Examples of acquaintances include someone the victim is dating, a classmate, co-worker, employer, family member, spouse, counselor, therapist, religious official, or medical doctor.
[10] A 2004–05 study of 30 predominantly European countries by the United Nations Research Institute found about half of rape victims knew their rapists, over a third by name.
[11] In a major 2009 European Commission study of rape cases across Europe, it was found that 67% of rapists were known to the victim, with most being a current or former partner.
In 1985 the Association of American Colleges published a report describing what were then called "trains", in which multiple male students rape a woman who is incapacitated by drugs or alcohol.
[9] In a U.S. National Women's Study, 20% of rapists were described as friends, 16% as husbands, 14% as boyfriends, and 9% non-relatives such as handymen, coworkers and neighbours.
Rape of domestic and migrant workers by their employers has been reported in many countries including Kuwait,[18][19] the United Arab Emirates,[18] Saudi Arabia,[20] Malaysia,[18] Singapore[18] and Indonesia.
The National Crime Victims Research & Treatment Center compared rape rates of college students and community women.
Among rapes that were facilitated by alcohol or other drugs so that the victim was unable to fellate, virtually all cases (93%) were perpetrated by an acquaintance or an intimate partner.
However, researchers say that acquaintance rapists generally share common characteristics: the ability to enjoy sex even with someone who is intoxicated, crying, pleading, resisting, vomiting and/or unconscious, and an exaggerated sense of entitlement and lack of guilt, remorse, empathy and compassion for others.
[1] A study of 15 upper-middle-class American non-stranger rapists found many described their fathers as both physically and emotionally distant, and expressed hostility towards women and a desire to dominate them, and held hyper-masculine attitudes.
One researcher theorized that men who have healthy relationships with their fathers may have less need to define themselves in opposition to women and be less inclined to "hypermasculine displays of male superiority.
"[23] Researchers say gang rape is motivated by a desire to show off, to be part of a group, or fear of being ostracized by other men or boys if they don't participate.
It is a well-accepted finding first reported in the late 1980s (Koss et al., 1988) repeated in the early 2000s (Fisher et al., 2003) and most recently replicated by Kilpatrick et al. 2007.