Rape is defined as a crime involving one person having sexual intercourse with another person without prior consent, which has most recently applied to male victims, but usually involves physical force or deception to get the victim to submit or become subdued. There are seven theories which describe and define deviant behavior including social control, functionalism, anomie, social disorganization, strain theory, critical theory, and stigma theory. It seems most likely the social control theory can better explain why rapists participate in their form of deviant behavior. This paper will analyze various articles discussing theories related to rapist behavior.
The first article comes from the Encyclopedia of Social Deviance and was most recently published in 2014 and was written by E. Rider. The article breaks down the separate theories related to rape, but does not name them specifically. In this article, the social control theory is related to the idea once a man is aroused they are unable to stop until they reach their orgasm or climax. In male dominated societies, there are clear rules that seem to protect the interests of the rapist, by needing to show proof of they tried to resist their attacker, or blaming the victim by combing through their past including sexual partners. Stereotypes can be used for good, just as much as they can be used as an insult. A long history has accepted the idea, it is physiologically impossible for men to stop, but this myth has been proven false at every stage of arousal. In this stereotype, men are too weak to control themselves.
Another example of the social control theory in this article I the idea it is acceptable to force upon a victim because there was a miscommunication. This claim is just as scary as the first, because what does a rapist think when a woman says no, that it means it yes? This theory focuses on the idea the woman was a willing partner until she was not, which is when the victim said stop or no. This goes back to the idea men are unable to control themselves.
Another related to social control is the sociocultural belief men have the right to be sexually aggressive and dominant towards women. This is the most prevalent in societies where religion has a strong control and the will to label women as inferior to men. These men feel entitled to women through the socialization process within their communities, which exaggerate the idea women are available for sexual accessibility. This article focuses on the gender biases men are superior to women and through their strength have the right to take what they want.
The second article comes from the Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia and was most recently published in 2015. This article focuses on the social disorganization theory related to rapist deviant behavior, because it started with the statement in Islamic law rape accusations require the support of four independent male witnesses. These communities are able to create rules and corresponding punishment for the victim and protect the rapist. The lower status of women within Islam and the greater Middle East region depicts how poorly women are treated in general.
At the same time, this article also considers the stigma theory towards rapist behavior, which describes rape and sexual abuse as tools that are systematically used against women in police custody, and in warfare to intimidate civilian populations and force ethnic groups to flee. As of 1976, a plan was put in place to thwart the ongoing impact of rapists on their victims by The United Kingdom. The plan was to stop the names of victims from being published, stop the trend of forcing women to prove they resisted, by no longer discussing the past sexual behavior, and the absence of consent can no longer be questioned. The names of rapists are only published if they are convicted. The stigma theory explains the rapist is looking to hurt women intentionally.
The third article was from the Behavioral Sciences and the Law publication, was written by Slater, Woodhams, and Hamilton-Giachritsis in 2014. In the modern world, it has become clear the idea of stranger rape is more likely associated with serial killers, or multiple victims, because in general, most rapes are defined as acquaintances, because there is usually some connection between the rapist and their victim. In some cases, the victim may barely know the other person, and in others it can occur on a date, and in rare cases in established relationships and marriages.
Additionally, this article discovered there are four domains to focuses on the behavior of rapist, which include control, sex, escape, and style behaviors. This criterion can allow researchers to understand how deviant the individual is based on the control exhibited in the event, the type of sex performed, how the victim escaped, or the perpetrator got away, and the style used to implement the pain on their victim. There were variances between serial rapist and first time offenders, which was related to method of control, sexual behavior forced on the victim especially the type of victim targeted, offense location, but there was no striking differences. This article reflected the anomie theory, because it reflects the normalness of the deviant behavior to determine varying levels of deviant behavior.
The fourth article comes from the Journal of Interpersonal violence, was written by Polasheck, Hudson, Ward, and Siegert in 2001. This article introduces the grounded-theory approach which focused on six phases related to rapists’ and their behavior including background factors to offense, goal formation approach, behavioral, offense preparation, the offense itself, and the post offense behavior. The results are able to allow researchers to measure the deviant behavior within rapists, with a range of high and low to determine which phases are more responsible or evident of the deviant behavior. This article depicts another example of anomie theory.
The fifth article came from the Clinical Psychology Review, was written by Gannon, Ward, and Thakker in 2008. This article considers the prevalence of mental illness and other conditions in convicted rapists in Sweden between 1993-1997. The largest groups include alcohol abuse or dependency at 9.3%, drug use at 3.9%, personality disorder 2.6%, and psychosis 1.7%, but sadly the percentages were even higher in child molesters. This article considers the functionalism theory, because the statistics of the prisoners were low, which implies they are the anomalies which seem functional or acceptable within a society or population.
The two largest group of alcoholics can account for the miscommunication experienced, but in reality, it is unfair to use the “incapacitated” excuse, when women are now finally able to use the fact they were on conscious or never gave approval to their defense. The dynamic theory was written by Freud, who believed sexual aggression originates from a form of psychopathology within an individual from childhood. This belief could explain the drug use or excessive alcohol consumption, but it is only in male dominated societies excuses are able to help the rapist and alienate the generally female victim.
This shifts the focus from the dynamic theory and towards the social control theory, because it is believed rape is used as a tool to harm women and keep them in line within a male dominated culture. It is through the indoctrination of children that continues to reinforce the male dominance over women in most societies around the world. The rape itself is bad enough, but the political process involved in raped cases make the victim feel they are getting raped all over again.
The sixth article comes from the Legal and Criminology psychology, which was written by Blake and Gannon in 2014. Sexual offenders tend to make comments or statements about their offense in a way that appears to support or justify their actions or the actions of other rapists and these statements are now referred to as cognitive distortion. Basically, these people feel there is nothing wrong with their actions because it has occurred so often it is not considered an acceptable and social norm. This article is another example of anomie theory.
The anomie theory applies here because it postulated the differences between factual information and how it is arranged and stored within the memory. It is through memories people are able to learn if their behavior is acceptable or not. At the same time, a person may be aware the action or behavior is bad, but still continue to do it because they want to, or feel they are entitled to. If a man feels if he buys a girl a drink, she may sleep with him, but in reality, some women do not agree and their wishes deserve to be heard. This article also depicts the biased behavior and focuses on the stereotype explaining men are unable to control their deviant and dangerous behaviors.
The seventh article comes from the Clinical Psychological Review, was written by Drieschler and Lange in 1999. The deviant behavior may include some miscommunication, it just seems overwhelmingly the victim is blamed and there is no need to bring up the miscommunication, because in many cases if a women flirts with a man it is her fault if she gets raped. It is sad, how often this argument is still used in the modern world in countries like the United States. The social control theory because it takes into consideration the actions of the woman as unacceptable, and the actions of the rapist acceptable based on her unacceptable behavior.
In conclusion, it is the social acceptance of rape, or the different classifications for a terrible experience shows it is the social control theory which can best explain why rapists conduct themselves in their deviant behavior. This is most likely due to the lower status toward women defined and reinforced by experiences and societal norms. At the same time, there is a strong connection with the anomie approach because it reflects the society the rapist and the victim live in to determine how the act will go over.
References
Blake, E., & Gannon, T. A. (2014, February). Investigating the implicit theories of rape-prone men using an interpretative bias task. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 19(1), 40-53. doi:10.1111/j.2044-8333.2012.02056.x
Drieschner, K., & Lange, A. (1999, January). A review of cognitive factors in the etiology of rape: Theories, empirical studies, and implications. Clinical Psychological Review, 19(1), 57-77. doi:10.1016/S0272-7358(98)00016-6
Gannon, T. A., Collie, R. M., Ward, T., & Thakker, J. (2008, July). Rape: Psychopathology, theory and treatment. Clinical Psychology Review, 28(6), 982-1008. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2008.02.005
Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. (2016). Detroit: Gale Cengage Learning. Retrieved May 11, 2016, from http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&display-query=&mode=view&dviSelectedPage=&displayGroupName=Reference&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=&displa
Polaschek, D. L., Hudson, S. M., Ward, T., & Siegert, R. J. (2001, June). Rapists' Offense Processes A Preliminary Descriptive Model. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 16(6), 532-544. doi: 10.1177/088626001016006003
Rape. (2015). In The Hutchinson unabridged encyclopedia with atlas and weather guide. Abington, UK: Helicon. Retrieved May 11, 2016, from http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/heliconhe/rape/0
Rider, E. (2014). Rape. In C. J. Forsyth, & H. Copes (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Social Deviance (pp. 582-585). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc. Retrieved May 11, 2016, from http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483340470.n235
Slater, C., Woodhams, J., & Hamilton-Giachritsis, C. (2014, March/April). Can Serial Rapists be Distinguished from One-off Rapists? Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 32(2), 220-239. doi:10.1002/bsl.2096
