When I was younger, I was convinced rape was about power and control. That’s what everyone says. Now I’m not sure anymore. How about asking the rapists themselves for a change?
I read an article “An Interplay of Individual Motivations and Sociocultural Factors Predisposing Men to Acts of Rape in Kenya”[1]. It’s supposed to explore the motivations for rape and what predisposes men to it. The people they studied were convicted rapists in jail. 72 guys were interviewed face-to-face (questionnaire). Some of them were just guys who had sex with underage girls, which for me, ruins the usefulness of statistics a bit. I want to know why men RAPE, not why they have consensual sex with teenagers!
The abstract tells us that things that predispose a man to rape are individual motivational factors, sociocultural factors, or a combination of both:
“The individual motivational factors identified included drug consumption, marital problems as an excuse for rape, inability to negotiate for consensual sex due to being shy or afraid of women, rape as a form of sexual access, psychological factors like pornographic influence and rape hallucinations, impersonal sex and power, and use of rape as a “tool” for punishment. On the other hand, the sociocultural factors identified included the view of rape as a sexual act rather than an act of violence, social attitude that the woman “invited” the rape, early childhood environment, cultural practices, peer influence, and a lack of parental advice on sexual activities.”
Results (should be taken with a grain of salt due to small sample size and other things mentioned):
1) 93% said they had sex before committing rape, and that their first sex wasn’t coerced. (At least they are not blaming rape on rape?..)
2) 63% sexually violated an acquaintance, 17% molested relatives, 12% molested their friends, while 6% molested strangers” (Hmm, so we are still most likely to be raped by someone we know. But friends and relatives are not at the top of the list.)
3) 65% used drugs (mostly alcohol). 51.1% said they were intoxicated while committing the offence (with either cannabis or alcohol). 15% attributed the rape to alcohol use.
4) About half of the men watched hardcore porn. 28,9% of porn-users associated their hardcore porn use with the crimes, the rest disagreed it had anything to do with it. Only 12,5% admitted to having rape fantasies prior to the offence.
5)32% indicated rape was used as a tool to get sex from someone they lusted after. Although I detect the sexual motive in other categories as well, like the categories of drug consumption, marital problems as an excuse for rape, inability to negotiate for consensual sex due to being shy or afraid of women.
6)2,8% used rape as punishment.
7) Most of the offenders were from a relatively poor background
8)32% of them grew up in relatively abusive homes.
9)Most of them didn’t receive any sexual advice from their parents.
10)A lot of them blame the victim in some way, like “she was dressed sexy and I got an urge”, “she invited me in” and “she visited me in my house”
11)1% raped “to show physical dominance over the woman”, but I’m not sure how the study came to that conclusion by reading the responses (read quote 17)
What do the rapists have to say for themselves?
The study divides the excuses rapists use into those listed in the abstract (look up 
). But my interest is in finding out if power or sex was their main motivation. Or maybe even something else. I’ll highlight the parts of the quote that point to either power or sex as ultimate motivation. Here are some quotes. The actual quotes in the study are longer, but a lot of it is narration of the incident. I didn’t include quotes from men who were arrested for consensual sex with women under 18 (a few quotes), because it’s not what the post is about. I also excluded men who deny having raped (only one quote).
1)A married man raped his 10-year old niece after getting drunk and coming home:
“Later, I regretted so much for having done such an act. I think I committed this crime because I was drunk and because of the sexual urge that I had since I had already separated from my wife because of her unfaithfulness.”
Sex
2) ” In my village, there lived a very beautiful learned lady. I liked her over a long time, but later her mother stepped in and separated us just like heaven and earth. I was very angered by that, and a quick thought struck my mind. I got my peers, masked ourselves, robbed the house, and raped everybody in the house including the woman’s husband and the daughters.”
Revenge
3)” She was attractive, sexy, beautiful, and seductive. On that day, she was in a miniskirt and the clothing was tight on the body. Her lipsticks were red ‘hot,’ and she was proud. I was stronger and more robust than her, so I overpowered her. I was drunk and did not know I was wronging her.”
Sex
4)” I was drunk, and since I like women very much especially when drunk, I forced her to have sex with me.”
Sex
5) “My wife was having a relationship with a policeman. This caused a lot of trouble in our marriage, and I wanted to separate with her. I had sex with her daughter when she (the wife) was absent.”
Unclear
6)” The woman was wearing a transparent cloth, and immediately after she greeted me, my body got erected. I tried to seduce her, but she refused to abide by my views. My wife had left for her parents’ house the previous week, and since I was used to performing sex with her always I had a lot of sexual urge.”
Sex
7)Man had sex with an 8-year old because he couldn’t seduce women:
“I could not raise a family and sustain a wife due to lack of money. I also had a problem of seducing women . . . We were very social with her (the girl), and I beckoned her to come into my place. It was at my place that I had sex with her.”
Not obvious, but if you asked me, I would say sex. And desperation.
8)A guy tried to rape a 4 year old but ejaculated before he could penetrate. He also admitted having sex with sleeping women before getting arrested for the 4 year old:
“To tell you the truth, the girl was very young; she was only 4 years old. I just had a strong lust to have sex with her.”
“I could not approach women and negotiate for consensual sex. . . I generally used to fear women. So I used to look for drunken women whom I could easily rape.”
Sex, duh. The last quote implies he’d rather have consensual sex over a rape.
9)” she used to change her cloths in my presence, and this aroused me a lot. I tried several times to talk to her into sex. She refused all the time. One day when I was escorting her, I raped her in the bush.”
Sex
10)” the girl’s parents were absent at the time. She was alone in the house. I went to the house and had sex with her.”
Unclear
11)” There were only four people left in the bus. It was in the early hours of the morning while she was sleeping that I raped her.”
Unclear
12)Man had sex with the maid and doesn’t understand if she consented or not, saying she participated in the sex act actively:
“Her choice was a pornography movie. The actors were either nude or scantily dressed. . . As I watched, I couldn’t control my emotions. I pulled her to the sofa . . . I caressed her and kissed her. She begged me not to continue. I thought she meant the opposite.”
Sex
13)Man breaks into a house and rapes a woman at gunpoint:
“I raped a stranger. She (the victim) was a well-built lady with striking beauty.”
Seems to be sex, although he doesn’t specify reasons.
14)Robber rapes during a robbery:
“I raped the second woman in the process of committing a robbery. I found her in the bedroom naked. Immediately, I got an erection, and I forgot everything I had come for. I forced her back on the bed.”
Sex
15)Man rapes a girlfriend’s friend, after she, according to him, removed her shoes in a sexy manner, sang to a CD in his presence, and kept pulling her dress up her legs as she sat and talked to him. The result:
“It was from the way that she was sitting that send my blood ‘boiling’ to an uncontrollable degree. She could often open her legs as we were cracking jokes . . . She could often pull up her mini-dress right up to her buttocks. Sleeping on the three people seat made her buttocks protrude like mount Zion.”
Was he mad? Or just aroused? I think the latter.
16)Man has lets a 4 year old girl perform oral sex on him for food. She doesn’t tell anyone, but it gets found out:
“I was about 17 years old when I started watching pornography. When I was watching pornographic movies, I used to have a lot of thoughts and desire to have sex. I have also witnessed girls being raped in movies. This would give me thoughts of forcing a girl into sex. I saw it very exciting.”
Sex with a touch of power.
17) “I did it because of my desire to have sex with her”
+
“She let me in the house and let me kiss and caress her, but she was not for sex. This was a challenge to my manhood, and I forced her to have sex with me.”
Sex and power
18)Men raped an employer for firing them without pay:
“She was our employer and had angered us because of dismissing us from employment without giving us our dues . . . We wanted to teach her a lesson.”
Revenge.
19)” She was wearing my clothes, and I was very angry with that. I took matters into my own hands and wanted to teach her a lesson.”
Hmm, power, perhaps?
20)” I wanted her to become my wife. I sent my friends to go and entice her (the woman) to come to my place. They brought her to my house.”
Unclear
Conclusions:
I wish I had a better study, with more people and about rape only. But from what I have read, it seems sex is a very widespread motivation for rape, according to rapists themselves. Power seems to be the motivation much less often. It often shows up as desire to rape because it’s exciting, to prove masculinity or out of anger. The latter is also tied with the third reasons for rape – revenge or punishment for something (also not a common reason). Power as the sole explanation seems to be rare.
1. Muchoki, S.M. and S. Wandibba, An Interplay of Individual Motivations and Sociocultural Factors Predisposing Men to Acts of Rape in Kenya. International Journal of Sexual Health, 2009. 21(3): p. 192-210.
Congrats on being brave enough to “step into the dragon’s den” so to speak.
It’s obvious rape isn’t always merely about “power and control”, but the fact that the only academic papers I can access on it are on the internet, and the fact that only a very few books have been written that explore “the rapists point of view”, it’s hard to prove it, though I did quote a book a few times against some feminists insisting on their Dogma. Not that it did any good. Maybe this study will help in the future.
what book was it?
And from what I have heard, there are many studies that point towards sex as the biggest most usual motivation, but haven’t looked into them yet. Will do so in the future
Dude, these guys are stupid.*
Reading their testimony is so bizarre, maybe its just that they are Kenyan.
*which, we already knew http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF01542085?LI=true
Kenya’s official languages are Swahili and English, so I expect their English to be different from American English. But even without that, their testimonials are bizarre to read, yes. Some are funny, some are disturbing.
Thanks for that link, it was interesting
Sounds like there is more than one motivation, as with most crimes.
Some people seem to think that people who do the same thing always have the same motivation. So if they believe the motivation is power, they will get mad if you say it’s sex even sometimes. If they think it’s always sex, they will refuse to believe someone could be motivated by power/revenge ever.
Yes, some blogger once said that some theft happens because a person just wants something they don’t want to pay for, and some theft happens because of kleptomania (although you can say most theft is still about the material gain). Same could logically be with rape.
As far as I can tell, rape barely exists. Have you been raped? Do you know people who were raped? Have you been able to/raped someone?
What is RAPE? It’s sex had that’s regretted. Or it’s a violent death, essentially.
Well, I’ve never been raped, but a female relative got attacked by a stranger, beaten and robbed. He tried to rape her, but couldn’t get it up, and she escaped. Everyone is fine though.
I’m afraid all that fake rape and false accusations are starting to make people disbelieve that real rape victims exist. They do exist, but they’re drowning in the sea of regretted sex “victims”.
Emma:
The Rapist File
Here it is. Hope you find it of some use eventually.
Thanks
Steven Pinker has an absolutely superb analysis of the causes of rape in The Blank Slate. He completely demolishes the power argument and shows how silly it is. He also references various studies about rape so you should be able to find mroe sources there.
Thanks for the recommendation
They rape because that’s what they are accused of having done. They become guilty as Rapists when what they are accused having done, in violation of another person, has been proven in a court of law.
Great article though. Also, there is a reddit post somewhere where people who have been accused of rape, or who have raped someone explain why they did what they did, or what happened in their mind.
They range from the terrible to people merely being oblivious to social norms or sexual cues.
The question still remains, if verbal No is No, then why does it actively mean Yes so often? LIke why do women say No, I can’t/won’t/shouldn’t/am not going to/whatever hook up with you, then go out of their way to unzip someones pants, gargle their cock, get the guy off, and then act like a victim later – when he hasn’t even said a word? It’s a confusing scenario for a guy. Because whatever after that he thinks, well she wants me, and I want her, so let’s have sex, and he makes moves and she’s compliant and they go further and end up having intercourse. Then, by Law, if she felt she was “coerced” or forced or taken advantage of in any way he automatically becomes the rapist, especially because she said “No” yet went ahead and took active initiative to hook up with the guy….
Just some moar thog-tots.
I think some of what you’re talking about is the feminist-defined rape, which has nothing to do with real rape. In many countries, her feelings about the incident have more to say than your actions, on whether you’re considered a rapist or not. But this isn’t rape, so I wouldn’t include these guys in the study of why men REALLY rape.
I don’t know why a woman would have sex with you (or try to have sex with you) first, and then claim you raped her. My guess is regret about having sex with you, or feeling rejected.
Why would she regret something she hadn’t dont yet?
We fucked afte she claimed I raped her.
I read your story. My guess (only a guess) would be that you were too tired and didn’t have sex with her, so she felt rejected and decided to mess with your nerves. Or maybe it was some kind of shit test that you passed, by telling her to act like an adult. I’m not an expert on why women claim rape, and then jump into bed with a man, but these would be my guesses. Maybe in the future, I will find some studies that help me understand this better.
No matter what her reason for doing this was, it’s a sign it was time to slowly, carefully back away and then run.
Yeah. I knew that then as well as I know now.
Hey your comments have been great.
No woman has ever talked to me with such commendable civility surrounding this subject.
I’m surprised, tbh.
Thanks. I discovered all that stuff about 2 years ago and have been trying to read up on facts and find out the truth.
I’m leaving a terrible trail for myself here. Thank G-d it’s not old Apple’s Oregon Trail. I would’ve drowned amongst the Settler’s family in the river by now.
My poorly executed point was basically how could one decry “rape” and actively pursue said “rapist” after denying their original desecrated claim?