Forcible rapes continue to occur at a rate of 1.3 per minute (Olsen-Rando, 1993). In this regard, approximately 120,000 women are raped in America every year with most victims knowing the rapist. The importance of understanding the underlying dynamics leading to sexually aggressive behavior cannot be overestimated.
What cannot be denied is the fact that rape is a distinctly male phenomena. However, the question can be asked as to what factors predispose a male to commit rape; are these determinants biogenetic or psychosocial? The purpose of this report is to examine the literature on predisposing factors to the commission of rape in an effort to examine the phenomenon in terms of the nature/nurture framework. The review begins with a brief description of the nature of rape.
Sue, Sue and Sue (1994) has noted that rape is not linked to a specific type of mental disorder in the DSM-IV because so many different motivations have been found to be associated with the condition. However, the authors report that there are essentially three kinds of rapes. These are:
(1) Power. Rapes of this type (about 55 percent of those studied) are committed primarily as an attempt to compensate for feelings of personal or sexual inadequacy through intimidation of the victims.
(2) Anger. Rapes in this category (about 40 percent of those studied) are committed because the male feels angry at women in general. The female is just a convenient target.
(3) Sadistic. In cases of sadistic rape (about 5 percent of those studied), the rapist derives satisfaction from inflicting pain on the victim. Such rapes often include torture or mutilation.
Although, as just noted, the DSM-IV doesn't assign rape to a given category of mental disorder, Freund (1986) has argued that preferential rape pattern (PRP) belongs among the courtship disorders like voyeurism, exhibitionism, and toucherism. The claim is based on an experiment in which Fre...