Criminological Aspects Of Sexual Offences

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction

Sexual Tendency and Criminal Behaviour

Theory Regarding Criminological aspects of Sexual Behaviour

Causation of Sexual Offences:

I. Cultural Factors:

i. Strange Customs and Taboos

ii. Sexual Assault and Male Dominance

II. Individual Factors:

Sex and Power motives

Sexual Gratification

Alcohol and Drug Consumption

Psychological Factors

Physiology and Neurophysiology

Psychopathology and Personality Traits

Attitudes and Gender Schemas

Isolation

Social Factors:

Early Childhood Environment

Family honour and sexual purity

Global trends and economic factors

The way males are socialized and sexual scripts

Sexual Expectations and Rape Myths

Cultural Mores

The sex industry and rape

Physical and Social Environment

Social norms

Poverty

Summary

2.1. Introduction:

Crime is eternal- as eternal as society. [1] It is true that struggle against crimes was above all a struggle against poverty, sickness, alcoholism and prostitution. This in other words, means that if these social evils could be eliminated, the problem of crime prevention would be considerably eased. There are, however, certain categories of crime which do not respond to these hypotheses favorably because of the pervasive tendency of human nature. Sex crime is obviously one among such crimes which prevails in almost all societies through ages. Prof. Tannenbaum has rightly says that "crime is inevitable in society". Sexual violence occurs today in the context of rapid westernization, with new forms of female subservience the effects of urbanized lifestyles on male-female relations.

In this chapter, we are trying to study the determinants of offences and criminological aspects of sexual offences in the society.

With the advance of science, civilization and culture, the complexities of life have enormously multiplied. Modern mechanization and urbanization has brought about total disintegration of the ‘family’ institution which has created serious problems in human life. The control of parents over their wards has weakened considerably. In fact, it is this parental negligence which is mainly responsible for growing indiscipline, rowdies and vagrancy among youngsters. It has been observed that uncontrollable hooliganism among youths has become a serious problem for law enforcement agencies throughout the world. It has rather become a social disease. As a result of unhappy development, the incidence of sex delinquency in the form of unmarried motherhood abortion, rape, kidnapping, enticement, abduction, adultery, incest, indecent assault etc has become too common. [2] 

As in other developed countries, offences are categorized on the basis of the harms they generate. A distinction is made between two types of sexual offences: rapes and other sexual offences. Firstly, rapes belong to the most harmful category of the "sexual crimes".  Secondly, other sexual offences include indecent assaults, engaging minors in indecent acts and other offences against public decency; they are defined as "délicts".

Like western country, the sex delinquency in India has also recorded an upward trend in recent decades. Despite repressive socio-legal measures to control sex crime, the ‘permissive’ trend of the modern Indian society is causing obstruction for prosecution and punishment of sexual-offenders. These offences, therefore, have thrown a great challenge before the criminal justice administration. [3] 

So far the criminological aspects of sexual offences is concerned, prior to the codification of Hindu Law, polygamy was in vogue for a long time. Perhaps, the justification for the acceptance of this practice was that it provided legitimate outlet for persons to pacify their sex urge within the family itself.

2.2. Sexual Tendency and Criminal Behaviour:

Human sexual activities or human sexual practices or human sexual behavior refers to the manner in which humanbeings experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts from time to time, and for a wide variety of reasons. Sexual activity normally results in sexual arousal and physiological changes in the aroused person, some of which are pronounced while others are more subtle. Sexual activity also includes conduct and activities which are intended to arouse the sexual interest of another, such as strategies to find or attract partners (mating and display behavior), and personal interactions between individuals, such as flirting and foreplay. Human sexual activity has sociological, cognitive, emotional, behavioural and biological aspects, including physiological processes such as the reproductive mechanism, the sex drive and pathology; sexual intercourse and sexual behavior in all its forms; and personal bonding and shared emotions during sexual activity. [4] 

Without contending that they will inevitably cause crime, it is apparent that certain conditions are more favorable to crime than others. Bad heredity, physical defect mental imbalance, mental defect, emotional insecurity, a slum environment, poor education, criminal associates, extreme poverty, and other environmental stimulations to crime are obviously more favorable to crime. It is true that any or all of these unfavorable conditions will not inevitably drive a given person to commit a crime under all circumstances. Conversely, any one or all of the favorable conditions listed above may not be gilt-edge insurance against a person committing a crime. One thing is clear is that each of these theories suggests that certain factors, either at the individual or the societal level, may have a causal influence on crime. [5] 

The empirical evidence has identified several biological factors which may be related to the development of sexual orientation, including genes, prenatal hormones and brain structure. The prevailing view is that sexual orientation is biological in nature, determined by a complex interplay of genetic factors and the early uterine environment. Some believe that sexual orientation is established at conception, therefore, not a choice. That is, individuals do not choose to be homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, or asexual. There is no substantive evidence to support the suggestion that early childhood experiences, parenting, sexual abuse, or other adverse life events influence sexual orientation. However, studies do find that as aspects of sexuality expression have an experiential basis, parental attitudes towards a particular sexual orientation may affect how their children experiment with behaviours related to a certain orientation. [6] 

The another view is that sexual orientation is not independent of cultural and other social influences. Social systems such as religion, language and ethnic traditions can have a powerful impact on realization of sexual orientation.

Human beings are "social animals", and their habits, desires, hopes, fears, and beliefs are shaped by the various societies into which they are born. This is also true of their sexual attitudes and behaviors. People are born with a certain potential for sexual expression, but this potential can be realized in a great variety of ways. Indeed, in sexually repressive societies it may well remain partially or completely unrealized. [7] 

Human sexual behavior develops in a very typical fashion. Children learn to adopt that behavior which is acceptable to their particular culture. On the other hand, some frustrated children develop "loose morals" and use sex mainly to express their hostility; others, who are well satisfied, choose their sexual partners carefully and shower them with affection. Finally, some people decide to give up the pleasures of sex, for some religious or moral reason and take a vow of chastity. [8] 

Furthermore, the sexual behavior of men and women reflects not only their personal tastes, but, to a large extent, also the basic values of the society or social group to which they belong. No matter how much they may differ as individuals, their moral sense is always shaped by the underlying assumptions of their whole culture. In hedonistic and tolerant cultures, most people are likely to be joyful and sensuous; in puritanical and repressive cultures, they tend to be anxious and inhibited. In the first case, they will celebrate sex as a source of happiness; in the second case, they will deplore and conceal it as a source of shame. [9] 

2.3. Theory Regarding Criminological aspects of Sexual Behaviour:

The theories about why sexual offenders commit sexual violence or assault are numerous and varied. They range to both ends of the "nature vs. nurture" debate, and include biological factors such as evolution, physiology, substance abuse, and psychopathology as well as environmental factors such as attitudes, sex roles, sex and power motives, social learning, and dynamics within a relationship

It has been popular to attribute criminal behaviour to one cause or factor, or to one set of factors. It is difficult to explain delinquency and crime or any other form of human behaviour. No unilateral theory, however profound, whether it is nurtured and expounded by biologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, or sociologists, can ever hope to answer the question of the totality of criminal behavior. The traditional approach to causation in India has been the socio-economic. However some criminologists have insisted that biological or constitutional factors are more influential in eliciting antisocial behavior. The geographical determinists have espoused weather, the seasons, topography, humidity, and the like to explain why people behave as they do. The psychiatrists, the sociologists, the endocrinologists, the psychologists and the religionists, as well as the racists and the eugenics, have all attempted to give us the answer. The problem is indeed complex. Yet this riddle of crime causation remains to bedevil society. No unilateral theory, however profound, whether it is nurtured and expounded by biologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, or sociologists, can ever hope to answer the question of the totality of criminal behavior. [10] 

Bio-scientists have opined that sex involvement is necessary for procreation, physical fitness and mental satisfaction of mankind. [11] Like any other society, the Indian society expects that sexual activities must be confined to martial relationship and sex indulgence outside marriage wedlock is an offence punishable under the penal law. Another notable feature regarding sexuality is that chastity is stressed more on women than men.

Commenting on sexual behavior of mankind Donald Taft observes that sexuality being a biological phenomenon needs no specific training. [12] The bio-physical changes with the growth of human body automatically prepare men and women for sex behavior. Sex-crimes have now-a-days become so common that people have lost all seriousness about them and they are looked upon as an ordinary mode of human behavior.

The factors which are mainly responsible for steep rise in sex offences are as follows:-

Man is a creature of endless moods and caprices. Just as he wants change and variety in food he eats and clothes he wears and the music he hears, so he finds it difficult to remain absolutely faithful to one sex-partner. Thus, variety being the essence of enjoyment, men and women indulge in extra-marital relations [13] which are not always approved by the society or the law.

The institution of religion which was once regarded as potential weapon of social control has lost its force in modern times. So is the case with moral and ethical values of life. Due to the impact of western culture, the age-old traditional norms and customs are fast losing their hold on Indian society.

In spite of legal restrictions imposed on illegal sex indulgence, the incidence of this vice is on a constant increase. The obvious reason for the upward trend in sex-offences is that sexuality which is bio-physiological phenomenon is as essential to human organism as food or water. In fact, life and sex are inseparable. When harnesses along correct lines, it is a great creative force in all walks of life. [14] That apart, sexual impulse affects all alike whether male or female, rich or poor, educated or illiterate, men of high status or lower status. The intensity of sex emotion among individuals may, however, vary depending on their personal traits and bio-physical factors. Sex crimes arise out of the physiological urge of human beings to satisfy their sexual impulse. If this basic urge is not pacified through legitimate means, the individual may resort to forbidden sexual acts which eventually result in sexual crime. The problem of prostitution as a worse type of sex delinquency necessarily arises out of this basic consideration about the sex activities of mankind. The forms of sex-crimes are rape [15] , or sexual activities, adultery [16] , incest [17] , outraging the modesty of a woman [18] , prostitution [19] , sodomy [20] , pornography [21] , fornication [22] , homosexuality [23] , exhibitionism, etc. The list is only illustrative and not exhaustive. Obscenity, though not a sex- offence may, however, act as a catalyst for sexual criminality. Minors may also be kidnapped for the purpose of prostitution.

In particular, it is now well established that sexual activities with young girls of immature age have a traumatic effect which often persists through life, leading subsequently to disorders, unless there are counter-balancing factors in family life and .n social attitudes which could act as a cushion against such traumatic effects.

Note should also be taken of sentimental interest in the crime problem i.e fear, desire for revenge, a certain fascination, and a morbid interest either in the victim or the perpetrator of crime. It has been somewhat extravagantly said that morbid interest in crime express unconscious desire to be criminals - a desire to throw off the restraints of civilized existence. It is clear that sentimental interest in crime, whether taking the form of negative hate or positive morbid sympathy, is not what is needed for the objective understanding and prevention of crime, and that its prevalence may be listed as a factor in the causation of crime. No child enters life as a criminal. The interest is enhanced by the discovery of the wide variety of human traits which the criminal possesses and the wide variety of types of which the criminal class is composed. Paradoxical though it sounds, one may hardly even describe criminals as a class as antisocial. Their criminal acts are indeed by definition antisocial, and no one would minimize the seriousness of some of them. Yet their criminal behaviour on investigation is often found to be but one aspect of their total behaviour.

Here in this regard, Lombroso’s [24] â€˜discovery’ was old news, the significance he gave to it was altogether novel. For him, the apparent distinctiveness of the criminal type prompted an idea that no one had imagined before: the idea of a distinctive science of the criminal. His conception of the criminal as a naturally occurring entity - a fact of nature rather than a social or legal product - led Lombroso to the thought of a natural science which would focus upon this entity, trace its characteristics, its stigmata, its abnormalities, and eventually identify the causes which make one person a criminal and another a normal citizen. [25] 

Beccaria [26] had been right in his argument that, rather than being entirely the product of free will, crime must be influenced by factors in the larger society. But Lombroso proposed that criminals were biological throwbacks to an earlier evolutionary stage, people more primitive and less highly evolved than their noncriminal counterparts. Criminal behavior is associated, in greater or lesser degree, with such social and personal pathologies as poverty, bad housing, slum-residence, lack of recreational facilities, inadequate and demoralized families, mental retardation, emotional instability, and other traits and conditions. It has been found that many persons with those pathological traits and conditions do not commit crimes and that person in the upper socio-economic class frequently violate the law, although they are not in poverty, do not lack recreational facilities, and are not mentally retarded or emotionally unstable. Obviously, it is not the conditions or traits themselves which cause and they also are sometimes absent when criminality does occur. A generalization about crime and criminal behavior can be reached by logically abstracting the conditions and processes which are common to the rich and the poor, the males and the females, the blacks and the whites, the urban and the rural-dwellers, the young adults and the old adults, and the emotionally stable and the emotionally unstable who commit crimes. An explanation of criminal behavior should be consistent with a general theory of other human behavior, but the conditions and process said to produce crime and criminality should be specific. [27] 

On the other hand, E. H. Sutherland, [28] have tried to discover processes or relationships which will explain all crime, in spite of its great variety. Thus we have theories of social disorganization and differential association, theories of delayed maturation, theories of economic exploitation, theories of anomic or formlessness, theories of subgroup influence, and so forth. [29] 

Sutherland explains how it was that criminals came to commit acts of deviant behavior. In his theory, Sutherland assess’ that criminal behavior is not to be explained away by deeming the criminal ‘simple.’ Sutherland alleges that just as societal norms are learned through social interaction and observance, so too are social deviations. According to his Differential Association theory [30] which says the followings:

Criminal behavior is learned.

Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with others in a process of communication.

Learning criminal behavior occurs within primary groups (family, friends, peers, their most intimate, personal companions)

Learning criminal behavior involves learning the techniques, motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes.

The specific direction of motives and attitudes is learned from definitions of the legal codes as favorable or unfavorable.

A person becomes a criminal when there is an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of law.

Differential associations vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity.

The process of learning criminal behavior involves all the mechanisms involved in any other learning.

Although criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and attitudes, criminal behavior and motives are not explained nor excused by the same needs and attitudes, since non criminal behavior is explained by the same general needs and attitudes. [31] 

2.4. Causation of Sexual Offences:

In treating the causes of crime, it is necessary to bear in mind just what we mean in this connection by "causes." We can never be sure that a given set of factors will always produce a crime or a delinquent act. As a result, some criminologists on criminal behavior state that it is futile to discuss causes at all. As a first step to a better understanding of crime- and its causes- it is well to cease discussing crimes and criminals in any general sense and concentrate solely on individual crime situations and individual criminals. However, it will be not easy to study what personal and social factors encourage antisocial behaviour.

2.4.1. Cultural Factors:

In some cultures, sexual activity is considered acceptable only within marriage, although premarital and extramarital sex is also common. Some sexual activities are illegal either universally or in some countries, and some are considered against the norms of a society. For example, sexual activity with a person below some age of consent and sexual assault in general are criminal offenses in most jurisdictions. [32] 

Sex is mostly viewed as a biological urge; it has a socio-cultural dimension as well. India is a vast country with great socio-cultural diversity and many different ethnic groups, each with its own distinct cultures. However, the entire Indian culture is religion based and finds its root from the ancient Holy Scriptures. The sexual culture of Indian society stems from the Kama Sutra of Vatsyana, an epic on sex. This text is considered holy and is accepted culturally, even though many practices contained therein are offences under modern law. [33] In some cultures, sexual activity is considered acceptable only within marriage, although premarital and extramarital sex is also common.

Many of the conflicts observed between the sexual practices that are accepted in Indian culture but not by the law can be explained on the basis that the Indian legal system is borrowed from that of the British. Therefore, traditional British culture has a great influence over the legal system of India. Although some changes to the law have taken place over the last 65 years of independence in order to meet quintessential India needs, the basic structure and framework remains the same. A majority of Indian are unaware of the various aspects of statutory sexual offences, although 150 years have elapsed since the inception of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Sexual practices that are accepted culturally and have become part and parcel of Indian society but which, nonetheless, are considered offences in the eye of the law. [34] 

Where the ideology of male superiority is strong—emphasizing dominance, physical strength and male honour—rape is more common. In many societies, for example, "women, as well as men, regard marriage as entailing the obligation on women to be sexually available virtually without limit." Even outside of marriage, women may have "extremely few legitimate options to refuse sexual advances." [35] When looking at sexual assault as a learned behavior, the underlying theory is that "social conditions, such as cultural norms, rules, and prevailing attitudes about sex, mold and structure the behavior of the rapists within the context of the broader social system, foster rape-prone environments and, in effect, teach men to rape." [36] Some time sexual violence was linked to larger patterns of violence within a society, an ideology that encourages male aggressiveness (particularly when males are encouraged to be sexually aggressive), and male dominance. [37] The combination of cultural values that emphasize male dominance with economic transition may be particularly problematic, as "men turn their aggression against women when they can no longer control patriarchally or support economically." [38] Cultural norms that devalue women can combine with norms that value male dominance and aggressiveness to create a subculture that sanctions sexual violence. In addition, sexual assault is associated with cultures experiencing high levels of violence and conflict: "Countries with a culture of violence, or where violent conflict is taking place, experience an increase in almost all forms of violence, including sexual violence." [39] 

In some cultures, rape was seen less as a crime against a particular girl or woman than as a crime against the head of the household or against chastity. As a consequence, the rape of a virgin was often a more serious crime than of a non-virgin, even a wife or widow, and the rape of a prostitute or other unchaste woman was, in some laws, not a crime because her chastity could not be harmed. Furthermore, the woman's consent was under many legal systems not a defense. In seventeenth-century France, even marriage without parental consent was classified as rape. The penalty for rape was often a fine, payable to the father or the husband whose "goods" were "damaged". [40] 

It has been observed that in some laws the woman might marry the rapist instead of his receiving the legal penalty. This was especially prevalent in laws where the crime of rape did not include, as a necessary part, that it be against the woman's will, thus dividing the crime in the current meaning of rape, and a means for a couple to force their families to permit marriage. [41] 

2.4.1.1 Strange Customs and Taboos:

In some societies more particularly the tribal communities, in remote areas of the world, often have different understandings of and customs concerning sexual offences. Some of these customs have evolved into customary law, [42] either operating within a larger state structure or being utilized in a clandestine manner in regions where state authorities have limited control and tribal peoples have either little knowledge of state laws or scant respect for them, preferring their own forms of justice. Thus, understanding tribal customs in the instance of sexual offences involves reorienting concepts of crime as offenses that upset a pattern of social relationships within and between communities, and justice as restorative of these relationships. [43] 

In many tribal societies, sexual intercourse is considered consensual, and there is no concept of a sexual offense, which offends the wider community. Customary law regulating sexual behavior is principally concerned with adultery, considered an infringement of the exclusive sexual privilege of the husband over the wife, or vice versa in more equalitarian bands. Take an instances of offenders among the Garo from Meghalaya (India) can be subject either to customary law, under which the offense is non-discriminatory in gender terms, or the (colonial) Indian Penal Code, which discriminates against women. [44] 

The tribal society regulates, and maintains sexual behaviour as a process of socialization through norms, and values in the name of sanction, and avoidance. Consequently, sexual bonds, and incest have existed as universal practices of human societies, and tribals in particular, through different social institutions such as, marriage, family, and kinship. Anthropology testifies that variations exist between different cultural groups in their patterns of sexual behaviour. Every society must control potentially disruptive sexual behaviour through some systems. But it is clear that effective control can be achieved in diverse ways. Behaviour which is discouraged in one society may be tolerated in a second, and encouraged in a third. Also, substantial differences may exist between subgroups within a society. The sexual privilege, avoidance, taboo, and incest among the members have been helping the tribals to sustain their discipline, continuity, and existence. [45] Among many primitive tribal peoples even today, a marriage is not solemnized until the first child is born, and if no child is born the man is at liberty to leave the woman. [46] 

In the context of pressure exerted by the societal norms and legal sanctions of dominant traditions, some tribal societies have resorted to utilizing rape as a punishment to control women, whereas others demonstrate their inability to enforce traditional sanctions against rape in the face of alien legal codes. Investigating rape thus highlights the plight of tribal communities worldwide in their struggle to come to terms with colonial histories, development, and globalization. [47] 

2.4.1.2. Sexual Assault and Male Dominance:

With the current understanding of sexual assault as an act of violence, theorists also came to understand sexual assault as a manifestation of and means for ensuring female subordination. "Rape is a result of long-held traditions of male dominance. This male dominance is reinforced by prostitution and pornography, in which women are degraded and treated in subservient ways. In other words, rape is the male response to social inequality between men and women." [48] 

Sexual assault must also be understood historically, in the context of legal and social frameworks within which women were considered the property of men. Historically, the crime of rape was a property crime: "Rape was a crime not against the victim, but against the man who owned her, i.e her husband or father." [49] Thus, the sexual abuse of a woman was more a violation of a man's property than a violation of a woman's 'bodily integrity.' Rape laws, therefore, originated as a means of protecting a man's or family's property. [50] As a property crime, the punishment for rape was often the payment of a sum to the father or brother of the woman. In some countries even today, families of a victim may seek financial compensation from the rapist's family. [51] The legal and cultural frameworks within which women have historically been considered the property of their husbands also support the assumption that men are entitled to sexual access to their wives and thus contribute to the failure to view marital rape as a crime.

Sexual assault is not only a reflection of societal arrangements that devalue women (i.e., it is acceptable to target and violate women because they are not valued), but itself serves to reinforce women's subordination and ensure their conformity with preset gender roles: "Rape has been used historically for the subjugation of women and as a means of ensuring that women conform to the behavior patterns required by the community." [52] 

2.4.2. Individual Factors (Biological factors)

2.4.2.1. Sex and Power motives:

Research has confirmed that motives of power and anger are more prominent in rapists’ rationalizations for sexual aggression than sexual desires are. And sexually aggressive men openly admit that their sexual fantasies are aggressive and sadistic.

2.4.2.2. Sexual gratification

Though anger and power are believed, by some academics, to be the primary motivation for most rapes, [53] According to Richard Felson [54] that rape is an aggressive form of sexual coercion and the goal of rape is sexual satisfaction rather than power. Most rapists do not have a preference for rape over consensual sex. [55] In one study, male rapists evaluated with penile plethysmography demonstrated more arousal to forced sex and less discrimination between forced and consensual sex than non-rapist control subjects, though both groups responded more strongly to consensual sex scenarios. [56] 

2.4.2.3. Alcohol and Drugs consumption:

Alcohol has been shown to play a disinheriting role in certain types of sexual assault, [57] as have some other drugs, notably cocaine. [58] Alcohol has a psychopharmacological effect of reducing inhibitions, clouding judgments and impairing the ability to interpret cues. [59] The biological links between alcohol and violence are, however, complex. [60] Research on the social anthropology of alcohol consumption suggests that connections between violence, drinking and drunkenness are socially learnt rather than universal. [61] Some researchers have noted that alcohol may act as a cultural break time, providing the opportunity for antisocial behaviour. Thus people are more likely to act violently when drunk because they do not consider that they will be held accountable for their behaviour. Some forms of group sexual violence are also associated with drinking. In these settings, consuming alcohol is an act of group bonding, where inhibitions are collectively reduced and individual judgment ceded in favour of that of the group.

Increased vulnerability to sexual violence also stems from the use of alcohol and other drugs. Consuming alcohol or drugs makes it more difficult for women to protect themselves by interpreting and effectively acting on warning signs. Drinking alcohol may also place women in settings where their chances of encountering a potential offender are greater. Alcohol has been shown to play a significant role in certain types of sexual assault as have some drugs, notably cocaine.

2.4.2.4. Psychological Factors:

There has been considerable research in recent times on the role of cognitive variables among the set of factors that can lead to rape. Sexually violent men have been shown to be more likely to consider the victims responsible for the rape and are less knowledgeable about the impact of rape on victims. [62] They have coercive sexual fantasies [63] generally get encouraged by access to pornography, and overall are more hostile towards women than men who are not sexually violent. In addition to these factors, sexually violent [64] men are believed to differ from other men in terms of impulsivity and antisocial tendencies. [65] They also tend to have an exaggerated sense of masculinity.

2.4.2.5. Physiology and Neurophysiology:

The cause of sexual assault may be found in hormones and other chemicals in the body, as well as head traumas or brain abnormalities. Researchers in this area have found a correlation between testosterone levels and aggression, but it is not clear whether testosterone levels lead to aggressive behavior or rise as a result of aggressive behavior. Trauma and violence have been proven to have effects on hormones, neurotransmitters, and brain function. Studies examining brain injuries and abnormalities suggest trauma and violence can lead to an increase in battering behavior, as well as other violent or impulsive acts.

2.4.2.6. Psychopathology and Personality Traits:

Men who rape have been diagnosed with a wide variety of psychiatric and personality disorders, most often antisocial personality disorder. Nonetheless, personality testing of rapists has found no significant differences between sexual offenders and those incarcerated for nonsexual offenses. The degree of involvement in sexually coercive behavior appears to be related to personality measures of irresponsibility, a lack of social conscience, and a value orientation legitimizing aggression, particularly against women.

Most investigators have concluded that there is a great deal of heterogeneity among rapists and that sexual aggression is determined by many factors. In fact, it has been said that the personality profile of convicted rapists more closely matches the personality profile of men in the general population than any other set of felons.

2.4.2.7. Attitudes and Gender Scheme:

Sexually aggressive men are more likely to believe myths about rape and that use of interpersonal violence is an effective strategy for resolving conflict than are non-aggressive men. These sorts of beliefs may serve as rationalizations for sexual offenders, allowing them to imagine that their victim either desired or deserved to experience forced sexual acts. Once men have developed attitudes that support violence against women, they are likely to misinterpret ambiguous evidence as confirming their beliefs. Acceptance of rape myths is strongly related to adversarial sexual beliefs, tolerance of interpersonal violence, and gender role stereotyping.

2.4.2.8. Isolation:

Isolation greatly facilitates the conditions for the commission of sexual offences. Isolation may be of many types, physical, social, psychological, religious and even cultural. Most of the rape cases in India have taken place when the victims were found alone in isolated places like lonely and insufficiently lit parks, streets, lanes, etc. or any such places. Social isolation refers to individual’s social status in society. If the person is a bachelor, separated or divorcee, or even an elderly person living alone, he/she could definitely be vulnerable to such crime. At the time of communal riot it has been observed that mainly women and girls from the minority religious community have become victims of sexual offences. [66] 

2.4.3. Societal Factors:

Factors operating at a societal level that influence sexual violence include laws and national policies relating to gender equality in general and to sexual violence more specifically, as well as norms relating to the use of violence. While the various factors operate largely at a local level, within families, schools, workplaces and communities, there are also influences from the laws and norms working at the national and even international level. In India, there are some local communities in which wives are often sexually assaulted by their husbands as a matter of custom. Assaulted women are also not very unhappy because they also accept that sort of assault as a mark of love shown to them by their husbands.

Sexual violence committed by men is to a large extent rooted in ideologies of male sexual entitlement. This belief grants women extremely few legitimate options to refuse sexual advances. Many men thus simply exclude the possibility that their sexual advances towards a woman might be rejected or that a woman has the right to make an autonomous decision about participating in sex. In many cultures women, as well as men, regard marriage as entailing the obligation on women to be sexually available virtually without limit [67] though sex may be culturally proscribed at certain times, such as after childbirth or during menstruation. Societal norms around the use of violence as a means to achieve objectives have been strongly associated with the prevalence of sexual offences. In societies where the ideology of male superiority is strong – emphasizing dominance, physical strength and male honour – rape is more common [68] 

However it is pertinent to discuss the following societal factors which lead to sexual offences in society.

2.4.3.1. Early Childhood Environment

There is evidence to suggest that sexual violence is also a learnt behaviour in some men, particularly in regard to child sexual abuse. Studies on sexually abused boys have shown that around one in five continue in later life to molest children themselves. [69] Such experiences may lead to a pattern of behaviour where the man regularly justifies being violent, denies doing wrong, and has false and unhealthy notions about sexuality. An early faulty socialization continues to influence the further course of action in the matter of sexual behaviour. [70] 

There is evidence to suggest that sexual violence is also a learnt behaviour in some men, particularly as regards child sexual abuse. Childhood environments that are physically violent, emotionally unsupportive and characterized by competition for scarce resources have been associated with sexual violence. [71] Sexually aggressive behaviour in young men, for instance, has been linked to witnessing family violence, and having emotionally distant and uncaring fathers. [72] Men raised in families with strongly patriarchal structures are also more likely to become violent, to rape and use sexual coercion against women, as well as to abuse their intimate partners, than men raised in homes that are more egalitarian. [73] 

2.4.3.2. Family honour and sexual purity

Another factor involving social relationships is a family response to sexual offence that blames women without punishing men, concentrating instead on restoring lost family honour. Such a response creates an environment in which rape can occur with impunity.

2.4.3.3. Global trends and economic factors

Many of the factors operating at a national level have an international dimension. Global trends, for instance towards free trade, have been accompanied by an increase in the movement around the world of women and girls for labour, including for sex work. [74] Economic structural adjustment programmes, drawn up by international agencies, have accentuated poverty and unemployment in a number of countries, thereby increasing the likelihood of sexual trafficking and sexual violence. [75] 

2.4.3.4. The way males are socialized and sexual scripts

It has been argued that rape may be caused by the way males are socialized in regard to sexuality. [76] Boys are brought up to be sexually aggressive, dominant and conquering, as a way of affirming their masculinity. Catharine MacKinnon argues that men rape "for reasons that they share in common even with those who don’t, namely masculinity and their identification with masculine norms and in particular being the people who initiate sex and being the people who socially experience themselves as being affirmed by aggressive initiation of sexual interaction". [77] According to Check and Malamuth, men are taught to take the initiative and persist in sexual encounters, while women are supposed to set the limits. [78] This classical sexual script is often popularized through television shows, popular films and pornography, which depict the man making a sexual advance and the woman initially resisting, but then finally positively responding by falling in love with him or experiencing orgasm. [79] The implied message is that men should persist beyond a woman's protest and women should say "no" even if they desire sex. [80] . It seems that the more traditional the society, the closer the adherence to this sexual script. [81] For this reason, many men do not believe that a woman means "no" when she says "no", and they feel entitled to continue to pressure the woman, and ultimately coerce or force her into sex; consent often becomes confused with submission. [82] In many societies, men who do not act in this traditional masculine way are ostracized by their peers and considered effeminate. In some cultures it is believed—by both men and women—that men have uncontrollable sexual urges and instincts, which cannot be managed in any way, and that once they are sexually aroused they should be provided with sex as a right. On the other hand young girls are expected to uphold the honour of their family by maintaining their "reputation" and preserving their virginity. As a result, assaults on women, especially those perceived as "easy" and "known" to have had sex with many partners, are rarely judged, and are justified by the myths that men simply cannot control their sexual needs, and that "good" girls do not get raped, but only those who act irresponsibly and entice men.

2.4.3.5. Sexual Expectations and Rape Myths

Expectations transmitted by our many cultures typically encourage men to feel superior, entitled, and that they should be always on the lookout for and ready to initiate sex in their relationships with women. At the same time, these sexual scripts teach women to feel responsible for setting the limits and pace of sexual contact in their relationships with men. Rape myths typically deny the existence of sexual assault, excuse it, and minimize the seriousness of its effects. Acceptance of rape myths is correlated with sexually aggressive behavior.

2.4.3.6. Cultural Mores

Studies by anthropologists demonstrate the critical role that socio-cultural mores play in defining and promoting offences against women. Cultures differ in the amount of intimate partner violence, as well as the acceptability of this violence. Nearly all societies tolerate rape and have mechanisms that perpetuate violence.

2.4.3.7. The sex industry and rape

It has been observed in the society that the acceptance of these sexual practices increases sexual offences against women, by reinforcing stereotypical views about women, who are seen as sex objects which can be used and abused by men, and by desensitizing men; this being one of the reasons why some theorists oppose the sex industry. They argue that pornography eroticizes the domination, humiliation, and coercion of women, and reinforces sexual and cultural attitudes that are complicit in rape and sexual harassment. [83] From the early days of the modern women’s movement, feminists contended that pornography encouraged sexual aggression towards women by portraying them as nothing more than sex objects, a view that is supported in the research. It is depictions of violence against women, rather than sexually graphic material that encourage acceptance of violence and callousness toward women who are its victims. Television and movies often send the message that violence works. [84] 

2.4.3.8. Physical and Social Environment

While fear of rape is typically associated with being outside the home, the great majority of sexual offences actually occurs in the home of the victim or the abuser. Nonetheless, abduction by a stranger is quite often the prelude to a rape and the opportunities for such abduction are influenced by the physical environment. The social environment within a community is, however, usually more important than the physical surroundings. For instance, in some places, rape can even occur in public, with passers by refusing to intervene. The police may also treat complaints of rape leniently, particularly if the assault is committed during a date or by the victim’s husband or very close relatives. Where police investigations and court cases do proceed, the procedures may well be either extremely lax or else corrupt – for instance, with legal papers being ‘‘lost’’ in return for a bribe. [85] 

2.4.3.9. Social norms

Sexual violence committed by men is to a large extent rooted in ideologies of male sexual entitlement. These belief systems grant women extremely few legitimate options to refuse sexual advances. [86] Some men thus simply exclude the possibility that their sexual advances towards a woman might be rejected or that a woman has the right to make an autonomous decision about participating in sex. In some cultures women, as well as men, regard marriage as entailing the obligation on women to be sexually available virtually without limit, [87] though sex may be culturally proscribed at certain times, such as after childbirth or during menstruation. [88] 

Societal norms around the use of violence as a means to achieve objectives have been strongly associated with the prevalence of rape. In societies where the ideology of male superiority is strong, emphasizing dominance, physical strength and male honour, rape is more common. Countries with a culture of violence, or where violent conflict is taking place, experience an increase in almost all forms of violence, including sexual offences. [89] 

2.4.3.10. Poverty

Poverty is linked to both the perpetration of sexual violence and the risk of being a victim of it. Several authors have argued that the relationship between poverty and perpetration of sexual violence is mediated through forms of crisis of masculine identity.

Poor women and girls may have more risk of rape in the course of their daily tasks than those who are better off, for example when they walk home on their own from workplace late at night, or work in the fields or collect firewood alone. Children of poor women may have less parental supervision when not in school, since their mothers may be at work and unable to afford child care. The children themselves may, in fact, be working and thus vulnerable to sexual exploitation.

Poverty forces many women and girls into occupations that carry a relatively high risk of sexual violence particularly sex work. It also creates enormous pressures for them to find or maintain jobs, to pursue trading activities and, if studying, to obtain good grades - all of which render them vulnerable to sexual coercion from those who can promise these things .Poorer women are also more at risk of intimate partner violence, of which sexual violence is often a manifestation. [90] 

2.5. Summary: