Disparity Between Punitive Attitudes Toward Stranger Rape and Partner Rape: Evidence From Cross-National Survey Data

Abstract

While legally the same, acts of sexual abuse within and outside intimate relationships are not seen as equal by the public, and this distinction might also be reflected in preferred criminal punishment; some people might deem partner rape as deserving less harsh punishment than the rape of a stranger. Our secondary analysis examines differential punitiveness toward these two types of rape among the respondents ( n = 11,383) to a large population survey conducted in 2021 in Austria, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. As part of the survey, respondents chose preferred sentences for partner and stranger rape. Using these sentencing questions, we investigate the direction, extent, and demographic distribution of the differential punitiveness toward stranger and partner rape. A large group of respondents (ranging from 31.5% in Austria to 47.3% in Czechia) granted greater leniency to partner rape than to stranger rape and the reverse was rarely observed. More severe sentences were chosen for stranger rape more often than for partner rape. The individual bias toward leniency for partner rape was also typically stronger than the rare bias for stranger rape (the difference of 36 vs. 24 months of imprisonment, respectively). Relative leniency toward partner rape was particularly pronounced in Slavic countries, more prevalent among men, and positively correlated with age, right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation and rape myth acceptance. Drawing on our results and previous scholarship, we attribute the observed disparities to the persistence of rape myths and the legitimation of intra-relationship sexual violence by conventional belief systems.