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Chapter26-ConvictedRapistsVocabularyofMotive1.pptxCJ 240 Deviance and Social Control
Convicted Rapists’ Vocabulary of Motive Diana Scully and Joseph Marolla
Introduction
This study looks at the way rapists rationalize their bx
Excuses – men acknowledge the wrongfulness of the act but deny full responsibility
Primarily used by those who admit to their deviant acts
Justifications – accept responsibility for their act but provide reasons that legitimate their bx as not wrong
Primarily used by those who deny having committed rape (80% of the population)
Psychiatry has dominated the literature on rapists
Research has been based on small samples often by psychiatrists own patient population
Medical model has predominated – rape is viewed as individualistic
Advocates of this model – unable to isolate a typical or even predictable pattern of symptoms
Fewer than 5% of rapists were psychotic at the time of their rape
Authors view rape as bx learned socially through interaction with others
Convicted rapists have learned the attitudes and actions consistent with sexual aggression against women
Learning includes acquiring culturally devices vocabularies of motive
which can be used to diminish responsibility and to negotiate a nondeviant identity
Attempt to reinterpret their actions through the use of a linguistic device by which norm-breaking conduct is socially interpreted
Attempt to present the act in terms that are both culturally appropriate and acceptable
Excuses – men acknowledge the wrongfulness of the act but deny full responsibility
Primarily used by those who admit to their deviant acts
Justifications – accept responsibility for their act but provide reasons that legitimate their bx as not wrong
Primarily used by those who deny having committed rape (80% of the population)
Accounts – socially approved vocabularies that neutralize an act or its consequences and are always a manifestation of an underlying negotiation of identity
Article – study of 114 convicted, incarcerated rapists
83% view themselves as nonrapists
Admitters acknowledge they had forced themselves on their victims and defined the bx as rape
Used excuses
Deniers either eschewed sexual contact or all associations with the victim or admitted to sexual acts but did not define their bx as rape
Used justifications
In some cases both groups relied on the same themes, stereotypes and images
Justifying Rape
Women as seductresses
Women mean “yes” when they say “no”
Most women eventually relax and enjoy it
Nice girls don’t get raped
Only a minor wrongdoing
(1) Women as seductresses
Men who rape not need search for cultural language which supports the premise that women provoke or are responsible for rape
Psychology and criminology have traditionally provided justifications
Portraying raped women as the victims of their own seduction
Since women as supposed to be coy about their sexual availability, refusal to comply w/ a man’s sexual demands lacks meaning and rape appears normal
Some interviewees tried to demonstrate that their victims were willing (sometimes enthusiastic) participants
Rape became more dependent upon the victim’s bx than upon their own actions
31% of deniers – presented an extreme view of the victim
Not only willing – she was the aggressor, a seductress
Typical – denier convicted of 1st rape and accompanying crimes of burglary, sodomy and abduction
Admitted to B&E – claimed was for altruistic purposed (prenatal care for gf)
victim came home
He tried to leave but she had asked him to stay
25% of deniers said the victim was willing and had made sexual advances
9% said the victim was willing to have sex for money or drug
2 cases – the victim was an acquaintance or picked up – which the rapists said led them to expect sex
(2) Women mean “yes” when they say “no”
34% of deniers said partner was initially unwilling
Weapon present in 64% of these cases – justified by saying victim had not resisted enough or that “no” meant “yes”
1 denier – nurse had asked him a Q about his rape conviction which interpreted as teasing
“women like to be overpowered before sex”
“societal no” – not responsible later
24% - victim didn’t resist/ didn’t resist enough
Didn’t redefine their acts until some time after the crime
Men who claimed to be unaware they were raping, viewed sexual aggression as a man’s prerogative at the time of the rape
Little more than a minor wrongdoing – as long as the victim survived w/o major physical injury
Even US Courts have often taken the position that physical injury is needed for a rape conviction
(3) Most women eventually relax and enjoy it
69% - she enjoyed herself
Sometimes immensely
Several suggested they had fulfilled their victims dreams
1 posed as salesman – claimed he had a previous relationship and she agreed to have sex for drugs
The opportunity to have sex with him produced “a glow because she was really into oral stuff and fascinated by the idea of sex with a black man. She felt satisfied, fulfilled, wanted me to stay, but I didn’t want her.”
(4) Nice girls don’t get raped
Victim’s reputation and characteristics or bx violate normative sex roles
“Hitchhike rape” – victim precipitated offense
69% of admitters (78% of deniers) referred to victim’s reputation
Victim was known to be a prostitute, a loose woman, had a lot of affairs or gave birth to a child out of wedlock
Referred to it as the victim’s emotional state or drug use
Women provoke rape by the way they dress (22% of deniers and 17% of admitters)
Tight black clothes/ no bra, wore short skirts, spread her legs while getting out of cars
Made subtle/ offhand remarks
“she was a waitress and you know how they are.”
(5) Only a minor wrongdoing
Majority of deniers did not claim to be completely innocent
Only 16% said free of blame completely
Obfuscated the rape by pleading guilty to a les serious, more acceptable charge
Accepted being oversexed, accused of poor judgment or trickery
The knife was wrong but the sexual bx was justified
Excusing Rape
(1) The Use of alcohol and drugs
Connection bt substance use and crime is not as direct as previously thought
Utility may lie in disavowing technique
Rapists can use it as an excuse for their bx (common among admitters) and to discredit their victim and make her more responsible (common among deniers)
Admitters – they were affected by the substance
Straight I don’t have the guts to rape
Brought out what was already there with such intensity it was uncontrollable
Deniers – their justifications require they not be substantially impaired
Reference the victim’s use – lessen her credibility and maker her more responsible
Alcohol and drugs had sexually aroused their victim o
(2) Emotional problems
Admitters frequently attribute their acts to emotional problems (40%)
33% specifically to an unhappy childhood or a marital/ domestic situation
A precipitating event (upsetting problem of everyday living) appeared in the accounts of 80% of admitters and 25% of deniers
Described themselves as being in a rage bc of an incident involving a women with whom they believed they were in love
Upsetting event often linked to a rigid and unrealistic double standard for sexual contact and virtue which their applied to their woman but didn’t expect from men, apply to themselves and didn’t honor in other women
To discover this pedestal didn’t apply to their woman sent them into a fury
Under stress at the time of their rapes – however problems were ordinary
majority were not clinically defined as mentally ill
For deniers – counter productive to claim emotional problems
Admitters – used psychological explanations to portray themselves as having been temporarily “sick” at the time of the rape
Sick ppl are usually blame neither for the cause of their illness or the acts committed as a result
Admitters – assert a nondeviant identity despite their self proclaimed disgust with their actions
Did not view it as a chronic problem – mild, transient, curable
Allows them to recover
(3) Nice guy image
Paint an image of themselves as a nice guy
Made a serious mistake but in every other respect were decent people
57% expressed regret and sorrow
Apology allows the person to admit guilt while seek a pardon by saying it is not a fair representation of them
Separates bad self from the good self
Make it appear that no further rehabilitation is needed
Attempt to convey that rape is not a representation of their “true” self
Registers their moral opposition to violence and hurting women
It would have been worse if they were not such a good guy
Gentle with victim after she said she had just given birth
Gave victim money to get home
Made sure kids were not in room
Never beat victims
“I was always gentle and kind until I started to kill them.”
