MARITAL RAPE IN THE NEWS

Legal recognition of marital rape as a crime occurred in England and W ales in 1991. A study of nine newspapers during the first complete yea r of operation (1992) indicates that media coverage of marital rape ca ses has been muted. Six cases were reported in 1992 illustrating a wid e range of contexts of marital rape. Only cases where the husband with a drink problem threatened his estranged wife with a knife before rap ing her resulted in a prison sentence. The notion of estrangement acco mpanied by violence seemed usefully to endorse the traditional stereot ype of rape, so these cases appeared non-contentious. The other cases which were more challenging as cases of marital rape produced outcomes which seemed unsatisfactory for the women involved in a variety of wa ys. Surprisingly, there is no evidence of any marital rape cases being mentioned in The Times in 1993 which suggests either that the new cri me of marital rape is not being much used or that there is now an avoi dance of potentially contentious cases coming before the courts.