NCJ Number
196276
Journal
Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume: 7 Issue: 4 Dated: July-August 2002 Pages: 385-406
Editor(s)
Vincent B. Van Hasselt,
Michel Hersen
Date Published
July 2002
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the relationship cognitive processes and rape behavior by men.
Abstract
The author studied cognition and cognitive theories as related to rape behavior. The study was limited to rape as defined as penetrative sexual assaults committed against adult victims. The authors posited that cognitive differences such as subscribing to offense-supporting beliefs, predisposed some men towards rape and also allowed those men to rationalize their sexually abusive actions. The authors reviewed and referenced prior research on the cognitive behaviors of rapists and rape-prone men, including work regarding the relationship between hostility to women as a whole to expressions of violence against individual women. The authors believe that rapists’ cognition and resulting behavior can be explained in a belief-desire theoretical framework and hold a series of core beliefs regarding themselves and their victims. Rape supportive beliefs identified as part of this cognitive process include: the belief that women are unknowable; the belief that women are sex objects; the belief that the male sex drive cannot be controlled; the belief that men are entitled to have their needs met on demand; and the belief in an inherently dangerous world. The strength of correlation between these individual rape supportive beliefs and behavior is discussed. 80 references