By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

A NEW University of The Bahamas study has found that one in 12 or an estimated 4,000 married women have been raped by their husbands.

The study suggested that around 6,000 wives claimed being victims of sexual abuse. This would be any sexual activity that occurs without consent and refers to a sexual assault or sexual violence, including unwanted sexual touching, forced oral sex, and rape, among other sexual acts.

Overall, married women were more likely to be sexually abused than a single woman by an intimate partner, researchers found.

Between mid-September and mid-October of this year, some students at the university collected data from 1,700 women. Of this number, 455 were married and were asked about their experiences of rape and sexual abuse in their current relationships.

The study sought to quantify the extent of the issue against the backdrop that there has been increased outcry for the criminalisation of rape within marriage since the offence does not exist in Bahamian law.

“The results indicate that around eight percent, or one in 12 married women, reportedly have been raped by their husband,” William Fielding said of the study in a letter to The Tribune.

Mr Fielding is an adjunct faculty member of University of The Bahamas. He told this newspaper the study has yet to be published, however, he released some of its findings to The Tribune for discussion.

“This means that around 3,600 married women have been raped by their husbands. The corollary of this is that one in 12 husbands have had sex with their wife against her will.

“Admitting to rape requires courage, so we might validly interpret this figure as ‘at least eight percent’ and so estimate the figure as being in the region of 4,000 women.

“Further, 13 percent of married women, or about one in eight, indicated that they had been sexually abused by their husband. This would translate to about 6,000 sexually abused wives.”

He noted that sexual abuse “is any sexual activity that occurs without consent. Also referred to as sexual assault or sexual violence, it includes unwanted sexual touching, forced oral sex, and rape, among other sexual acts,” according to Psychology Today.

“Overall, a married woman was 1.6 times more likely to be sexually abused by her husband than a single woman by her current intimate partner,” he added.

Mr Fielding went on to note: “What might be overlooked in a discussion on rapists is that men who rape their wives are typically violent persons.

“In our research, 44 percent of married women who had been raped had also been physically hurt by their husband, compared to 13 percent percent of married women who had not been raped. Our data indicate that rape is associated with not only violent behaviour, but also psychological abuse of women.

“Therefore, there is a need to protect married women from behaviours of concern connected with rape. Other University of The Bahamas research, by Dr Elizabeth Williams and others, demonstrates the often-ignored long lasting detrimental effects suffered by women as a result of even a single experience of rape. As with all mental health and psychological issues, these can be downplayed because they are less visible than physical wounds.”

He said if the country is willing to project the results of this study onto the wider population, the question that may be considered is “should the country change a law to provide legal protection to around 4,000 women who have been raped by their husbands?”

Mr Fielding said the last census indicates that 44,464 women over the age of 15 are married and so by definition cannot be raped by their husbands.

“So approximately 45,000 women are not protected by the law should their husband force them to have sex against their will,” he noted.

The study comes as the government has said it intends to criminalise spousal sexual abuse.

The proposed Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act was last month presented during the Ministry of Social Services and Department of Gender and Family Affairs’ sexual offences legislation one day symposium.

The draft amendment to the Sexual Offences Act seeks to criminalise marital rape and redefine what consent is.