The study method consisted of company interviews of a group of 63 rape victims and a matched group of nonreporting victims. The interview questions focused on the rationale for the victim's behavior. Nonreporting subjects considered the variables of personal disorder, denial, rationalization, search for meaning, victim precipitation, and isolation significantly more important than reporting subjects did. Reporting women considered the variables of anxiety, humiliation, rapist familiarity, shame, and anger significantly more often in their responses. All respondents reported disruption in their physical, behavioral, social, and sexual lifestyles. Nonreporting subjects were more likely to accept the facts about the rape and the reality of its consequences. Some of these women actually rationalized what happened to support the event. Non-reporting women nonetheless experienced more emotional trauma and greater disruption than did their reporting counterparts had difficulty accepting the possibility of chance factors casting them into the victim role, and tended to blame themselves more frequently than their reporting counterparts. The anxiety felt by the reporting subjects made coping with the rape incident virtually impossible. This group was somewhat less likely to have known the attacker. References are provided.