Serial and single-victim rapists: differences in crime-scene violence, interpersonal involvement, and criminal sophistication

Three categories of crime-scene behaviors (violence, interpersonal involvement, and criminal sophistication) among a group of 22 serial and 22 single-victim rapists were studied. Findings indicate that serial rapists were more likely to display a higher level of criminally sophisticated behaviors to avoid detection, whereas single-victim rapists were more likely to behave violently and engage in some form of interpersonal involvement with their victims. Implications of these findings for investigation and for understanding offenders' behavior are discussed.     

Study of empathy in a Spanish sex offender sample

International research has emphasised that empathy is a relevant factor of sex offending. The main goal of this study is to explore, in a Spanish sex offender sample, the relationship between empathy deficits and sex crime for various types of victims. This study also analyses the positive effect that psychological treatment could have on empathy. For this purpose, 118 non-sex offenders were compared on an adapted version of Rape Empathy Measure to 39 treated rapists and 34 untreated rapists. Results show that the untreated rapists have lower empathy levels than non-sex offenders. Nevertheless, the treated rapists scored higher on empathy than the other two groups assessed, untreated rapists and non-sex offenders. Lastly, some suggestions are provided for future research in terms of the assessment of empathy and other factors related to sexual aggression.     

“Lights on at the end of the party”: Are lads’ mags mainstreaming dangerous sexism?

Research has suggested that some magazines targeted at young men –lads’ mags– are normalizing extreme sexist views by presenting those views in a mainstream context. Consistent with this view, young men in Study 1 (n = 90) identified more with derogatory quotes about women drawn from recent lads’ mags, and from interviews with convicted rapists, when those quotes were attributed to lads’ mags, than when they were attributed to convicted rapists. In Study 2, 40 young women and men could not reliably judge the source of those same quotes. While these participants sometimes voiced the belief that the content of lads’ mags was ‘normal’ while rapists’ talk was ‘extreme’, they categorized quotes from both sources as derogatory with equal frequency. Jointly, the two studies show an overlap in the content of convicted rapists’ talk and the contents of contemporary lads’ mags, and suggest that the framing of such content within lads’ mags may normalize it for young men.     

From Crime Scene Actions in Stranger Rape to Prediction of Rapist Type: Single‐Victim or Serial Rapist?

The differences in crime scene actions in cases of stranger rape committed by convicted offenders were examined between 31 single‐victim rapists and 35 serial rapists. Data were collected from police files, court verdicts, psychiatric evaluations, and criminal records. Findings indicate that the serial rapists were more criminally sophisticated than the single‐victim rapists, during their first and second rapes. The single‐victim rapists were significantly more likely to engage in the interpersonal involvement behavior of kissing the victim, and to engage in pre‐assault alcohol use, than the serial rapists. There was, however, no significant difference in physically violent or sexual behaviors. To investigate the possibility of predicting rapist type, logistic regression analyses were performed. Results indicate that three behaviors in conjunction, kissed victim, controlled victim, and offender drank alcohol before the offense, predicted whether an unknown offender is a single‐victim or serial rapist with a classification accuracy of 80.4%. The findings have implications for the classification of stranger rapists in offender profiling. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Phallometric assessment of rapists: A critical review of the research

There is disagreement in the literature as to utility of phallometry with rapists. The present article attempts to shed light on the basis for these contradictory conclusions. First, the theoretical rationale for assessing sexual interest via phallometry is discussed. Second, all the recent (i.e., since 1994) studies that have used phallometric assessment to measure sexual arousal in convicted rapists or self-identified sexual aggressors are individually reviewed and critiqued. Following critiques of individual studies, strengths and weaknesses of the literature are listed and overall conclusions are drawn. Lastly, needed improvements and directions for future research as to sexual preferences of rapists are discussed.     

Attitudes toward women,violence, and rape: A comparison of convicted rapists and other felons

Literature in the area of rape has been dominated by the psychiatric perspective leading to the view of rape as an individualistic, ideosyncratic and psychopathological problem. This leads to a conception of the rapist as a special criminal who is somehow different from his fellow prisoners. This paper proposes to study rapists as emotionally average men who have been socialized to view aggressive sexual behavior as appropriate in various situations. A comparison of rapists’ attitudes toward women, violence and rape with that of other felons reveals that their rape relevant attitudes are more extreme. It is proposed that the prevailing rape myths that exist in the society at large serve the function of providing excuses and justifications for rapists.     

Relationships between conflict,affect and deviant sexual behaviors in rapists and pedophiles

The aim of the current study was to determine the relationship in sexual offenders between conflict, affective states and particular sexual behaviors (fantasies and masturbatory activities while having such fantasies). To this end we developed the “Fantasy Report”, a self-assessment method for recording affective components and sexual behaviors. Thirteen rapists and 9 pedophiles filled out the Fantasy Report every 2 days for a period of 60 days. In rapists, negative mood and the presence of conflicts coincided with both overwhelming deviant sexual fantasies and increased masturbatory activities while having such fantasies. Furthermore, the emotions most frequently reported by rapists following conflicts were loneliness, humiliation, anger and feelings of inadequacy and rejection. Affective components, however, were not associated with nondeviant sexual behaviors. For the pedophiles, the data revealed a significant relationship only between negative moods and deviant sexual fantasies. These data are interpreted to mean that, in sexual offenders, negative affect is a crucial component in the chain that leads to deviant sexual behaviors.     

Something in the way he moves? Interpersonal judgments of acquaintance rapists

Two studies explored variations in women's appraisals of acquaintance rapists. In Study 1, an acquaintance rapist was evaluated the least harshly when he was physically dominating but sexually dysfunctional. In Study 2, this softening of the rapist's perceived qualities was most evident when he attributed his sexual failure to a need for his victim's sexual consent. Acquaintance rape is therefore an interpersonal crime that can yield varied judgments of its perpetrators. In particular, some women may give more benefit of doubt to sexually violent men by relying on an “adversary transformation” narrative in which the victim has tamed the rapist and harnessed his strength, passion, and other desirable qualities for herself.     

Cognition in rapists Theoretical patterns by typological breakdown

Cognitive processing has been implicated in sexual offending in a number of recent theoretical and empirical papers. Clinicians have emphasized the need to challenge the cognitive distortions that are often exhibited by sexual offenders, and they have incorporated cognitive restructuring components into treatment programs. However, until recently, the literature has lacked an integrative theoretical approach to cognition in sexual offenders. In addition, the use of generic classifications (i.e., rapist, child molester) in both theoretical and empirical work has obscured understanding of the role played by a number of etiological factors, including cognition. In this paper, we present a multifaceted approach to cognition in rapists. We begin with a brief overview of a conceptual framework of cognitive dimensions. Next, we consider the heterogeneity that characterizes rapists as a group and the problems this presents for research. We suggest that Knight and Prentky's typology may prove useful for dealing with these problems and, in the final section, we provide our conceptualization of the potential distorted cognitions for each of the subtypes within the typology.     

Rape Myths and Beyond: A Commentary on Edwards and Colleagues (2011)

This article comments on Edwards et al. (2011) who review the state of the current literature on rape myths, defined as ??prejudicial, stereotyped or false beliefs about rape, rape victims, and rapists?? (Burt 1980; p. 217). I argue that while studying rape myths is important to understanding the persistence of sexual assault against women in Western societies, other factors that contribute to this problem need to be considered. Specifically, I focus on the importance of examining societal messages regarding women??s sexuality, as well as examining how individuals conceptualize and define rape more broadly. I conclude by discussing directions for moving toward producing real changes in the prevalence of sexual violence as well as ways to intervene more effectively with victims of sexual violence.     

Age as a modifier of sexually aggressive attitudes in men

Male attitudes and behaviours related to imagined sexual aggression were investigated in 99 Finnish men (mean age 24.3 years). Structural equation modelling suggested that imagined sexual aggression was directly predicted by hostile masculine ideologies and past antisocial acts, and indirectly by subject age (hostile masculinity decreased with age). For more detailed analyses of age effects on attitudes, the subjects were split into an older and a younger group. A small group of incarcerated rapists (n = 8; mean age 33.4 years) was included for comparative purposes; these were similar in age to the older group (n = 34; mean age 31.5 years) and were given the same attitude items. The younger men and the rapists expressed significantly more hostility toward women and acceptance of rape myths, and had a higher likelihood of committing rape than older men. Although younger men accepted interpersonal violence and sexual dominance, their attitudes were not necessarily reflected in past sexually aggressive behaviours, as they were in the rapists who differed from the younger men mainly in terms of their past antisocial activities.     

“If a girl doesn't say ‘no’…”: young men,rape and claims of ‘insufficient knowledge’

Most psychological theories of rape tend to stress factors internal to both rapists and their victims in accounting for the phenomenon. Unlike such theories, social psychological and feminist accounts have drawn attention to social and cultural factors as productive of rape, and have criticized psychological accounts on the grounds that they often serve, paradoxically, to cement pre‐existing ‘common‐sense’. In this paper we examine the ways in which young Australian men draw upon widely culturally shared accounts, or interpretative repertoires, of rape to exculpate rapists. In particular, we discuss the reliance placed on a ‘lay’ version of Tannen's 1992 ‘miscommunication model’ of (acquaintance) rape and detail the use of this account—the claim that rape is a consequence of men's ‘not knowing’—as a device to accomplish exculpation. Implications of our methods for capturing young people's understanding of sexual coercion, rape and consent, and for the design of ‘rape prevention’ programmes, are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An investigation of some hypotheses concerning rape and murder

The study compared three groups of incarcerated criminals, including 40 men convicted of rape, 40 convicted of murder (of another male) and 40 sentenced for property offenses. A number of personality and attitude scales, behavioral records and a binocular rivalry test were used to test various hypotheses concerning rape and murder. Rapists and murderers did not differ on general control of aggressive behavior but both showed more control than convicted felons. In the binocular rivalry task rapists and murderers were less prone to perceive sexuality than property felons, but the three groups did not differ on perceived aggression toward women. Rapists and murderers were more prone to deny feminine traits than property felons. Rapists had heterosexual experience with more partners than property felons. The three groups did not differ on attitudes toward women or on disinhibition as a mode of sensation seeking. In general, rapists resemble murderers more than ordinary felons and the evidence does not support hypotheses that characterize them as significantly more hostile toward women than are other types of criminals.     

The sexual responses of sexual sadists

On average, rapists show greater relative genital responses to rape stories than do nonrapists in the laboratory. It has been suggested that this robust group difference is explained by the fact that many rapists are sexually sadistic. It is not clear, however, what the critical cues underlying rapists' genital responses are, because rape stories used in previous research include a mix of sadistic cues of violence and victim injury as well as cues of victim resistance and nonconsent. The present study was conducted to identify the critical cues producing self-identified sadists' sexual responses, and thereby to test sexual sadism as an explanation of rapists' arousal pattern. The present study was also conducted to develop a new phallometric test for sexual sadism for research and clinical applications, given evidence of poor diagnostic reliability and validity. Eighteen self-identified male sadists, 22 men with some sadistic interests who did not meet all of our sadist criteria, and 23 nonsadists (all recruited from the community) were compared in their genital and subjective responses to a new set of stories that disentangle violence/injury cues from resistance/nonconsent cues. The three groups differed in both their genital and subjective responses: using indices of relative responding, sadists responded significantly more to cues of violence/injury than nonsadists and men with some sadistic interests. The group difference for cues of nonconsent was not significant. The results suggest that sexual sadism primarily involves arousal to violence/injury in a sexual context rather than resistance/nonconsent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Target selection patterns in rape

Both theoretical and empirical studies of decision making in target selection have shown that this process is highly dependent on the physical environment. However, research specifically investigating decision making in sex offenders' target selection is scarce. The aims of the current study were to (1) identify target selection patterns in a mixed sample of 78 Canadian and Portuguese adult rapists, (2) investigate how geographical decision making influences target selection patterns, and (3) test the influence of the type of environment on target selection patterns. The results indicate that Canadian and Portuguese rapists exhibit different target selection patterns but that their geographical decision making is congruent and consistent with the environment within which they operate. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Family perception of rapists and pedophiles.

Previous research indicates that sex offenders were more likely to have been reared in dysfunctional families and to have identified less with their parents than were individuals in most comparison groups. It is unclear whether such failure to identify may be related to the perceived parenting styles and attitudes of the sex offenders' parents. 16 rapists, 18 pedophiles, 9 general offenders, and 11 college students completed the Children's Report of Parental Behavior Inventory to assess perceived parental communication patterns and attitudes. It was predicted that rapists and pedophiles would perceive their parents as (1) having been more rejecting, (2) as having exerted more control while encouraging less autonomy, and (3) as having provided harsher discipline than would individuals in comparison groups. Results supported the first two predictions.     

The role of offender profiling in classifying rapists: Implications for counselling

The offender profiling process is an investigative technique used to identify the major personality and behavioural characteristics of the offender based upon an analysis of the crime(s) he or she has committed (Douglas & Burgess, 1986). Attempts have been made in both England and America to classify rapists into various subgroups. Instead of definitive groups of offenders a suggestion is made as to the formation of a dimensional typology of rapists. This would allow for the difficulties in defining boundaries for subgroups and accounting for individual differences and heterogeneity of both the rapist and the assault. The various criteria that attempt to distinguish the different types of offender are discussed including behavioural and motivational characteristics of the offender, lay theories of rape and the victim-offender relationship. The implications of the dimensional typology are outlined. There are indications that some factors may contribute to a longer and more complicated recovery process. Macnab (1993) neatly outlines eleven contributory factors: financial stress, various long term stresses, the degree of violence, the use of weapons, the sense of violation, the threat of death, multiple assailants, threats of greater or continuing harm and a later death, medical complications, problems with police, medical and criminal systems and lack of adequate professional and informed support. As well as this, the important issue of self-blame is discussed along with the subsequent problem of post-traumatic stress disorder: the recurring distressing memories, dreams and events and signals that can provoke a further cycle of distress.     

Rapists’ talk: Linguistic strategies to control the victim∗

Abstract

Rape is a crime of violence and force. The stereotype of the male rapist's attack is that he attains power and control over the victim through strategies based on physical force. The present study shows that not only do rapists use physically based strategies, but also they use a second set of strategies based on language. The sample consists of 115 female adult, adolescent, and child rape victims. Open‐ended interviews were used and information was collected on what conversation occurred. In analyzing what rapists reportedly said, 11 major themes emerged: threats, orders, confidence lines, personal inquiries of the victim, personal revelations by the rapist, obscene names and racial epithets, inquiries about the victim's sexual “enjoyment,” soft‐sell departures, sexual put downs, possession of women, and taking property from another male. What these themes have in common is that they constitute a strategy for exercising power over the victim, either before, during, or after the rape.     

Parental identification of rapists and pedophiles.

It is well documented that sex offenders experience a higher incidence of sexual abuse and are more likely to have been reared in dysfunctional families than are individuals in most comparison groups. It is unclear, however, whether growing up in an abusive or dysfunctional family affects the extent to which the potential sex offender would subsequently identify with his parents. Sixteen rapists, 18 pedophiles, 9 general offenders, and 11 college students completed the Parental Identification Scale to assess their parental identification. It was predicted that the rapists and pedophiles would identify less with their parents than would college students or general offenders. Analysis indicated a strong and significant correlation between group membership and parental identification. Rapists and pedophiles identified less with their mothers and fathers than did members of corresponding control groups.     

Factorial Analysis of the Relation of the Press to Voting in Chicago

Abstract

Clinical literature has had speculations concerning the attitudes of rapists toward women, but only a few studies have tested attitudinal hypotheses with psychometric instruments. The present investigation used the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (AWS) to study and compare the attitudes of 20 incarcerated rapists, 20 nonsex-related violent offenders, and 20 matched subjects in a contemporary control group. The results confirmed the general hypothesis that the rapist group would show different and more conservative attitudes toward women, especially in areas relating to sexual behavior. More specific analysis of subscale differences was used to further compare the groups on precise attitudinal variables. The findings were discussed in terms of the possible relationship between rape behavior and stereotypic conservative attitudes toward women.