Resisting rape, according to an article in this month's Cosmopolitan, is worthwhile and does not lead to further injury. The article cites a US study of 1.5m rape convictions over a decade which found that women who fought back tripled their chances of escape. How on earth this was calculated is not disclosed. One wonders whether resisting also trebled the chances of being killed. An analysis of the homicide statistics might be helpful here.
Crime prevention is all the rage at present and Scott Lindquist, author of The Date Rape Prevention Book (Sourcebooks, £10.99), prescribes the perfect no-cost strategy: women should defend themselves. He tells women to "outsmart" their attacker, to "take a risk and fight him off", to "trust your instincts - if one tactic isn't working, try another".
"Make the most of the first precious minutes," he advises. "At this time the rapist isn't in total control, so your chances are highest." The problem is that you won't be in control, either: studies of both men and women who are attacked show they are often "frozen" in the first few minutes and cannot then resist.
Other advice is equally simplistic. Call the police and a trusted friend who can be with you immediately. However distressed you are, don't have a bath. Call Rape Crisis. Such advice is all very well, but not very helpful. Calling Rape Crisis is unlikely to get a response when few services are funded sufficiently to be on call more than a few hours a day and many women do not feel up to speaking about the assault to anyone, let alone the police.
Generalising about resistance is also dangerous and distorting. It can be successful but it can also be life-threatening. In the 100 cases I studied for my book, Carnal Knowledge, I discovered that where women failed to escape, resistance often led to an escalation of violence, so could sometimes be a risky strategy. In such circumstances, surviving is more important than avoiding rape.
Such prescriptions also reinforce a common myth: that most rapes are by strangers. All the case studies quoted in Cosmopolitan involved such attacks - including a victim of the serial rapist Clive Barwell, who is said to have fought so hard that he ran off. Yet according to the most recent Home Office report, published last year, only 12% of reported rapes are by strangers; the other 88% are by acquaintances or partners which can make avoiding rape even more problematic. Contrary to popular belief, women attacked by partners or ex-partners suffer no less serious injuries and are more likely to be killed than women attacked by strangers. One woman I interviewed described how she had to have hospital treatment for concussion, a fractured cheekbone, black eyes and bruising. Another had passed out while being strangled by her ex-husband.
Some men who raped acquaintances did not need to use violence because the threat was sufficient. "He got a kettle of boiling water and threatened to throw it over me if I didn't get undressed"; "He threatened to wake my children and rape me in front of them."
Most women, when attacked by strangers, do resist when they can. In my survey, I found women did this in all sorts of ways: by screaming, fighting and biting, running away, refusing to cooperate, pretending they were pregnant or had Aids and by attempting to reason.
At times resisting worked, at times it didn't. Much depended on where the assault took place. Most rapes are planned and rapists are careful to isolate their victim first. Resisting may be effective where there is an escape route but in an underground car park or deserted spot, or where faced with an assailant much stronger than oneself, it may not be practicable or sensible.
Rita described the effect her resistance had after she was dragged by a stranger from a bus stop. "I remember thinking what people say you should do if you are attacked. 'I'd punch and kick him in the balls.' So I punched him there and he grabbed my head and slammed it into the wall and called me a fucking bitch. I started to cry ... he said if I didn't climb over the gate before he counted to 10 he would kill me, then he started counting ... He put his penis in my mouth and said that if I bit it, I was dead."
Advising women to resist also implies that women need to be told what to do. It holds them responsible. Women are often blamed and blame themselves for rape. If a woman physically resists and is severely hurt, she is told she should have acted more passively. If she does not resist, she is seen as accepting the violence. It is a no-win situation.
It is surely time men stopped writing books about how women can resist rape and concentrated on how to stop rape. With a conviction rate in England and Wales at an all-time low (a mere 6% of reported rapes now result in conviction), and with women still subjected to demeaning and humiliating cross-examination in court, a first step would be to reform the court process.
Sue Lees is the author of Carnal Knowledge: Rape on Trial (Penguin).