NCJ Number
174383
Journal
Criminologist Volume: 22 Issue: 2 Dated: Summer 1998 Pages: 67-85
Date Published
1998
Length
19 pages
Annotation
In an effort to fill the gap in the rape-violence literature with "expert" data about excessive force and sexual assaults, this study examined the explanations of excessive violence by incarcerated offenders who admitted to committing serial rape.
Abstract
The author trained 13 incarcerated violent offenders at a maximum-security prison to be student interviewers (all were enrolled in a Sociology of Crime course). Each student- interviewer recruited and interviewed five volunteers from their cell block to discuss "hypothetically" predatory rape prior to incarceration. In addition, the author interviewed 12 volunteer participant inmates recruited through the assistance of a correctional officer. A total of 77 subjects were interviewed in the spring of 1992. Of the 77 interviews, only 61 were considered reliable. Eight of the 61 participants (13 percent) described their forcible rape attacks with an emphasis on "wicked" acts of violence before, during, and after their sexual assaults on strangers. They can be described as lacking limits or controls in their destruction of others; however, their descriptions suggest that the offender is in control of his behavior and intends to degrade and even destroy the lives of his female victims. This rage continues long past victim subjugation and in some cases long past the death of his victims. There is a sense in which these violent serial rapists find their identity in their destructiveness and rage, and they affirm their sense of self and their inner dynamics in their rage and destruction. Although most serial rapists use force sparingly if at all, those who relish the use of force cannot be rehabilitated, because their sense of self is irreversibly yoked to the violent destruction of human life. 86 references and 1 table