causes of rape

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

As of 2006, there is no scientific theory that explains all forms of rape, much less the other types of rape studied in this article. Given the many complex forms and modalities of rape, more than one empirical theory may be needed to explain all the causes of rape.

In addition, there are pervasive double standards and widespread social and political biases against even doing research into male-male and female-female rape in US university settings (Anderson et al 1998). Finally, there are significant socio-political taboos that interfere with research of the perpetrators themselves (Prior, 1996).

Rape theories

Researcher Lee M. Ellis listed three theories about why males rape females and females rape males and analysed their associated hypotheses against the evidence. In his Theories of Rape, he named the then (1989) known theories for the causes of male-female rape as:

• The Feminist theory which can be succinctly stated by Susan Brownmiller's famous statement: "rape is nothing more or less than a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear (emphasis in original)".

The feminist theory of rape asserts that what feminists see as male domination of female in socio-political and economic domains is the ultimate cause of most rapes. Feminist theory considers (male-female) rape a crime of power that has little or nothing to do with sex itself. Feminist theory has little or dabout male-male, female-male and female-female forms of rape.

Warren Farrell took issue with the feminist idea that rape has nothing to do with sex by noting that (male-female) rape statistics show young and sexually attractive females are raped far more often than older, less sexually attractive females.

• The Social Learning theory is so similar to the feminist theory that they have "at times been virtually equated" according to Ellis. The Social Learning theory sees cultural traditions such as imitation (or modeling), sex-violence linkages, rape myths (e.g. "women secretly desire to be raped"), and desensitization effects (caused, for example, by repeated exposure to mass media rape scenes) as the core causes of rape. Ellis states that "Overall, the social learning theory may be best considered a rather complex blend of Bandura's influential theory of instrumental aggression and the feminist theory of rape". The focus is on male-female rape with no explanations offered for male-male or female-perpetrated forms of rape.

• The Evolutionary theory sees the (male) propensity to rape (females) as being based on natural selection as a response for the otherwise inadequate male to better transmit his genes to future generations. For example, Ellis states that the "world record for the number of offspring fathered by a human male is 888, whereas 69 offspring is the most ever borne by a one human female." These sex disparities mean that those males who can inseminate the largest number of females by "whatever methods necessary (including force)" might win in the contest to pass down their genes.^{[citation needed]}. Notice that the new sexual conflict theory^[1] emphasizes the role of sexual divergences leading to antagonist between the two sexes. In an evolutionary perspective, the sexual conflict acting from praying mantis to seals acts as a biological evolutionary force and could explain the maintenance of various unadaptive sexual stratégies.

However, these theories may not fully explain male-male, female-male and female-female rape. In fact, the occurrence of male-male and female-female rape, where genes cannot be naturally passed down at all, may seem to contradict the evolutionary theory of rape.

Each of the above theories presumes there is are only few motivations for rape, however those who profile rapists say there are many types of rapists, both male and female, and many facade of motivations.

Tendencies of perpetrators

Most rapists do not have a preference for rape over consensual sex.^[2] Around 90% of rapists who participated in a 1986 study by Baxter et al. were more aroused by depictions of mutually enjoyable sex than violent rape.^[3]

References

1. ^ Thierry Lodé "La guerre des sexes chez les animaux, une histoire naturelle de la sexualité", Eds Odile Jacob, Paris, 2006 ISBN 2-7381-1901-8
2. ^ Freund, K., Scher, H., & Hucker, S. J. (1983). "The courtship disorders," Archives of Sexual Behaviour, 12:769‑779. Cited in "Heterosocial competence of rapists and child molesters: a meta-analysis," in The Journal of Sex Research: "... the minority of rapists who have an erotic preference for rape over consensual intercourse (Freund, Scher, & Hucker, 1983)."
3. ^ Baxter, D.J., Barbaree, H.E., & Marshall, W.L. (1986). "Sexual responses to consenting and forced sex in a large sample of rapists and nonrapists," Behavioural Research and Therapy, 24, 513-520. Cited in Research on Sex Offenders: What do we Know?