Spousal Sexual Abuse: The Worst of Domestic Violence

Abstract

Objective is to seek public perception about spousal sexual abuse now in many part of the world known as spousal rape or marital rape. Marital rape is simply the sexual act without the implied or expressed consent of spouse. This paper addresses the element of marital rape in two local communities - Lyari and Clifton, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan. The topic is not new but the acceptability is; mostly people avoid discussing such taboos in the public, for them rape doesn’t exist in the marital life. To find out the true picture, we have conducted a qualitative survey the methodology that we are following is qualitative survey of general public married spouses from two areas and the public servants those deal with this phenomenon in their capacities including the lawyers, religious scholars, and non-profit organizers. Our sample size is 200 concerned individuals and is equally divided in two areas. We opted a random sampling method based on qualitative research to reach the target audience in both the localities with an assumption to find the real deal. Our research is based on the volunteering response of the people regarding the concerned query, not to trigger or force people to share their respective experience/s. Instruments of research are questioners filled in by spouses from both areas. Hypothesis were tested using the method of  Z-Testing. The study will help us to clarify the public perception about unconsented sexual intercourse or spousal sexual harassment or marital rape.