Just saw this UN funded study in the Lancet (you can download full-text as well) after reading this news item about the study. Stunningly, 1:4 men in the large cross-sectional study indicated they had forced sex on a woman, whether girlfriend, spouse, or stranger. They did not use the word “rape” in the study in order to get at the issue of consent. For some, rape conjures a violent act at gunpoint. However, when it is used to describe (as it should!) sex with those who are unable to consent (inebriated, too young, etc.) or those who consent unwillingly (forced spousal sex), you can see the numbers show a common belief that men need to find sexual release and that females must comply.
I also found the re-offending rates stunning. Those who commit one rape are much more likely to commit a second rape. This is of course not surprising if the society does not punish the first one nor give women the possibility of seeking justice after rape.
Does anyone know of a recent similar study done here in the US? I would like to see that too. One might hope that attitudes are different here but I suspect there is a similar if less frequent pattern here.
If you have access to the US Dept. of Justice reports, you might get some more complete stats, but RAINN has these on their website: http://www.rainn.org/get-information/statistics/sexual-assault-offenders. From this and other articles, it seems that acquaintance-rape is more common in the US, and college-age women are most likely to be victims. This makes terrible sense with the mix of alcohol, unsupervised teens, drug abuse and sexual freedom that we have on most college campuses.