Patricia Searles

THE FEMINIST SELF-DEFENSE MOVEMENT: A Case Study

This article discusses feminist self-defense as a victim-prevention strategy, describes the nature and scope of the self-defense movement, examines a case history of a womens self-defense organization, and analyzes the mobilization and organizational dilemmas that confronted that organization. We compare self-defense services with victim services to help explain the development of the womens self-defense movement, and in particular, its feminist component.

Rape and Society: Readings on the Problem of Sexual Assault

Feminist Foundations For The Study Of Rape And Society * Rape Poem Marge Piercy. * The Trauma of Rape: The Case of Ms. X Diana E.H. Russell. * The Social Context of Rape: Sexual Scripts and Motivation Stevi Jackson. * Sex and Violence: A Perspective Catharine A. MacKinnon. * Hidden Rape: Sexual Aggression and Victimization in a National Sample of Students in Higher Education Mary P. Koss. Why Men Rape * Jay: An Armchair Rapist Timothy Beneke. * Riding the Bull at Gilleys: Convicted Rapists Describe the Rewards of Rape Diana Scully and Joseph Marolla. * Considering Sex Offenders: A Model of Addiction Judith Lewis Herman. * Pornography as Sex Discrimination C. A. MacKinnon. Varieties Of Rape And Sexual Assault * Child Sexual Abuse Ellen Bass. * These Are the Things I Remember Maggie Hoyal. * White Man Wants a Black Piece: The Case of Sonia Morrell D.E.H. Russell. * Fraternities and Rape on Campus Patricia Yancey Martin and Robert A. Hummer. * Types of Marital Rape David Finkelhor and Kersti Yllo. * The Sexual Politics of Murder Jane Caputi. * Making Female Bodies the Battlefield Susan Brownmiller. * Dispatch from Bosnia-Herzegovina: A Seventeen-Year-Old Survivor Testifies to Systematic Rape Nina Kadc. * For a Paralyzed Woman Raped and Murdered While Alone in Her Own Apartment Leslie A. Donovan. Rape And The Legal System * Is it Rape? Susan Estrich. * Jack and Ken T. Beneke. * Discrediting Victims Allegations of Sexual Assault: Prosecutorial Accounts of Case Rejections Lisa Frohmann. * Rape, Racism, and the Law Jennifer Wriggins. * Rape-Law Reform: Its Nature, Origins, and Impact Ronald J. Berger, Patricia Searles, and W. Lawrence Neuman. Surviving And Preventing Rape * Rape Trauma Syndrome Ann Wolbert Burgess. * When You Grow Up an Abused Child Christina Glendenning. * Raped: A Male Survivor Breaks His Silence Fred Pelka. * And He Turned Around and Ran Away Gail Groves. * Conclusion P. Searles and R. J. Berger. * Our Stunning Harvest E. Bass.

CONFLICTING IDEOLOGIES AND THE POLITICS OF PORNOGRAPHY

This article analyzes positions on pornography using Q-methodology. Eighty-five respondents sorted a sample of 86 opinion statements on definitions of pornography, personal reactions to it, its causes and effects, and social policy recommendations. Factor analysis was used to identify clusters of individuals in the United States who share common subjectively defined points of view on pornography. The three patterns of responses that emerged from the analysis were labeled Religious-Conservative, Liberal, and Antipornography Feminist. Using the empirical data, we examine the logical and ethical structures of these points of view and their political and legal implications. We conclude that the viewpoints are too incompatible to sustain stable and effective political alignments among the adherents.

The Impact of Rape Law Reform: An Aggregate Analysis of Police Reports and Arrests

This aggregate analysis of rape law reform in 48 states complements existing individual-level studies by providing a picture of the nationwide impact of the reforms. A theoretical model of rape law impact is developed, and the effects of several reform measures on official rape rates are examined through multiple regression analyses that control for contextual and etiological factors. The results indicate that rape law reform is for the most part unrelated to rape rates, although there are departures from this pattern. In particular, there are significant effects of an index of definitional reforms and a variable that measures the criminalization of nonconsensual sexual contacts not involving clearly demonstrable force or other extreme circumstances. There are also interactive effects between law reform and contextual variables, as well as direct effects of contextual and etiological variables.