The Psychology of Rape

by Gina Simmons, Ph.D.

On February 11, 2011, intrepid 60 Minutes reporter Lara Logan fell victim to an attack in Egypt as she covered the unrest and overthrow of the Egyptian government. She suffered a brutal sexual attack by a gang of men shouting accusations suggesting she spied for Israel. A group of women and members of the Egyptian army rescued her. Logan flew home and remained in a hospital for five days with severe internal injuries. Since January 30, 140 correspondents have been injured or killed while covering the unrest in Egypt. The list includes reporters Anderson Cooper and Christiane Amanpour. Katie Couric described being "man-handled" while reporting in Egypt.

Sexual assault, like that sustained by Lara Logan, occurs about once every minute in the United States. In fact, one in ten rapes in the U.S. involve multiple assailants attacking a victim. In South Africa, Lara Logan's birthplace, one in three rapes involve multiple perpetrators.

Why do men around the world rape women? Rape researchers typically fall into about three different camps. Feminist researchers see anger and hatred for women as the primary cause of rape. Behaviorists focus on research showing that rapists respond to deviant sexual stimuli, unlike non-rapists. Evolutionary biologists see rape as biologically programmed to ensure that men with strong sex drives reproduce. In an attempt to understand the complexity of rape, Dr. Gordon Nagayama Hall found four main types of rapists:

• Type 1: The Aroused. Impulsive, he becomes aroused by deviant sexual stimuli such as bondage or cruelty to women.
• Type 2: The Conqueror. Often the date rapist. He believes women enjoy rape. Misinterprets signals from the woman. For example, if she invites him to her dorm room, he assumes she wants rape.
• Type 3: The Angry. Motivated by rage toward women. Acts out the anger in sexual attacks. Considered the most dangerous kind of rapist.
• Type 4: The Abused. The repeat offender. Likely abused as a child. Difficulty establishing long-term relationships.

Dr. Hall cautions against simple explanations for rape. Evolutionary biology theories do not explain the sexual assault of infants or senior citizens. Feminist theories don't explain how men with meaningful long-term relationships with women can then go out and rape strangers. He believes that by studying the multiple reasons for rape, researchers can reduce it's frequency and design better treatment methods for offenders.

I suggest the best place to begin rape prevention strategies is with our children. A recent study of 1,600 juvenile sexual assault offenders found:

• Just 33 percent of these boys perceived sex as a way to demonstrate love or caring;
• 23.5 percent believed that sex was a way to establish power and control;
• 9.4 percent found sex to be a good way to dissipate anger;
• 8.4 percent believed sex to be a way to punish others.

In a study of college men, 35 percent admitted they would violently rape a woman who had rejected a prior advance if they were assured of getting away with it. Many men and women believe a woman deserved rape if she was intoxicated, led the man on, or invited him into her bedroom. In a 2003 study, men who were highly competitive and win-oriented reported more sexual aggression and held beliefs that supported rape. This impulsive type may have much in common with the hostile group who attacked Lara Logan.

In a small town in Texas a high school cheerleader was dragged into a room and raped by two star football players. The victim, H.S., reported the crime. The boys were arrested, released and returned to the football team, while H.S. returned to cheerleading. In an act of protest, H.S. turned her back on the football player who raped her and refused to cheer for him. H.S. was kicked off the cheer team. Her family sued and the judge ruled that H.S. must cheer for her rapist. I offer another explanation for rape, of both the physical and legal kind. It appears many men, in positions both lofty and low, possess the emotional intelligence of a kumquat.

Tweet

What a Difference a Week Makes: Report from Cairo

by Pat Brown

Life is strange. We often never see what is right around the corner, even when we are walking directly in the midst of it.

January 14, 2011, ten days before the beginning of Egypt Revolution 2011. It was a perfectly normal day, a little bit of scattered rain, but, otherwise, it was pleasant. Cool, but not chilly. I took my daughter to the zoo (she's 30 years old, but, so what). Many families were out strolling cheerfully that Friday morning. We got ourselves a map, and made our way through the exhibits--parrots, hippos, llamas, flamingos, elephants, German Shepherds, and Cocker Spaniels. We were able to feed a lot of them. We kissed a chimpanzee and patted a lion. We had our photos taken. We had cotton candy and tea.

We left the zoo, took a taxi to the Cairo Tower and rode the elevator up to the very top. We watched the sun set over the panorama of the city, taking pictures as we walked around the observation deck. Then the sun disappeared and the lights of the city sparkled and boats on the Nile displayed necklaces of neon-colored bulbs. A soccer game was being played below us, with enthusiastic crowds cheering on their teams.

We were hungry, so we grabbed a cab and rode down the road toward Giza until we found the Chinese restaurant we had spotted earlier that week. My daughter, after a week of Egyptian food, wanted a bit of change. Then, we took a taxi back to our hotel, two blocks from Tahrir Square on Talaat Harb, the main shopping street. We found our favorite ice cream stand and, cones in hand, enjoyed the end of our last evening together in Egypt.

My daughter flew out early the next morning, and I came home that Tuesday. I had spent three weeks in Egypt, mixing business with pleasure, mostly staying in Cairo but making trips out of the city to Alexandria, Luxor, Aswan and Abu Simbel. In spite of the terrorist bombing of the Coptic Christian church in Alexandria that happened New Year's Eve, the day I arrived in Egypt, all was quiet. No place I was in and no one I spoke with gave any hints of the coming events. Even people who were there the day before the revolution say they had no clue what the morning would bring.

Now, I sit here and watch the protests and the violence unfolding right outside my hotel, at the Egyptian Museum I visited twice, in Tahrir Square, which I crossed a dozen times, and it is hard to believe I was just there. This is not to say there wasn't a building momentum toward the days the people rose up against President Hosni Mubarak. Unemployment is ungodly high, over 60 percent (and I do not think that includes women). Food prices have been soaring, and students are graduating to lives with no future.

History always shows us what we can expect in the future. We can see this in the United States just as well, as changes occur and joblessness, frustrations, and anger build. Mass murders, school shootings, homegrown terrorism, violence against women and children--all of these are warning signs we should pay attention to, as a nation and in our communities. You never know; you could be watching your children at the baseball field in the afternoon and wake up to find your world turned upside-down the very next morning.

My prayers go out to the people of Egypt, and to Americans. We never know what tomorrow holds, but we can all do something about it today, and maybe we will have a better future for ourselves and our children.

Tweet