peck (Eds.), Intimate Partner Sexual Violence: A Multidisciplinary Guide to Improving Services and Support for Survivors of Rape and Abuse. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Parkinson, D. (2013). Overcoming fear to say the words, ‘Partner Rape’. Paper presented at the 7th Australian Women's Health Conference, Sydney.
The Partner Rape project was awarded a Certificate of Merit and financial prize in April 2011 by the Australian Institute of Criminology.
A three-part ABC radio show on the Raped by a Partner report was nominated for a UN Media Peace Prize, and was shortlisted to three.
In the week after the launch, a presentation was made to the Australian Institute of Criminology Forum held in conjunction with the Office of Women’s Policy (DPCD); Dept of Justice and DHS. This forum was attended by 60 policy makers and bureaucrats.
Wesnet funded WHGNE $46,000 to make an educational film, entitled, Partner Rape: Know about it, respond effectively, prevent it’. (Requests for the DVD have come from the US and the UK, and for its inclusion in a Webinar hosted by the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault programs in Washington State early in 2010.)
The DVD was launched by Libby Lloyd, AM, Chair of the National Violence Against Women Advisory Group and Prof. S. Caroline Taylor, Edith Cowan University. The event was held in Melbourne on 7.12.2009 with an audience of 70 policy makers, practitioners and bureaucrats.
ADFVC Forum, ‘Intimate partner sexual violence: Best practice responses forum and training’, Savoy Hotel, Melbourne, 17-18 March 2011. Presentation by D. Parkinson and J. Tyler.
Invited (and accepted) to present as keynote to the Intimate Partner Sexual Violence seminar hosted by the ACT DV Intervention Council on Thursday 21 June 2012.

A Time for Action: The National Council’s Plan for Australia to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, 2009-2021 quoted Raped by a Partner in our estimate that one in 10 Australian women will experience partner rape in their lifetimes (p. 112).

The Partner Rape report is quoted several times in the Australian Law Reform Commission’s ‘Improving Legal Frameworks April 2010’ on a new legal framework for family violence, highlighting issues regarding rape within a family violence context. See: http://www.alrc.gov.au/inquiries/current/family-violence/CP1/zz_whole_consult_paper.pdf
In email correspondence to Women's Health Goulburn North East, The Victoria Police wrote: ‘The report was found to be relevant to the Force and it raised issues that are worthy of further consideration by Victoria Police’. Advised by police it was to be included on their BlueTube channel.
Postcard use (for example):
- Australian Bureau of Statistics workers requested the 4-step postcards to give to their interviewers for surveys including the Personal Safety Survey, where women often disclose partner rape.
- Victorian Legal Aid requested postcards for their outreach workers.
- The Jean Hailes Foundation for Women’s Health have used it in the course on women’s health that they run for International Medical Graduates.
- Red Cross requested the postcards for their volunteers to use in the Mitchell and Murrindindi bushfire affected regions of Victoria as they door-knock households to offer assistance.

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