The Occurrence Of Rape Essay

“I felt his hands start to move down towards my shorts as if he was trying to unbutton them or pull them off. I was still crying at this point and felt so scared that I couldn't move” (Hummer, 1989). These were the words said by a freshman away at college after she had been sexual assaulted. From the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National network, statistics show that “over 90 percent of all gang rapes on college campuses involve fraternity men” (Hummer, 1989). Most often these woman may be labeled as trash, shameful, or ready for action, aside from a victim, prey, or survivor. Rape myths encourage these deprecating terms for women and cover the reality of a rape culture.

This essay will examine the social and cultural conditions, within the macro-diachronic and micro-synchronic theoretical models , that intensify or perpetuate sexual assault. I have chosen only one concept from each model because these are the only concepts that I feel that I can use to most accurately and comprehensively depict causes and reasons for why sexual assault is deeply entrenched in our social structure. I will thus explore, from these ideological viewpoints, some of the motivations and circumstances which lead offenders to sexual assault. I will also fuse some of the historical attitudes from which today's concepts have evolved to our contemporary understanding of this social

Researchers have come up with various explanations trying to explain the sexual abuse cases in the globe. Some of these explanations form a basis on psychological perspectives, biological perspectives, and criminal perspectives. Despite these differences, rape cases are considered a violation of an individual right and the traumatizing effects are reported to be similar. The paper will focus mainly on the criminological approach to rape cases (Grooth & Jean, 1979). Various criminologists’ literature will be reviewed in association to rape as an offense against the law.

In “Riding the Bull at Gilleys,” Scully and Marolla depict the psychopathological and the socio-cultural models of rape. The psychopathological model is a representation of what psychotherapist have used for years to explain the reasoning behind rape. With this model, rape is the result of an eccentric mental dysfunction, which symptoms include involuntary and uncontrollable sexual impulses. These sexual impulses may be temporary, repetitive, long lasting or brief. This model also implies that male sexual aggression is abnormal, therefore; psychologists do not seek any other rational explanation. Mainly, the psychopathological model ignores any correlational factors linking male sexual aggression to learned social behavior.

Sexual assault and rape are serious social and public health issues in the United States and throughout the rest of the world. In particular sexual assault on college campus are prevalent at an alarming rate and leaves serious effects on the victims. This essay will focus on statistics and the prevalence and effects amongst college students, through examining a number of reasons why women fail to report sexual assault and rape. This essay will also cover sexual assault prevention and things that can be done to mitigate the risk of becoming a victim to such matter.

There has been much debate about why people commit sexual crimes. As far as to what causes people to become sex offenders, there is no real answer to this question. No single factor can fully interpret why someone commits a sexual offense, though it is believed that some combination of factors may combine to increase sexual deviancy dramatically. These factors include biological, circumstantial, environmental, and sociocultural aspects of the person, describing the development of abnormal sexual expression through the same mechanisms by which conventional sexuality is also learned (Terry and Tallon). There are a number of sub-theories which have been designed to explain the onset of sexual deviancy. However, because no one can pinpoint the dynamics of sexual deviancy, different theories have been developed to study and account for the development of sexual aggression and behavior. An explanation of the main theories is offered below:

We are going to start the discussion with the objectification theory. This theory claims that women are sexually objectified by men, and basically treated as an object (Szymanski et. al., 2011:7). Women are not viewed as a person but as a sexual/physical object, with only purpose to sexually please a man. According to Szymanski et al., (2011:8) this view creates mental health problems to women. Moving on, the evolutionary theory explains rape in a biological form (Lowell, 2010:159). The evolutionary theory of rape claims that rape was a part of the evolution, and in that way men were ‘choosing’ their mate. Also, this theory claims that the men who used this ‘technique’ were able to reproduce more effectively and they could have more children with their traits (Lowell, 2010:159). Furthermore, the supporters of this rape theory said that this voluntary mechanism was the main reason that the human kind continued exists. For this theory rape is not rape, is just a mate selection (Lowell, 2010:159). One more theory is the self-control theory. This theory claims that the male sexually cannot be controlled and that’s why commits rape. Men who hold this belief said that they cannot control their urges, so basically claim that they are not responsible for their actions (Lowell, 2010:159). Supporters of this theory said that women have a

The main debate amongst the explanation is the key motivation that drives the offender to commit rape. Previously, majority of social scientists’ perspective of rape is seen as a sexually motivated crime; for instance, males are given the opportunity to fulfil their sexual desires that cannot be met legally, thus

Women, girls, men, and boys are vulnerable victims of sexual assaults every day in our country. While females experience much higher rates of sexual assaults than males. The problem that this country faces is the lack of being able to track rapist, in addition to the victims that chose not to report their assault of being raped to the police. Issues of under reporting comes from the victims with multiple reasons that hinders them from reporting these heinous criminal acts. Thus, the sad realization is that the perpetrator is usually some one that you know, that you would of never of thought that they could and would, and do sexually assault you.

What is rape, and to whom does it happen? Generally speaking, rape is a violent sexual act imposed on a nonconsenting partner that makes you question many things about yourself. Unfortunately the mythology usually surrounding rape is that it only happens to women. The fact is, rape does not only happen to women, but men as well. It is one of the most misunderstood of all crimes, and when the victim is male, understanding why it has happened, is one of the hardest things to comprehend.

Many issues have come up with the laws surrounding statutory rape. Although the laws are in place to help people, many people see them as unfair and they believe that there are changes that could be made to help improve these laws. A major problem with statutory rape laws is that each state has a different law. To help improve statutory rape laws, all states should work together to have a set of country-wide laws, so that the states all have the same laws. With a few minor improvements, the statutory rape laws would be problem free.

From an evolutionary stand point, human behaviour can only be understood by taking into account human evolutionary behaviour and natural selection ( McKibben etal;2008 on laptop). According to evolutionary theorists, over evolutionary time, when individuals perceived themselves to be competitively disadvantaged in some domain of mate value it became adaptive to use sexual coercion to increase their number of sexual partners. The central claim of this theory is that sexually coercive behaviour is due to sexual motivation rather than males’ need for power over women. To support the human rape-adaptation hypothesis, evolutionary psychologists point to

In order to support their theory they use the sexual behaviour of scorpion flies Thornhill and Thornhill (1987), in which the male may gain sex from the female either by presenting a gift of food through a notal organ) during courtship or without a nuptial offering, in which case force is necessary to restrain her. Human males do not have a similar rape organ, but Palmer et al (2000) argue that the rape adaptation is found in the male psyche, however it is not only the male psyche that leads to rape. As Darwinists, Thornhill and Palmer see themselves as having the only valid explanation of rape, they dismiss social science and feminist theories.

Even though the first amendment states freedom of expression, statistics show rape and sexual assault numbers have risen due to the presence of rape culture in modern society. Rape culture promotes more assaults and violent acts, not only towards women but also towards men. Some evidence rape culture is present in today’s society are rising statistics showing that only three out of a hundred rapists see jail time and that over 17 million American women are victims of sexual assault every year. Rape culture is seen in every aspect of daily American life, even if people do not realize it.

     Webster’s Dictionary describes rape as the crime of forcing another person to submit to sex acts, especially sexual intercourse. Rape is a crime in which most women cannot defend themselves. The fear of rape plagues every woman at some point or another in her life. The traumatic effects of rape vary from mild to severe, from psychological to physical. This paper will evaluate rape, as well as the effects it has on women, the theory behind male dominance and patriarchy, and differences in demographics.