Chapter 5 – Rape and Child Molestation

Patterns of Rape

• Racial Factors: Blacks are more likely to be both a rapists and/or victims
• Intraracial: Victims and rapists are usually the same race (95% of rapes in Philadelphia were intraracial, while only 3% had black rapists and white victims)

Intraracial Nature of Rape

• Two major factors
  • Severe legal penalty
    • Against Blacks for raping white women
  • Racial Segregation
    • Black women became accessible to Black men, meaning they were prone to rape from aggression

Age

• Women are always prone to rape
  • Most vulnerable age ranges from 16 to 20 years of age
• Intraracial rapes
  • Offenders are older than their victims
• Interracial rapes
  • Black offenders are generally younger than their white victims

Situational Factors

• Number of rapes, (specifically gang rapes) increase during the summer
  • Social Interaction
• Number of rapes tend to be higher during the weekends

Planning and Execution

• Rapists often look for an ‘easy’ target or a vulnerable target
  • Example: mentally ill female, sleeping female, older women, women under the influence, passive or submissive, lacking assertiveness or confidence
• Verbal coercion
• Non-physical aggression
• Rapists tend to become violent once they are ready to carry out the crime
• Majority are rough with their victims: pushing, shoving, slapping, and/or choking

Gang Rape

• Of all rapes committed, of those 43% are gang rapes
• Perpetrators’ age ranges from 14 to 19 years of age, most of which come from low-class families and/or members of street gangs
• Strategies to obtain a target
  • Select a vulnerable target and select a deserted area to execute the act
  • Use a weapon to abduct the target from the streets (usually done at night)
  • Gang member may express interest in the target, set up a date and take her unwillingly to an area where the other members are waiting
  • Select a target and rape her right then and there, in a public area or with by passers

Acquaintance Rape

• Executed with verbal coercion
  • Pressing the victim
• Psychological coercion
  • Making the victims feel less of themselves and treating them as an object
• The most common offense committed because it is less expected

Campus Rape

• 15% of college women have been sexually assaulted
• Fraternities groups contribute heavily in campus rapes
• Some of their norms and practices don’t align with the rape-free campuses
• Maleness & Masculinity vs. Femaleness & Femininity
• Excessive use of alcohol
• Peer pressure

Consequences of Rape

• Rape is a continuing process in which the victims keeps suffering and fighting after the act has occurred

The Feeling of Being Raped Again

• In the 60s and 70s popular writers reported many stories about the insensitivity police officers had towards rape cases; many times, if the victim was not seen as attractive the case would be dismissed
• The feeling of being raped a “second time” describes the way police officers make the victims feels as though they are responsible even though it’s more a psychological trauma vs. the physical trauma of actually being raped by the rapist
• Although today, police officers have become more respectful towards rape victims they still ask questions that presume, “they may have been asking for it.”
  • Questions: what were you wearing, did you have drinks with him, did he offer you a ride, or did you leave with him after a party?
• The courtroom is another place of psychological rape for victims
  • Defense attorneys tend to focus on victims sexual history in order to discredit her, rather than focusing on the crime itself (blame the victim presumption)
• Since the Mid-70s Rape shield laws have been put in place to make victims experiences in the courtroom less torturous
• Although these laws don’t allow attorney’s to use past experiences to influence the jurors, there are many judges today that allow the use of experiences as evidence b/c they believe it’s the only way to get a fair trial

The Culture of Rape

• Even though many communities condemn rape, they also have influence a culture of rape
• Research suggests that men who are immature, irresponsible, and lacking in social conscience are more influenced by this culture and more likely to assault women

Treating Women like Men’s Property

• Statutory rape laws protect the interest of women but to a larger degree protect the interest of men too
• This is b/c they are formed from the cultural definition that women are property
  • Before marriage a women belongs to her father, after marriage she belongs to her husband- meaning she will always be claimed as property
  • Therefore, the rapist did not commit a crime towards the women but towards the father or husband, depending on her martial status
  • Also meaning, if a women was raped by her husband, the case would be dismissed because she is seen as his property and he has the right to utilize his property however he wants
• This is no longer the case today, due to martial- rape laws
• On the other hand, if a wife gets raped by someone other than her husband, instead of showing more love and affection, it actually tends to stain the relationship and she is seen as damaged and less valued
• This is because instead of seeing their wife as a human being with feelings, men tend to objectify them and forget about the trauma
  • 75-85% of marriages where the wife is raped end in divorce within two years following the assault (Gordon and Riger, 1989).
• Furthermore, women who have had more than 2 sex partners, are known prostitutes, or are poor are less likely to get their rapist convicted for their crime b/c they are seen as less valuable and cheap women
  • Many convicted rapists do not feel guilty for raping these women b/c they see them as commodities that men are entitled to use
• The immense availability of pornography is also another factor that impacts the view of violence towards women
  • b/c it reinforces the perspective that women are just seen as men’s sex objects
  • therefore, men who have extended exposure to porn are more likely to trivialize rape
  • they also advocate less severe punishment for rapist and express less sympathy for the victims (Linz and Penrod, 1984)
  • This DOES NOT mean that all men who watch porn become rapist, it just means that it can be used an influencer to certain men (already angry and violent) and make them more dangerous towards women

Using Women in Men’s Masculinity Contests

• Masculinity contest: engagement to prove their male prowess and to earn macho reputation among their peers (Fields, 2003)
  • Meaning hook up with the largest number of women possible to win
• Not only does this contest objectify women but it also allows for this dehumanizing way of thinking to further impact the way we speak about women
  • Ex: screwing, knocking up, scoring- dehumanizes women’s values a person and allows to display a sense of conquer and power over them
• Social pressures from peers impacts the way men engage in this game
• Male fear of showing femininity-being soft and gentle, triggers them to want to show more of their masculine side-being aggressive and violent

The Myth That Women Ask for It

• This is a popular myth that states that women have a secret wish to be raped
• Sex researchers claim the between 31 to 57 percent of women have rape fantasies
• This myth in turn allows people to use blame-the-victim rationalizations
  • She was at the wrong place, wearing the wrong clothes, provoking men to assault her types of language
• This way of thinking reflects society’s sexist approach to put women in their place and form a sense of domination
• This way of thinking also claims that rape only occurs based on physical attractiveness
  • However, many rapists seem to attack less attractive women b/c they believe she will dress more provocatively to lure men since they have low self confidence
• This blame the victim (or willing victim) attitude is also seen in the courtroom
  • The rapist is presume innocent until proven guilty whereas the victim is presumed guilty until proven innocent of provoking rape
• If a women rejects a rapist sexual invitation and continuous to get pressured and raped, the rapist will assume she consented even though she resisted all along (Vachss 1994)

Socializing Girls to Be Victims

• Women are socialized to be sweet and passive, while men are socialized to be tough and active
• Rock videos teach young women to associate sex with violence
• Teaches women to be:
  • Feminine-passive, gentle, weak, childlike, and dependent on men
  • Submissive to aggressive or violent men
• They are raised to be lady like and rather than defend themselves when being sexually harassed, they should ignore it and stay quiet—making them the perfect target

A Global Perspective on Wartime Rape

• During world war II German soldiers raped a massive number of Jewish and Russian women as if they were part of the property they conquered
• Pakastani, Serbian, and Arab soldiers resulted in doing the same after their victories
• All these rapes reflect the universally shared perspective that women are men’s property
• B/c of this after the soldiers leave, those raped women are looked at as damaged and unwanted
• Not all rape was towards women, some were towards men to humiliate their enemies and show dominance over the other

Why Men Rape Women

• Psychologists look at a psychological problem within the offender that attributes to rape
• Sociologist see it as sexual permissiveness in society that attributes towards rape
• Feminist theory views rape as an expression of gender inequality

Psychological Theory: Sexual Inadequacy

• Believe that rapist suffer from personality defects or emotional disturbance
• This brings controversy because there are no clear characteristics that specifically define what a psychological problem is
• Therefore a problem could range anywhere from feelings to sexual inadequacies to fear of homosexual tendencies to sexual addiction
• They claim that fantasies help camouflage their sexual inadequacies such as their inability to successful flirt with a women
• However, this sexual inadequacy theory cannot account for all rapist b/c a majority of them can skillfully deal with women such as date rapists and act exactly the same as non-rapists do

Social-Psychological Theory: Sexual Permissiveness

• Sociologist Duncan Chappell questions why rape is significantly elevated is other societies. There reasoning suggest that society with a higher rape rate is more sexually permissive and full of opportunities for men to have consensual no martial sex with women. Also, the social atmosphere of sexual permissiveness enables a high number of rapes due to it generating a deal of relative frustration caused by men to take a woman saying “no” personally.

Feminist Theory: Gender Inequality

• The social- psychological theory of sexual permissiveness suggest that gender equality produces more rapes than does sexual inequality. However, the feminist theorist blames rape on sexual inequality. Male dominance plays a role in a rape prone society. Most women that are victims of rape are in college. Masculinity and male dominance are highly valued on college campuses. Brownmiller believes that rape is a primary expression of male dominance.

Inside the Prison

• Rape is very common throughout the U.S prison system. Reports show that one out of five inmates are raped compared to one out of ten females outside of prison. The public tends to not have empathy towards convicts that are raped in prison. Prison rape is often taken likely. Studies show that when male rape other males in prison it is similar to male raping women.

Outside the Prison

• Statistically proven, 3.8 percent of men are victims of rape compared to 22 percent of women. Male on male rape usually associates with family members or friends while female rape victims are targeted by strangers. However, the biggest difference between male rape victims and female rape victims is that males usually don report their rape. Men feel embarrassed to report rape.

Can Women Rape Men?

• Yes women can rape men. According to feminist, rape is an expression of power. Men are not always in power during sexual intercourse. A woman can overpower a man in a sexual encounter. Nevertheless, a woman is capable of rape. Most female offenders are nonviolent whereas male rape tend to be violent and abusive. When males are raped by women they feel a loss of masculinity.

Child Molestation

• Child Molestation is a form of rape because the children are unaware of what’s going on. Girls are more likely to get molested than boys. Majority of child molesters are men rather than women. Most cases of child molestation is with close family or friends and most child molesters suffer from personality disorders. Personality dis orders is a lack of human attachments and social relations. Victims of child molestation suffer from behavioral problems, sexualized behaviors, and poor self-esteem.

A Social Profile of Child Molesters

• Molesters are usually over the age of 35 while rapist are under the age of 20. Most molesters are victims of rape compared to rapist. Rapists tend to be tougher and harsher while molesters are gentle. Studies show that molesters have one victim while rapist attack several different women. Molesters show some sort of compassion and admit their guilt while rapist see no wrong.

Molesting Boys

• Not only do men molest young girls but they also rape young boys. Young males also suffer from child molestation across the globe. Women also molest young boys. According to Petrovich and Templer, 83 rapist in California was interviewed and 59 percent of them had been molested as children by older women. Men that are victims of rape tend to act out their anger by becoming rapist or child molesters.

The Scandal of Pedophile Priest

• Back in the early 200’s reports were revealed that Roman Catholic priest throughout the United States had sexually molested children. These reports led for other countries to open up about the Catholic Church. Allegations began to surface in Switzerland, Australia, The Netherlands, and Poland.4 out of 5 Catholic priest are pedophiles. The absence of women can be the underlying issues of pedophilia.