Our Blood: Prophecies and Discourses on Sexual Politics

“. . . there are no outstandingly ominous signs in [the rapists’]

presex-offense histories; indeed, their heterosexual adjustment

is quantitatively well above average. ”16

Dr. Menachim Amir, an Israeli criminologist, did an intensive survey of 646 rape cases handled by the Philadelphia Police Department from January to December 1958 and from

January to December 1960. In his study, Patterns of Forcible

Rape, he criticizes psychoanalytic interpretations of rapists’

behavior by pointing out that studies “indicate that sex offenders do not constitute a unique clinical or psychopathological type; nor are they as a group invariably more disturbed than

the control groups to which they are compared. ”17

Or, as Allan Taylor, a parole officer in California, said:

“Those men [convicted rapists] were the most normal men

[in prison]. They had a lot of hang-ups, but they were the

same hang-ups as men walking out on the street. ”18

In Amir’s study, most rapists were between fifteen and nineteen years old. Men twenty to twenty-four constituted the second largest group. 19 In 63. 8 percent of the cases, the

offender and the victim were in the same age group ( ± 5

years); in 18. 6 percent, the victim was at least ten years

younger than the offender; in 17. 6 percent, the victim was at

least ten years older. 20

The FBI, in its Uniform Crime Reports, reported that in

1974, 55, 210 women were raped in this country. This was

an 8 percent increase over 1973, and a 49 percent increase

over 1969. The FBI notes that rape is “probably one of the

most under-reported crimes due primarily to fear and/or embarrassment on the part of its victims. ”21 Carol V. Horos, in her book Rape, estimates that for every rape reported to the

police, ten are not. 22 Applying Horos’ estimate to the number

of rapes reported in 1974 brings the total estimate of rapes

committed in that year to 607, 310. It is important to remember that FBI statistics are based on the male definition of rape, and on the numbers of men arrested and convicted for rape

under that definition. According to the FBI, of all those rapes

reported to the police in 1974, only 51 percent resulted in

arrest, and in only one case out of ten was the rapist finally

convicted. 23

According to Medea and Thompson who studied rape victims, 47 percent of all rapes occurred either in the victim’s or the rapist’s home; 10 percent occurred in other buildings; 18

percent occurred in cars; 25 percent occurred in streets, alleys, parks, and in the country. 24 Both Amir, who studied rapists, and Medea and Thompson, who studied rape victims,

agree that the chances are better than 50 percent that the

rapist will be someone the victim knows— someone known by

sight, or a neighbor, a fellow worker, a friend, an ex-lover, a

date. 25 Medea and Thompson also ascertained that 42 percent of rapists behaved calmly, and that 73 percent used force. 26 In other words, many rapists are calm and use force

at the same time.

For us as women, this information is devastating. Over half

a million women were raped in this country in 1974, and rape

is on the rise. Rapists are normal heterosexual men. At least

50 percent of rape victims will be raped by men they know. In

addition, according to Amir, 71 percent of all rapes were fully