Creating an alternative framework for preventing rape: applying Haddon's injury prevention strategies

As rape becomes recognized as a public health issue, new paradigms must be constructed to discover viable solutions to this highly prevalent problem. Although the injury prevention field has begun to examine rape and offer solutions, physical injuries surrounding rape tend to become the focus in injury prevention literature, thereby minimizing the trauma of rape itself. This article applies William Haddon's ten general strategies for injury prevention to rape, in order to shift our focus away from women and their behavior onto the systemic causes of rape. These strategies have the advantage of encompassing a wide variety of injury reduction measures from many hazards and have provided the means to conceptualize solutions to an extensive range of issues. The application of these strategies emphasizes sociocultural factors and perpetrator, not victim, responsibility. Through this process, a broader range of normative and structural changes can be identified to promote rape prevention.