NCJ Number
144983
Journal
Social Problems Volume: 40 Issue: 2 Dated: (August 1993) Pages: 343-361
Date Published
1993
Length
19 pages
Annotation
Founders and early members of two rape crisis centers -- one in Washington, D.C., and one in Santa Cruz, California -- were interviewed to obtain data which were used in an analysis of the dynamic relationship between the local social and political context, organizational structure, and friendship networks among antirape movement participants.
Abstract
The surveys showed that all early members of both rape crisis centers had been involved in the antiwar and/or civil rights movements of the 1960's prior to their participation in the women's liberation movement and, more specifically, in antirape work. The respondents shared a radical feminist political perspective on violence against women, which they viewed as a means used by men to dominate, control, and humiliate women. They connected rape and racism and condemned the criminal justice system for its failure to provide a viable answer to sexual assault. While the two crisis centers initiated a number of similar measures, including hotlines, advocacy services for rape victims, public education campaigns, promotion of legal and medical reform, and self- defense education for women, they diverged on the strategies they employed to actively confront rape. The Washington, D.C. center focused on public education, and based their demonstrations on conventional and nondisruptive tactics, while the Santa Cruz center viewed itself as a primarily political organization and used innovative and unruly tactics to confront rapists. The center also published lists describing rapists not yet apprehended by the police or those who had committed rapes that were unreported by the victims. 37 references