Hidden, Unacknowledged, Acquaintance, and Date Rape: Looking Back, Looking Forward

In this commentary, the author reflects on two articles that have been among the most highly cited publications in "Psychology of Women Quarterly" ("PWQ") over its first 35 years, "The Hidden Rape Victim: Personality, Attitudinal, and Situational Characteristics" (Koss, 1985) and "Stranger and Acquaintance Rape: Are There Differences in the Victim's Experience?" (Koss, Dinero, Seibel, & Cox, 1988). Looking back, the author has made decisions that were motivated both by unselfish and selfish motives. In terms of the former, initially she had not been drawn to academia; instead she sought a practice job where she could help people. Her mentor, however, was insistent that she would help more people through scholarship than using other facets of clinical psychology. Thus, she embarked on a research academic career with the naive belief that changes in attitudes, policy, law, treatment, and prevention were simply awaiting the right data. Here, the author focuses on situating the two "PWQ" articles both in the past and in the present by highlighting (a) the intellectual context in which the author and her colleagues began their work; (b) their use of language; (c) definitions of research questions, design, and methodology; and (d) dissemination of knowledge.