From: Timothy Bates (tbates@karri.bhs.mq.edu.au)
Date: Wed Jun 16 1999 - 04:17:02 MDT
kelly wrote
> from my experience working at D.O.V.E., a domestic violence hotline for the
> abuser and abused, the aggressor knows the victim is humiliated- and that
> makes the aggressor temporarily 'stronger' and in control over them.
>
> (a parallel to this is when someone receives sexually harassing phone
> calls- the more outraged/humiliated the person is on the line, the better for
> the aggressor. )
Some possibilities spring to mind.
Maybe there are (at least) two kinds of rapists: one for whom rape is power
and one for whom rape is sexual access.
A testable prediction from socio-biology is that the majority of rapists are
in the latter category (evolution could not sustain a high frequency of the
former as they require a relatively large pool of trusting victims upon whom
to prey).
A second prediction, this time from the rape=power theory, is that rapists
of the power type only choose rape because that is the most
humiliating/power-gaining thing they can do to someone.
This theory, then, predicts exactly the opposite to the rape=sex theory.
It predicts that the frequency of rape will be proportional to the
displeasure experienced by the victim, while rape=sex predicts that rape
will be inversely proportional to displeasure/resistance.
I don't know what the answer is. I suspect that this kind of person makes up
only about 10% of the prison population and only about 1% of the general
population - thankfully.
tim
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