Male Sexual Violence Research Articles

THE INVISIBLE INTRUDER:

The analysis of male sexual violence as an integrated phenomenon rests on a theoretical premise that violence and its threat are the foundation of male dominance. I call this phenomenon “sexual terrorism”: the system by which males frighten, and by frightening, dominate and control females. Sexual terrorism is manifested through both actual and implied violence and takes many forms. This article discusses the obscene phone call, a commonly experienced form of intimidation. In this study, while respondents reported a variety of responses to obscene phone calls, most experienced them as “terroristic.” The dynamics of obscene telephone calls mirror the social construction of gender and the fusion of dominance and sexuality.

The British peace movement: A critical examination of attitudes to male violence within the British peace movement, as expressed with regard to the “molesworth rapes”

Despite the fact that isolated writers in both the peace movement and the women's movement have identified the links between the issues of male violence towards women, and the causes of war, neither movement have to any great extent embraced the other's philosophy. Indeed, there is some conflict, particularly in the women's movement as to the relevance of feminism to pacifism. There is also an assumption amongst the peace movement that non-violent men are by definition pro-feminist. That this is a fallacy is clearly illustrated by the reactions of the peace movement to the horrifying series of rapes that took place at Molesworth mixed Peace Camp. A survey of the articles and letters that appeared in the Peace Media illustrates that the peace movement is no different from any other sector of society in its' attitudes to male sexual violence, and that feminists must engage the peace movement in full debate, making the links clear, and focussing the aims of the peace movement on the need to eliminate male violence as a pre-condition of achieving peace.

Men, women and sexuality: A feminist critique of the sociology of deviance

Synopsis This article critically examines a number of works by sociologists of deviance and locates three fundamental inadequacies regarding the nature of male sexual crimes against women. Firstly, there is a failure to distinguish those crimes which are deviant from those which are not; secondly, these writers ignore or trivialize the effects of male sexual crimes on their female victims; and thirdly, a world view is presented in which male sexual violence is recognized as a form of social control only in non-Western societies. The interactionist perspective, a strong current within the sociology of deviance, in particular subsumes heterosexual power structures within the overall context of mutual, consensual sexual relations. My discussion lends support to the claim that even radical sociology remains male-defined by situating the male actor at the centre of the analysis.