Do 87% of female rape victims experience an orgasm during the attack?

Question

Several sources report that a study in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, titled "Shame and Guilt in the Aftermath of Sexual Attack" found that a vast majority — sometimes reported as 87% — experience an involuntary orgasm during the attack.

(Note: Many of the comments contain attitudes towards rape that many people may find disturbing.)

• AutoAdmit forum thread, attributing the words to MSNBC:

  A new study to be published in next month's Journal of Clinical Psychiatry is causing controversy in the psychiatric community for some of its unexpected findings. The study, titled "Shame and Guilt in the Aftermath of Sexual Attack", verifies much of what we know about the mental health of rape victims. However, one observation in particular is raising eyebrows. After analyzing the anonymous transcripts of over 5,000 post-rape counseling sessions, the authors point out that almost all female rape victims experience orgasm during the attack.

  Asked for comment, Dr. Herschel Liebowitz, one of the authors of the study, said, "Millions of years of evolution has hard-wired women to be attracted to strong, dominant, and aggressive men. Unfortunately, rapists exhibit an extreme form of these characteristics, even if only temporarily, and this causes an unexpected and involuntary physiological response in the victim."

I find the claim to be hardly believable, as the nature of a rape is pretty disgusting. I'd like to know if that scientific article existed and was accurate.

Answer 1

I'd like to know if that scientific article existed

No, it seems that the Liebowitz study is completely made up.

The MSNBC Article

The link that is given doesn't work anymore. But using the wayback machine, it can be seen what article was hosted on that link in 2010. It is an article about Springsteen, not about rape.

It is fair to conclude that this article never existed, but is made up.

Shame and Guilt in the Aftermath of Sexual Attack

This study doesn't seem to exist. The only hits on google are mens rights websites.

It's difficult to prove the absence of something, but even for redacted papers, there should be some trace of it online.

Using google, the earliest mention of the study that can be found are two forum posts from August 13th 2010 (1, 2).

Commenters on those forums doubted the correctness of the post, noting that the MSNBC article is about Bruce Springsteen and that the OP is a troll.

Herschel Liebowitz

This person doesn't seem to exist either. Again, the only results are MRA websites.

Herschel Leibowitz exists, but his field of research is visual perception (and he was 85 years old when the supposed study was published).

The only thing that actually exists from this story seems to be the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Actual Studies

There aren't many actual studies about this. Sexual arousal and orgasm in subjects who experience forced or non-consensual sexual stimulation does reference some studies and interviews about this topic:

A brief study by Ringrose24 however, about the elicitation of pelvic reflexes in rape victims, reported that in 25 cases of rape only one reported orgasm as a result of the sexual assault, an incidence of 4%. The low incidence may be due to embarrassment or the shame of giving a positive answer.

Citing a senior nurse-therapist:

Approximately 1 in 20 women who come to the clinic [...] for treatment because of sexual abuse report that they have had an orgasm from previous unsolicited sexual arousal.

Because of the nature of the question, and the implications that people quoting the supposed Liebowitz study make, it should also be noted that sexual arousal does not imply consent, that orgasm doesn't imply consent or enjoyment, and that rape is in fact a serious crime with sometimes long-lasting physical and psychological impact on the victim.