The Undetected Rapist
David Lisak, Ph.D.
University of Massachusetts Boston
March 2002
Perpetrators: Characteristics
The vast majority of rapists are never prosecuted for their crimes. The attrition rate between the commission of the crime and the prosecution of it reveals starkly how unpunished is the crime of rape.
Approximately 85% of rape victims do not report their
victimization to criminal justice authorities. Of the 15% who do report, it is estimated that perhaps 10% result in the filing of charges, and perhaps 40% of those cases result in some sort of conviction.
This attrition rate means that studies of incarcerated rapists cannot be generalized to the vast majority of rapists who are never reported or prosecuted. Twenty years of research on this latter group – so-called “undetected rapists,” has revealed a group of sexual predators who have escaped detection by the criminal justice system. These undetected rapists:
• are extremely adept at identifying “likely” victims, and testing prospective victims’ boundaries;
• plan and premeditate their attacks, using sophisticated strategies to groom their victims for attack, and to isolate them physically;
• use “instrumental” not gratuitous violence; they exhibit strong impulse control and use only as much violence as is needed to terrify and coerce their victims into submission;
• use psychological weapons – power, control, manipulation, and threats – backed up by physical force, and almost never resort to weapons such as knives or guns;
• use alcohol deliberately to render victims more vulnerable to attack, or
completely unconscious.
In addition, the majority of undetected rapists are serial rapists who also commit other forms of serious interpersonal violence. In a study of 120 undetected rapists in the Boston area16, 63% were serial rapists. These 76 serial rapists had, on average, attacked 14 victims, and were responsible for:
• 439 rapes and attempted rapes
• 49 sexual assaults
• 277 acts of sexual abuse against children
• 66 acts of physical abuse against children
• 214 acts of battery against intimate partners
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Characteristics of Undetected Rapists
Sexual Behavior
“Undetected” rapists have consistently been shown to more sexually active than
other men. Apart from their sexually aggressive behavior, they engage in consensual and coercive sex far more often that is typical for men of their age group.
Their sexual activity tends to be an important component of their identities. Thus, rather than being a product of greater sex drive, their increased sexual activity appears to be driven by their view that if they are not very active then they are neither “successful” nor adequate as men.
Attitudes and Beliefs
Sexually aggressive behavior is typically part of a belief system that views
women as sexual objects to be conquered, coerced and used for self-gratification.
Undetected rapists are much more likely to hold stereotyped beliefs about the “proper” roles for women and men in society, and to rigidly adhere to those beliefs.
They adhere to “rape myths” that both justify their aggressive acts and foster them. Their adherence to rape myths and rigid stereotypes frequently allows them to distort their perceptions of their victims’ behavior. For example, because they tell themselves that “women say no to sex even when they really want it,” they can disregard their victims’ obvious signs of terror and resistance.
Emotions and Motivations
Undetected rapists have repeatedly been found to harbor chronic, underlying
feelings of anger and hostility toward women. They typically feel easily slighted by women, and carry grudges against them. This underlying hostility is easily evoked and colors their distorted perceptions of women as “teasers” who either “secretly” want to be coerced into sex, or else “deserve” it.
These men have also consistently been shown to have strong needs to dominate and to be in control of women, and to be particularly fearful of being controlled by women. This characteristic leads them to view sexual relations as “conquests,” and all women as potential “targets” of conquests.
Consistent with their very stereotyped beliefs about sex roles, undetected rapists have been shown to be more emotionally constricted than nonaggressive men. They are less able to label their own emotional experience, and much less emotionally expressive. As a consequence, they are also less capable of resonating with the emotional experience of other people, and are therefore less empathic than nonaggressive men.
Sexually Violent Subcultures
A consistent finding in the recent research on “undetected” sexually violent men
is that most of this violence emerges either directly or indirectly from what have been termed “sexually violent subcultures.” Examples of such subcultures include fraternities and delinquent gangs.
These subcultures are powerful forces that both reflect the rapist’s
views about women and sexual conquest, and also help to shape them. For example, at certain college fraternities the use of violent pornography is a frequent form of “entertainment,” providing explicit images of rape as being acceptable, noncriminal, and the sign of male virility. Within these subcultures, “sexual conquest” – having sex with as many women as possible – becomes a critical measure of how men view themselves and each other. The greater the number of such conquests, the more manly is he viewed. The
use of coercion and violence to secure these conquests is normalized in the subculture and becomes simply another part of the man’s “sexual arsenal.”
Hypermasculinity
Consistent with their stereotyped and rigid views about the “proper” roles of men and women in society, undetected rapists tend to adopt highly “gendered” identities; that is, they see themselves as hyper-masculine, they strive to always behave in rigidly and stereotypically masculine ways, they are always on the alert for any perceived slight to their masculine identities, and they are made very anxious by any situation that might cast doubt on their perceived masculinity. Thus, while in general aggression and violence
are perceived to be more masculine than feminine traits, the rapist tends to view
aggression and violence as crucial markers of his adequacy as a male. They prove to him that he is a “real man.” When such deeply held beliefs are combined with the effects of sexually violent subcultures, as described above, the mixture often becomes dangerous.
The “power” motivation that underlies the constant striving for sexual conquests mixes with the rapist’s underlying hostility toward women and his hypermasculine identity.
When a woman resists his coercive sexual pressure, he is very likely to perceive this as a challenge and affront to his masculinity and to react with anger and aggression, behaviors which restore his sense of adequacy.
Developmental Antecedents
While the traditional view about incarcerated rapists was that they harbored deepseated anger towards their mothers, the evidence indicates that among undetected rapists anger and disappointment about their fathers is far more salient.
For some of these men, damaged relationships with their fathers appears to feed their need to view themselves as hypermasculine, and to drive their rigidity and stereotyped beliefs and behaviors.
Another developmental factor that has been associated with sexual aggression is child abuse. The rate of child abuse among undetected rapists, particularly childhood physical abuse, is much greater than it is among nonviolent men.
http://www.sexualassault.army.mil/files/RAPE_FACT_SHEET.pdf
