How do rapists think?

[ismnotwasm]

Last edited Thu Dec 5, 2013, 11:31 PM - Edit history (1)

Interesting old paper.

Another typical case involved a gang rape in which the victim was abducted at knife point as she walked home about midnight. According to two of the rapists, both of whom were interviewed, at the time they had thought the victim had willingly accepted a ride from the third rapist (who was not interviewed). They claimed the victim didn't resist and one reported her as saying she would do anything if they would take her home. In this rapist's view, "She acted like she enjoyed it, but maybe she was just acting. She wasn't crying, she was engaging in it." He reported that she had been friendly to the rapist who abducted her and, claiming not to have a home phone, she gave him her office number-a tactic eventually used to catch the three. In retrospect, this young man had decided, "She was scared and just relaxed and enjoyed it to avoid getting hurt." Note, however, that while he had redefined the act as rape, he continued to believe she enjoyed it.

Men who claimed to have been unaware that they were raping viewed sexual aggression as a man's prerogative at the time of the rape. Thus they regarded their act as little more than a minor wrongdoing even though most possessed or used a weapon. As long as the victim survived without major physical injury, from their perspective, a rape had not taken place. Indeed, even U.S. courts have often taken the position that physical 'injury is a necessary ingredient for a rape conviction.

(3) Most Women Eventually Relax and Enjoy It

Many of the rapists expected us to accept the image, drawn from cultural stereotype, that once the rape began, the victim relaxed and enjoyed it.6 Indeed, 69 percent (n = 22) of deniers justified their behavior by claiming not only that the victim was willing, but also that she enjoyed herself, in some cases to an immense degree. Several men suggested that they had fulfilled their victims' dreams. Additionally, while most admitters used adjectives such as "dirty," "humiliated," and "disgusted," to describe how they thought rape made women feel, 20 percent (n = 9) believed that their victim enjoyed herself For example, one denier had posed as a salesman to gain entry to his victim's house. But he claimed he had had a previous sexual relationship with the victim, that she agreed to have sex for drugs, and that the opportunity to have sex with him produced "a glow, because she was really into oral stuff and fascinated by the idea of sex with a black man. She felt satisfied, fulfilled, wanted me to stay, but I didn't want her." In another case, a denier who had broken into his victim's house but who insisted the victim was his lover and let him in voluntarily, declared "She felt good, kept kissing me and wanted me to stay the night. She felt proud after sex with me." And another denier, who had hid in his victim's closet and later attacked her while she slept, argued that while she was scared at first, "once we got into it, she was ok." He continued to believe he hadn't committed rape because "she enjoyed it and it was like she consented."

(4) Nice Girls Don't Get Raped

The belief that "nice girls don't get raped" affects perception of fault. The victim's reputation, as well as characteristics or behavior which violate normative sex role expectations, are perceived as contributing to the commission of the crime. For example, Nelson and Amir (1975) defined hitchhike rape as a victim-precipitated offense.

https://www.d.umn.edu/~bmork/2306/readings/scullyandmarollis.htm
Crap it's a locked link

https://www.d.umn.edu/~bmork/2306/readings/scullyandmarollis.htm

[johnp3907]

1. "Authorization Required."

They asked for a password.

[radicalliberal]

2. Absolutely sickening.

Of course, there are those who say there is no rape culture, which is morally equivalent to saying racism no longer exists in the United States. But we know they surely must be right!

[Cerridwen]

3. Please check my link to see if it's the same article.

https://www.d.umn.edu/~bmork/2306/readings/scullyandmarollis.htm

The link you provided is behind a login and I can't access to confirm.

Thank you.

[ismnotwasm]

8. I have no idea why the link doesn't work

This is the title of paper

CONVICTED RAPIST'S VOCABULARY OF MOTIVE
EXCUSES AND JUSTIFICATIONS*


Diana Scully and Joseph Marolla**

The whole thing is there, and it's a fairly interesting study

[petronius]

11. On edit - it works if you follow the link from google (i.e., google the article

Last edited Fri Dec 6, 2013, 12:49 AM - Edit history (1)

and then click the top choice).

I used "Scully Marolla vocabulary motive" as the search terms...

Here's the full citation, for anyone that might have access through other sources:

Scully, Diana; Marolla, Joseph. Convicted Rapists' Vocabulary of Motive: Excuses and Justifications.
Social Problems, 1984, Vol.31(5), pp.530-544

[In_The_Wind]

4. That's totally absurd.

[mstinamotorcity2]

5. Didn't need a study to

tell me this. Most females have been sexually approached by an adult by their 12th birthday. and some really don't see anything wrong with it.

[LanternWaste]

6. Your example appears many degrees off from gang rape.

Your example appears many degrees off from gang rape.



However, I've no doubt you pretend that "some really don't see anything wrong with it..." Let's people rationalize their own behaviors more efficiently. I suppose we don't need a study for that either.

[gollygee]

7. I think that poster is talking about sexual entitlement

Which those men's quotes show, and which is what makes grown men sexually approach pubescent girls and think it's OK. And she's right, a lot of people find that sense of sexual entitlement to be no big deal.

There's a continuum, but the same mindset of sexual entitlement is behind all of it.

[mstinamotorcity2]

15. Thank you.

The mentality of some people. To suggest " gang rape", and they got that from what I said As a woman, we are confronted by a man's sexual image of us everyday. I am simply stating the fact we know what the op states on a level that we did not have to see written proof to know it. In other words experience is the best teacher.

[ismnotwasm]

9. From the papers conclusion

In contrast, deniers' accounts indicate that these men raped because their value system provided no compelling reason not to do so. When sex is viewed as a male entitlement, rape is no longer seen as criminal. However, the deniers had been convicted of rape, and like the admitters, they attempted to negotiate an identity. Through justifications, they constructed a "controversial" rape and attempted to demonstrate how their behavior, even if not quite right, was appropriate in the situation. Their denials, drawn from common cultural rape stereotypes, took two forms, both of which ultimately denied the existence of a victim.

The first form of denial was buttressed by the cultural view of men as sexually masterful and women as coy but seductive. Injury was denied by portraying the victim as willing, even enthusiastic, or as politely resistant at first but eventually yielding to "relax and enjoy it." In these accounts, force appeared merely as a seductive technique. Rape was disclaimed: Rather than harm the woman, the rapist had fulfilled her dreams. In the second form of denial, the victim was portrayed as the type of woman who "got what she deserved." Through attacks on the victim's sexual reputation and, to a lesser degree, her emotional state, deniers attempted to demonstrate that since the victim wasn't a "nice girl," they were not rapists. Consistent with both forms of denial was the self-interested use of alcohol and drugs as a justification. Thus, in contrast to admitters, who accentuated their own use as an excuse, deniers emphasized the victim's consumption in an effort to both discredit her and make her appear more responsible for the rape. It is important to remember that deniers did not invent these justifications. Rather, they reflect a belief system which has historically victimized women by promulgating the myth that women both enjoy and are responsible for their own rape.

While admitters and deniers present an essentially contrasting view of men who rape, there were some shared characteristics. Justifications particularly, but also excuses, are buttressed by the cultural view of women as sexual commodities, dehumanized and devoid of autonomy and dignity. In this sense, the sexual objectification of women must be understood as an important factor contributing to an environment that trivializes, neutralizes, and, perhaps, facilitates rape.

Finally, we must comment on the consequences of allowing one perspective to dominate thought on a social problem. Rape, like any complex continuum of behavior, has multiple causes and is influenced by a number of social factors. Yet, dominated by psychiatry and the medical model, the underlying assumption that rapists are "sick" has pervaded research. Although methodologically unsound, conclusions have been based almost exclusively on small clinical populations of rapists-that extreme group of rapists who seek counseling in prison and are the most likely to exhibit psychopathology. From this small, atypical group of men, psychiatric findings have been generalized to all men who rape. Our research, however, based on volunteers from the entire prison population, indicates that some rapists, like deniers, viewed and understood their behavior from a popular cultural perspective. This strongly suggests that cultural perspectives, and not an idiosyncratic illness, motivated their behavior. Indeed, we can argue that the psychiatric perspective has contributed to the vocabulary of motive that rapists use to excuse and justify their behavior (Scully and Marolla, 1984).

Efforts to arrive at a general explanation for rape have been retarded by the narrow focus of the medical model and the preoccupation with clinical populations. 'Me continued reduction of such complex behavior to a singular cause hinders, rather than enhances, our understanding of rape.

[seabeyond]

10. well, i got off du a couple days ago. was drawn back in today. will be gone tomorrow, BUT....

this is a very very good article, or what i was able to get on the OP and this. kinda like EVERYTHING we women and some men have been saying. but very imformative. and interesting to hear how they explain it to themselves, in your OP. thanks.

[In_The_Wind]

13. Thanks for posting the completion.

[ismnotwasm]

17. You're very welcome

I'm sorry about the link

[In_The_Wind]

18. You had no way of knowing the link was password protected before you posted.

Good morning. [img][/img]

[Jasana]

12. Reading this OP and your post #9...

makes my skin crawl in disgust. I just can't fathom how any man could think that way.

[mythology]

14. How much of this is limited to rapists?

It's very difficult to think of ourselves as at fault in an unbiased fashion. How many domestic abusers say that the victim made the abuser do it? How many alcoholics say that they don't have a problem, or that they are good to drive unlike those other drunk drivers?

I think it's something deeper that we try to find ways to justify our actions based on our on perspective.

[ismnotwasm]

16. I think there's something to what you say

Except rape is such a gendered phenomena, with most rapists being male. That is NO way implies that most males are rapists-- far from it. There is something broken in our society when it comes to the topic of rape. Something inexplicably unexamined, or taken for granted. Probably a number of 'something's'

[Demo_Chris]

19. I believe this as well...

I suspect that when it comes to sexual things our standard are guided more by how we wish things to be than how things really are. As an example, consider homosexuality. Any study on this topic conducted fifty years ago would have returned VASTLY different results than one conducted today, and yet I suspect that even today we are merely tickling the edge of the truth, and a study fifty years from today will yield results that would officially shock and horrify the public as a whole. I say officially there, because I suspect that the secret and forbidden interests and lusts that caper in people's hearts are a whole lot more common than we are interested in admitting -- even to ourselves.