Criminological understandings of Rape
Dr Nicole Westmarland
Contents
What causes rape? Different schools of thought
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Early theories
Second wave feminist theories
Social learning
Socio-cultural (social learning/feminist)
∂
Socio-biological
Cognitive
Later feminist theories
Multi-factoral
The application of theory
Early theories
• Explained rape in terms of ‘uncontrollable’ factors
• Internal factors: overpowering sexual impulse, an underdeveloped ego or as a result of unresolved sexual
childhood desires
∂
• External factors: placing the blame on the behaviour of the
victim, his wife and/or his mother
• Criticisms: little empirical support, methodological
problems
Second-wave feminist theories
• Rape as an act of violence – the influence of Susan
Brownmiller (1975) ‘Against Our Will’
• She described rape as ‘… nothing more or less than a
conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep
all women in a state of fear’∂(pg. 15)
• Rape as a continuation of hetero-sex – the influence of
Catherine MacKinnon
• She argues that force is inherent in any hetero-sex, that it
is only when the force exceeds that considered by men to
be a ‘normal level’ that it is legally defined as rape.
Social learning
• Social learning theorists view rape in terms of learned
behaviours
–
–
–
–
Modelling (e.g. copying rape scenes from films)
Linking sex with violence (e.g. pornography)
∂ untruths about rape)
Belief of rape myths (believing
Desensitisation to violence (whereby sexual violence is not seen as
serious because of its prevalence on television/video games etc).
• Studies have found correlations between rape myth
acceptance and self-reported likelihood to rape/rape
proclivity
Socio-cultural (social learning/feminist)
• Scully (1990) – interviews with convicted rapists
• Found that rapists were not significantly different to other
offenders
• Vocabulary of motive (Mills, 1940)
• An important part of learning to rape includes the mastery of a
vocabulary that can be used to
∂ explain sexual violence against
women in socially acceptable terms (Scully, 1990 pg. 98).
• ‘Admitters’ and ‘Deniers’
• Men who rape do so as a low risk, high reward ‘act of normal
deviance’ (pg. 63)
• Varying ‘rewards’
• Symptomatic of patriarchal society
Socio-biological
• Evolutionary theory
• Maletzky (1996) little research on genetic and
evolutionary mechanisms
• Palmer and Thornhill (2000) A Natural History of Rape
∂
• Argue existing theories are ideologically
rather than
scientifically driven
• Rape should be viewed as a specifically sexual crime
• rape is a) directly or b) indirectly related to mechanisms
which men have inherited from the reproductive success of
their ancestors.
Cognitive theories
• Recent interest in cognition-based theories of rape
• Rapists are able to minimise, rationalise or even justify
their behaviour because of cognitive distortions
• May misunderstand signals ∂
• May have empathic or social skill deficits
• ‘implicit theories’
• Marshall, Laws and Barbaree (1990) - the ‘cognitive gap’
in rape research and theory (pg. 4).
Later feminist
• The feminist hypothesis: an increase in women’s equality
should ultimately lead to a decrease in the prevalence of
rape
• The ‘backlash’ hypothesis ∂or ‘inverted’ feminist
hypothesis
• Whaley (2001) the ‘refined hypothesis’
• Masculine culture
• Rape conviction rates
Multi-factoral theories
• Attempts to classify ‘types’ of rapists dates back to the late
1970s
• There has been an increase in this type of work in the last
decade
∂
• Generally grounded in empirical research and attempt to
differentiate between offenders in terms of their individual
motivations
Example Groth, Burgess, and Holmstrom (1977)
• Rape is not solely about only sexuality or solely about
violence
∂ evident in nearly every
• There are three factors that are
rape; power, anger and sexuality
• The need for power and to express their anger were found
to be present in up to 95 percent of the cases analysed
(Groth, 1979).
ExampleHazelwood and Warren (2000)
2 categories of sexually violent offenders
• The impulsive offender: Criminally unsophisticated,
largely reactive in terms of victim selection and behaviour
at the scene of crime. Has a ∂diverse criminal history,
significant levels of physical violence and generic sexual
interests.
• The ritualistic offender: Diverse paraphilic interests, a
pervasive and defining fantasy life and has crime scene
behaviours that are carefully developed and executed.
‘If she told the truth she would
have described me like any other
girl would. I try to make a girl
enjoy herself as much as possible
and∂she was no exception’.
All quotes from interviews with convicted rapists and quoted in Teague (1993) or Scully (1988)
‘Most of the people in this wing
have been into exercising power
and control over women. And
hatred. It’s got nothing to do with
∂
sexual intercourse.
Nothing at all.’
All quotes from interviews with convicted rapists and quoted in Teague (1993) or Scully (1988)
‘The judge was a very clever man, he
knew what had happened. He weighed it
all up. He said, I take it into account that
the woman is not at all afraid of you. He
read between the lines. I finished up with
eight years. He knew what he was talking
about. It was only me, him (the judge)
and her knew the real truth.’
∂
All quotes from interviews with convicted rapists and quoted in Teague (1993) or Scully (1988)
‘It just blew past. I played some
basketball and then went to my
girlfriends house and had sex with
her. I wasn’t worried or sorry.’
∂
All quotes from interviews with convicted rapists and quoted in Teague (1993) or Scully (1988)
‘She said “no, I have my period,
I’m a virgin.” I laughed and
rubbed her back and she accepted
physically. Her legs spread and
she thrust up to meet me. It was
telepathic. This wasn’t rape. I
∂know what rape is.
All quotes from interviews with convicted rapists and quoted in Teague (1993) or Scully (1988)
‘The Rape Crisis people in the paper
didn’t half slag the judge off, they really
gave him hell. I wrote to him and
apologised on their behalf, saying ‘me
and you knew what really went on’. But I
don’t think he could be seen replying to
things like that. The Rape Crisis people
said the judge was giving ‘beasts’ licence
to wander the country raping people at
will.’
∂
All quotes from interviews with convicted rapists and quoted in Teague (1993) or Scully (1988)
‘With my victim, it wasn’t sex I
was after. I wanted to destroy her
completely. The more fright I
could see in her eyes, the more I
got a kick out of it.’
∂
All quotes from interviews with convicted rapists and quoted in Teague (1993) or Scully (1988)