Gender-Egalitarianism and the Construction of Official Rape Rates

Abstract

Cross-national variations in official crime rates likely represent several concurrent criminological and non-criminological phenomena beyond actual crime occurrence, resulting in puzzling relationships between variables. For example, research shows that structural gender equality predicts official rape rates. I extend this literature by examining whether the ethos or mainstream country-level attitudes and beliefs toward gender equality (or gender egalitarianism) affect official rape rates. Results suggest that while countries with higher levels of gender egalitarianism in the public sphere have higher official rape rates, nations with higher levels of gender-private egalitarianism have lower official rape rates. These outcomes imply that progressive attitudes toward the full participation of women in work, education, and politics are disjointed from gender-egalitarian views on parenting, divorce, and abortion. My findings align with previous studies showing a paradoxical positive association between structural gender equality and official rape rates. I problematize earlier interpretations of similar results as a backlash effect of women’s parity. Throughout the paper, I reflect on the impact of statistical and social factors in constructing official rape rates. I propose using an updated gender ideology framework to understand the complex relationship between private and public dimensions of equalitarianism and official rape rates.