NCJ Number
86207
Date Published
1982
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Interviews with 57 sex offenders in an Israeli prison indicate that most rapists have no feelings for their victims, but of the 3 who did, their victims succeeded in personalizing the interaction so that the rape was not completed.
Abstract
From theories of rapists' personalities and analyses of rape cases in the literature, it appears that during a rape a process of depersonalization of the victim by the rapist occurs. The victim thus becomes to the rapist an object and a tool for satisfying his desires or a symbol that satisfies neurotic desires. The literature on rape reveals two general categories of rapists: rapists for whom the rape is a symbolic act that expresses the rapist's need for a love relationship with a woman and rapists for whom the rape is an expression of a violent predatory and impulsive behavior pattern that characterizes their treatment of both people and objects. Rapists who develop feelings for their victims during and after the rape attempt generally do not complete the act. Feelings for the victim are apparently stimulated by the victim's doing something to jar the rapist out of the psychological process of depersonalizing the victim and using her as a symbol or object. These findings have implications for the rape-prevention advice given to potential victims. Apparently the instinctive responses of the victim to surrender or fight in efforts to avoid severe harm are not as effective in preventing the rapist from completing the rape or injuring the victim as behaving in the unexpected way of personalizing the interaction through conversations that tend to normalize the sharing of thoughts and feelings between the rapist and victim. Thirty-two notes and 21 references are provided.