The Socio-Cultural Context of Rape

摘要

The purpose of this research was to investigate the incidence, meaning, and function of rape in tribal societies. Two general hypotheses guided the research. The first was that the incidence of rape varies cross-culturally. The second hypothesis stated that a high incidence of rape is embedded in a distinguishably different cultural configuration than a low incidence of rape. Using a standard cross-cultural sample of 186 tribal societies, the general objectives of this research can be summarized as follows: (1) to provide a descriptive profile of 'rape prone' and 'rape free' societies; (2) to present an analysis of the attitudes, motivations, and socio-cultural factors related to the incidence of rape; (3) to present a scenario for the evolution of 'rape prone' versus 'rape free' cultural configurations.