Previous epidemiological studies of 18-22 year-old college students have revealed high rates of overt rape as well as lesser degrees of sexual aggression among them. Also, a phenomena known as acquaintance rape has been found to be extremely prevalent in this group and has been linked to significant short-term and possibly long-term psychopathology. Furthermore, the fact that rape is an underreported and underconvicted crime suggests the existence of """"""""hidden rape"""""""" among such """"""""normal"""""""" populations that involves victims who don't report to authorities and offenders who aren't detected. The project proposes administration of a questionnaire to an ethnically and geographically diverse national sample of 5,000 students at 50 institutions of higher education. The goals are (1) to determine whether college students are indeed at high risk for rape; (2) to develop an empirical data base, based on both hidden and identified subjects, on the etiology of rape including psychopathological, situational, and attitudinal factors; (3) to examine the possibly unique traumatic impact of acquaintance rape on the emotional and sexual adjustment of the victim; and, (4) to disseminate the results in a national magazine with a large college student readership in an attempt to reduce rape through primary prevention.
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