As a profiler I am often asked what motivates men to rape. Rape is a complicated, often poorly understood, individualized behaviour that appears to be precipitated by a variety of internal and external stimuli.
Evidence indicates that sexual gratification is the rapist’s most common (if not universal) goal. The sexual arousal of the rapist is the one common factor in all types of rape, including date rape, rape of children, rape of women under anesthetic, even gang rape and rape committed by soldiers during war. However, there are a number of additional causes and motives that contribute to the reasons men rape.
Rape Myths
One in four women worldwide have been victims of domestic or sexual assault. South Africa is known as the Rape Capital of the world with statistics that are frightening. In South Africa 28 out of 38 men interviewed for a Sky News survey admitted to raping a woman. In Botswana rape is on the increase and has now reached concerning levels. This is due to in part to rape myths which are attitudes and beliefs fostered in paternalistic societies where women are believed to be “lesser beings” than men. Rape Myths stem from the traditional view of masculinity that men have to be strong, assertive, sexually dominant and heterosexual, and that the woman should be coerced and dominated into sexual activity. These belief systems serve to justify male sexual aggression against women. Rape myths and misogynistic (hatred of women) attitudes appear to play a major role in sexual assault worldwide.
Sexual Socialization
Sexual socialization or training and social learning play a central role in the rapist’s perceptions of what rape accomplishes. This sexual training comes from parents, peers, friends, the entertainment media, and experimentation. Men learn that it is “manly” to take the sexual initiative and to persist, even when resisted. Details of sexual conquest, shared with peers, represent masculinity and self-worth. Conversely if attempts to conquer fail, then this is seen as personal failure and sexual inadequacy. Some rapists have been known to ask their victims to evaluate their performance during or after the rape.
In some communities rape is also used as a punishment for women who are deemed to be behaving in an unacceptable manner. For example In Africa “corrective rape” is common. Homosexual or Lesbian women are raped in order to “correct their deviant behaviour”.
Attitudes toward rape
Most rapists subscribe to attitudes and ideologies that encourage men to be dominant, controlling, and powerful, whereas women are expected to be submissive, permissive and compliant. This orientation has a disinhibitory effect on sexually aggressive men, allowing them to interpret any ambiguous behaviour of women as come-ons. They believe their victims want to be raped and derive gratification from being sexually assaulted. Others simply focus on self gratification with no thought to the victim. In an interview I conducted a suspect happily informed me that he had raped an acquaintance because, “I asked her over to my place, when she came, I told her I needed sex she said, ‘I came to visit not to have sex’. I overpowered and raped her.
Another common reason for rape is men feel that they are “owed” by the women that they support. Many simply feel a sense of entitlement when it comes to sex. A man, who raped his girlfriend’s sister, explained that he did so because he “supported her” and for that “he was entitled to ask a favour or two”. These men do not see their crime as rape but as collection of a debt owed. Many men today still believe that it is not possible to rape ones wife even though laws are changing to criminalize this act.
Disadvantaged Man
Some men may be motivated to rape if they have no other means of securing copulations. This is supported by data showing that rapes are committed disproportionately by men of a lower socio-economic status. Research has also shown that men convicted of rape show lower facial symmetry. These men are perceived as less attractive by women and therefore as less desirable mates. One can imagine that when reproductive opportunities are dismal, some men might be motivated to rape. In a recent survey conducted by Sky News a South African man detailed his reason for rape as, “I raped because I thought I was ugly, and I knew the woman I wanted to sleep with would say no.” When asked how it happened he replied, “I always wanted the woman but because (I) am ugly and I knew that if I (tried) to (proposition) her she (would refuse) … unless I have a lot of money to buy her. I knew where she lived and traced her movements and how many people she lived with in her shack, but I found out that her boyfriend only came (back at) month ends. I went to her place Friday night and it was raining so it helped me attack her well as no one else could hear me. I used a bolt cutter to gain entry, wielding a butcher knife. I told her not to scream until I leave her place.”
Media and Pornography
Men who rape become highly aroused when exposed to media portrayals of both rape and consenting sexual acts. Rape depictions in which the victim experiences abhorrence and pain rather than sexual pleasure cause significant arousal reactions in rapists. Many rapists have become extremely aroused by scenes of non-sexual aggression, such as the men beating a woman with the first. Therefore, it appears that some men strongly associate aggression and violence toward women, with sexual arousal.
In rapists the intensity of this deviant arousal is positively related to the number of rapes committed and the degree of injury inflicted on the victims. Violent pornography has been shown to increase violent tendencies even in some males who were not otherwise predisposed and its effect on aggressive behaviour is troubling. Rapists have indicated that frequent imagery and fantasy of sexually aggressive scenes is extremely important in motivating and guiding their sexual aggression. Aggressive fantasies are particularly exciting to convicted rapists. Studies have shown that over one third of men indicated that they fantasize about abrasively raping women and more than half about forcing women to have sex. Fantasy plays a significant role in serial rape and murder and is in fact the integral feature of serial crime.
No fear of Prosecution
Due to the shame and embarrassment felt my rape victims, men know that often rape is not reported. Rape cases are notoriously difficult to prosecute as the very nature of the crime often results in a “he said, she said” scenario, often with no witnesses. Frequently Police Services and Prosecuting Directorates in Africa lack the expertise and forensic capacity to investigate and prosecute these crimes effectively and successfully, specifically where the victims are children. This failure in the justice system results in perpetrators never having to face the consequences of their actions and has created a culture of impunity regarding rape.
Rapist Types
Because such a wide variety of sexual offenders are involved in rape, attempts have been made to categorize rapists according to their behavioural patterns and motives or reasons for rape. There are five basic typologies into which most rapists fall.
ÔÇó Power Reassurance: These offenders rape in response to intense sexual arousal stimulated by specific stimuli in the environment. Behaviors suggest that they have an underlying lack of confidence and inadequacy, or belief that the offense is consensual, expressed through minimal force and low confidence. Aggression is not a significant feature here; the basic motivation is a desire to prove sexual prowess and adequacy. They fantasize about their victims enjoying the encounter and often seek contact with her after the rape.
ÔÇó Power Assertive: These offender behaviors suggest an underlying lack of confidence and inadequacy, expressed through a need for control, mastery, and humiliation of the victim, while demonstrating authority. His goal is sexual conquest and he will try to overcome any resistance. The amount of force and threat used depends on the degree of submission shown by the victim.
ÔÇó Anger Retaliatory: Offender behaviors that suggest a great deal of rage, either towards a specific person, group, institution or a symbol of either. They use the act of rape to harm, humiliate and degrade the woman. The victim is brutally assaulted and subjected to acts like biting, cutting or tearing. Usually the victim is a complete stranger who happens to be the best available object or stimulus for the violence. The assault is not sexually arousing for this rapist, and they often demand oral sex or masturbation from the victim to become tumescent. Evidence suggests that resisting this type of rapist only makes him more violent.
ÔÇó Sadistic: The sadistic rapist experiences sexual arousal and excitement in the victim’s maltreatment, torture torment, distress, helplessness and suffering. The assault usually involves bondage and torture, and he directs extensive abuse and injury upon various areas of the victim’s body. The victim may be stalked, abducted, abused and is sometimes murdered.
ÔÇó Opportunistic: These offenders are out to satisfy immediate sexual impulses. The impulsive or exploitative rapist, demonstrates neither strong sexual nor aggressive characteristics, but engages in spontaneous rape when the opportunity presents itself. The victim simply happens to be available, and is sexually assaulted with minimum extra-rape violence or sexual feeling.
Evidence indicates overwhelmingly that rapists learn to be rapists and that much of the teaching is done by equally naïve peers, parents, significant social models, and the entertainment media. Rape springs from a culture, characterised by violence that communicates a dominant ideology that degrades women and justifies coercive sexuality. Many rapists seem to remain sexually and socially immature.
