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Rape: Understanding and Investigating Sexual Assault Offenders

NCJ Number
111349
Journal
National Sheriff Volume: 39 Issue: 2 Dated: (April-May 1988) Pages: 36-38
Author(s)
D Olson
Date Published
1988
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article focuses on the motivations of rapists and investigation of rape.
Abstract
Research, including a 16-year study with 1,000 convicted rapists at the Connecticut Correctional Institute, has provided a simple and usable classification that explains the motivations, methods, and emotional-psychological dynamics of rapists. Three major categories of rapists have been identified, based upon the psychological and emotional needs fulfilled by sexual assault. The power rapist, most common, commits premeditated attacks designed to force sexual submission on his victims. Less common is the anger rapist who commits unpremeditated spur-of-the-moment attacks that are violent, savage, and excessively brutal. The least common type of rapist is also the most dangerous. The sadistic rapist uses sex to express power and anger in often bizarre, ritualistic behavior verging on lust murder. Misguided assumptions about rape are that: (1) rape is a crime of sexual arousal, (2) most rapists are adult males, and (3) pornography acts as a triggering mechanism for rape. In effect, detective magazines are cited by rapists as an intelligence source or primer in the business of rape. Also a misconception is that nuisance offenders, i.e., window peepers and exposers, are harmless. Sixty-eight percent of the serial rapists interviewed by the FBI engaged in voyeuristic and exhibitionistic activities. The common characteristics of rapists included having a sense of worthlessness and low self-esteem, being a loner physically and psychologically, and having been a young victim of sexual abuse.

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