Prior relationship, resistance, and injury in rapes: an analysis of crisis center records

Information about the rapes of 2,526 adult females was coded from the records of a rape crisis center to test the hypothesis that physically resisting a stranger would be more strongly related to injury than would physically resisting someone known to the victim. Among other differences, attacks by strangers were more likely to involve a weapon and to occur outdoors than were attacks by nonstrangers, and victims were less likely to physically resist strangers than nonstrangers. Across the entire sample, multivariate analyses revealed that physical resistance was significantly related to injury, even when other factors were held constant. Consistent with the hypothesis, physical resistance was more strongly related to injury when the rapist was a stranger than when the rapist was known to the victim.