Rape Resistance: A Critical Piece of all Women’s Empowerment and Holistic Rape Prevention

Abstract

ABSTRACT In an ecological model, many strategies and tools are needed to help respond to sexual assault in terms of risk, response, recovery, and prevention. A holistic strategy should be based on empirical research evidence and informed by a critical intersectional analysis of women’s social location/gender inequality in society. In addition, rape prevention should include efforts to increase women’s ability to avoid rape and its associated deleterious outcomes. This article critically reviews arguments and research regarding rape resistance and self-defense training to support a multi-faceted rationale for including rape resistance as a central piece of rape prevention efforts in a society characterized by high rape rates. Contrary to some arguments against resistance training, I argue that rape resistance is not mutually exclusive or contradictory to other forms of rape prevention, including bystander intervention, which ultimately also relies on individuals to intervene to stop sexual assaults. Community responsibility is important, but should not be framed as better than other forms of individual and collective empowerment or sufficient to stop rape. An effective approach must include education, prevention, and activism at multiple levels of the social ecology.