Reply to GollinAuthor(s): Allan JohnsonSource: Signs, Vol. 6, No. 2, Studies in Change (Winter, 1980), p. 349Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3173939 .

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Winter 1980 349

at providing advice to women based on empirical evidence on how to avoid sexual assault or protect oneself in an assault situation. Of par- ticular concern was the effectiveness of active resistance as a mode of response.

Of the many variables investigated, McIntyre, Myint, and Curtis found these to be the most important in determining the outcome of an assault event, with the two interrelated outcomes being defined as "rape/no rape" and "injury/no injury": time of year and day, presence of others, physical characteristics of the victims, place and perception of threat, and how the victim responded to the assault.

The relationships among these variables are elusive, and inter- pretation and inferences must be cautiously made. Even so, such findings offer a coherent empirical basis for evaluating strategies of risk avoidance. And by comparison with the BSSR study's enlightening focus on situational and action variables that can affect an individual's risks of rape with and without other injuries, how valuable is it to try to de- termine those risks solely associated with longevity?

Let me conclude by returning to my starting point. Acts of violence excite powerful moral judgments that can derail social analysis from the goals of accurate delineation of their rates of occurrence and of the factors affecting their likelihood of occurring. In the case of rape, I believe that it is important to assess risks accurately and in context, and to discover what can be done to prevent women being victimized at any age. Wholesale indictments of men or the American social structure that are only loosely based on demographic findings such as Johnson's are beside the point.

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Reply to Gollin

Allan Johnson

These data represent a particularly ugly human experience in our soci- ety; my own initial reaction to them was one of disbelief. I reexamined the data and submitted the analysis to experienced demographers for critical review, but the paper's main conclusion was inescapable: sexual violence is pervasive in the United States. These findings underscore the need for American men to confront our participation in a social system whose normal functioning entails violence against women.

Department of Sociology Wesleyan University

Signs

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