Vogelman, L. (1990). Violent Crime: Rape. In McKendrick, B. Hoffman, W C (eds), People and Violence in South Africa, Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
Lloyd Vogelman
In McKendrick, B. & Hoffman, W.C. (Eds), People and the Violence in South Africa, pp. 96-134, Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Lloyd Vogelman is a founder and former Director of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.
Introduction
Rape takes on many forms. This chapter will use the term within the framework of sexual coercion in which a woman is a victim, and a man is the perpetrator. This is, of course, not always the case, but heterosexual rape is by far the dominant form of sexual violence.
Rape in South Africa has reached epidemic proportions. It occurs in all spheres of society and all women are potential victims. Women's fears of rape have begun to affect their basic day-to-day decisions and reduce their quality of life. Restrictions on movement, behaviour, and dress are imposed in order to elude the rapist. Precautions, however, are not always a reliable safeguard, for the woman's attacker is often the man she least suspects to be a rapist. Contrary to public opinion and to what many believe, the rapist is not the stranger who is psychotic, or a sex maniac who lurks in dark alleys waiting for his victim. He is in most cases a friend, an acquaintance, a date, a father, or a husband. The rapist is usually what society calls "the normal man".
There are sufficient of these "normal" men to make rape an incident which, according to official statistics, occurred approximately 16 000 times annually during the 1980s. By 1988 the official annual figure for rape was 19 368 (The Star, 19 April 1989). With regard to the official racial breakdown of these figures, there were 819 white rape victims and 18 549 black. Unofficially, based on the premise put forward by the National Institute of Crime Prevention and the Rehabilitation of Offenders (NICRO) that only one in twenty rapes is reported, the figure is about 380 000 a year. This means that on average approximately 1000 women can expect to be raped a day in South Africa.
The world of academia has told us very little about rape and rapists. The important reason expounded for rape having received so little organised notice is that a crime only attracts attention when the actual and potential victims have sufficient resources and power to summon such attention (Clark & Lewis, 1977). It is therefore no coincidence that the increasing attention paid to rape is historically linked to the growth of the feminist movement in the late 1960s. Some of the most compelling insights into rape first appeared in feminist publications at this time.1 Most were articles, not detailed studies, dealing with the feelings and reactions of the victim, and often including strong attacks on official and public attitudes towards rape and rape victims (Clark & Lewis, 1977). The 1970s and 1980s saw more comprehensive reports on the rape victim's ordeal – her fear, embarrassment, humiliation, anger, desire for revenge, guilt, and depression (Kanin & Parcell, 1977; Katz & Mazur, 1979; Kilpatrick et al, 1981; Bart, 1981). Yet, throughout this period, the men responsible for making victims of rape were to a large extent ignored. While this chapter focuses primarily on the rapist – his experience and the factors which contribute to his crime – aspects of the victim's experience and behaviour will also be addressed.
Many researchers of the rapist have avoided speaking to or interviewing him, but instead have tended to try to understand him theoretically, from a knowledge of patriarchy, sex roles, and the victim's account of her experience (Connell & Wilson, 1974; Hill, 1982; Brownmiller, 1975). This information is of use, but nevertheless inhibits a comprehensive understanding of the rapist because it ignores his actual experience.
There are innumerable difficulties involved in interviewing rapists. A central research problem is obtaining subjects. The South African prison authorities are generally reluctant to allow rapists to speak to non-prison medical practitioners and investigators. Rapists who have not been charged are unlikely to come forward and volunteer information for fear of being reported. Such factors make sample sizes small, preventing the presentation of large-scale demographic details and profiles.
Furthermore, presuming that the prison authorities do permit one to interview convicted rapists, difficulties in obtaining reliable information exist. Imprisoned rapists are likely to tell the researcher what they believe she/he wants to hear, since they are of the opinion that this will positively affect their possibility of early release.
Another problem is sample selection. Rapists who are studied are normally men who have been convicted. Since the majority of rapists are likely to be undetected, and those that are charged are generally from a working-class background, samples of convicted rapists are generally unrepresentative of the rapist population.
Despite these difficulties, it is crucial that such research continue. Developing an understanding of the rapist is central to the formulation of a science of rape. By accomplishing the latter, better preventive measures can be devised so as to significantly limit the incidence of rape in our society.
This chapter is based on interviews with nine rapists who all lived in Riverlea, a "coloured" township on the south-western border of Johannesburg. Five of the rapists had been convicted of rape. Four only admitted to rape in the course of the interview. The nine rapists were part of a larger sample of twenty-seven subjects, nine of whom had been involved in physical assault but not rape, and nine who had not committed any violence against persons. Thus there were three groups of subjects: a rape group, a physical assault group, and a non-violent group. The criterion for the rape group was that the man must have coerced a woman into having sexual intercourse with him. Although rape should encapsulate all forms of sexual coercion, this definition (which is similar to the current legal one) was adopted because a standardized behaviour would make comparative analysis easier.
The Research Study
Riverlea, the setting
In 1985, Riverlea had an official population of close on 12 000 people. Recent unofficial estimates put the figure around 25 000. Riverlea's residents seem to divide their community into two sections – the areas below and above the railway line. Living conditions are very different in these areas. Above the line there is more affluence and some streets are distinctively middle class. Below the line there is overcrowding, houses are small and of poor quality, there is considerable unemployment, and the incidence of alcoholism, drug abuse, gang fights, and domestic violence is high. The subjects interviewed were drawn from this area.
Like the educational standard of the subject sample in the study, the majority of Riverlea's residents have an educational level between standards five and eight. The low level of education in the community is reflected by only a half a percent of its population having a post-matric qualification, while only 10 per cent have attained a matric. The educational profile of Riverlea's residents helps to account for why only approximately one per cent of the population engage in senior white collar work, such as managerial work. Most of the population are involved in manual labour, and there is a reported unemployment figure of 10 per cent. The latter, according to social service workers in the area, is an underestimate.
Demographic details of the subjects
All the subjects had similar educational backgrounds, age levels, martial status, and occupations. Most had, as earlier mentioned, completed between standard five and standard eight education. The average age in the non-violent group was almost twenty-nine years, while in the other two groups, the average age was approximately twenty-four and a half years.
The majority of subjects in all groups were unmarried, but most of the men in each of the groups had children. Most of the subjects were manual labourers, and unemployment was found in each of the groups. All except one member of the non-violent group reported being members of Christian denominations.
The Aetiology and Nature of Rape
Just as it is impossible to put forward the same set of causes for every man raping, one cannot assert a prototype of a rapist. Common features do exist, but the biographical details are different. Furthermore, some men rape only in certain circumstances and contexts. Their offences are disparate by nature. Some rapes are of longer duration and more violent than others, while some rapes involve lone rapists, and others gangs. The former is the major focus of this study. Despite all the differences between rapists, two generalizations about rapists can be made. Firstly, they have a strong desire to assert their power through coercion, and secondly, they are unable to perceive women as people (Fremont, undated).
To make the study of rape and the rapist's behaviour more coherent, a feminist analysis, which views society and the attitudes and behaviour of men and women within an economic, political and cultural totality, has been employed. Feminism is not only about women, as popular ideology suggests; it is about women and men, and their intra-relationships and inter-relationships. This chapter adopts a feminist position which does not hold biology as the over-determining factor in the behaviour of the sexes. It thus rejects the radical feminist, conservative, and sexist biological thesis of human development. Such theories posit, for example, that in relation to violence men are naturally more aggressive, and women intrinsically more passive. Instead, this chapter adopts a framework supported by both socialist and liberal feminists that human conduct is largely socially constructed.
In tackling the question of why men rape, three primary interconnected theories emerge. The first is that of sexist ideology and the rapist's imbibation of all the qualities assigned to the male sex role. The second is the shocking picture of our society as a "rape culture" in which rape is tacitly accepted. This is evidenced partly through patriarchal institutions and structures in our society, sexist interpersonal relations, the great importance society attaches to male power and aggression, and the social, economic, and political factors that lead to violence. Finally, there is the postulate of rape as a mechanism of social control. Rape, like other forms of sexist behaviour, dehumanizes women and accentuates their forced subservience to men.
A detailed presentation of the individual, social and personal factors which make up the aetiology of rape are beyond the scope of this chapter. Therefore, only a few central features will be focused on. As suggested, the ideology of sexuality and current norms of sexual behaviour are primary contributing factors to rape. For example, in dating, many men tend to measure the success of their sexual encounters on a physical intimacy scale. On this scale, sexual intercourse is the ultimate achievement. This often means that if a particular point in erotic intimacy is reached on one occasion, the man expects to gain ground in the next. It is this belief that often leads, for example, to "date rape".
Within the domain of sexual practice, the institutions of (for instance) pornography and prostitution also help to encourage rape. Prostitution, like much of pornography, helps to contribute to the image of the woman as a docile object, and the man as a sex-hungry, domineering subject. With reference to hard-core pornography, to which many of the subjects in this study had access, much of it promotes the notion that sexual aggression is erotic and desirable.
Language is also not without its contribution. Although the cardinal function of language is to facilitate communication, its importance extends far beyond this. It mirrors the prevailing culture, and teaches and abets the attitudes which helped create it (Schultz, 1975). Language in a sexist society therefore comprises of words which are distasteful to many women (and some men). Very often, sexist language objectifies women. They become less human – they become "chicks" and "birds". An excellent example of the reification of women is encapsulated in a rapist's description of his participation in a gang rape with thirteen other men, in which a woman was severely assaulted and raped for two hours:
You can't get your satisfaction out of this woman lying there like a piece of pole in front of you. A woman you rape will never give her best.
He and his mates had not assaulted, raped, defiled and humiliated another human being, they had used a "piece of pole".
As will be illustrated in this chapter, rape is primarily an act of power, and the rapist's desire to assert his power can be linked to a number of economic, social, and political factors. Of these, only work will be concentrated on. Work is of central importance because men fix much of their identity around their occupation. (Tolson, 1977) – "an ideal man should do a man's job."
Thus unemployment, a condition with which anywhere between two to four million men in South Africa are familiar, and which has become an increasing problem in Riverlea, is likely to threaten the personal identity of a mass of men. Instead of perceiving their situation as a fault of the economic system, many see it as a personal failing.
Dissatisfaction with work is another condition all too common among men. This dissatisfaction manifests itself in resentment, boredom, and a feeling of powerlessness. Negative attitudes and feelings about work amongst men from Riverlea can be linked to some or all of the following: poor wages; dangerous work conditions; racism; the absence of control over work conditions; and perseverance, despite being dissatisfied, because of the difficulty of finding alternative employment.
Passive acceptance, heightened dependence, and powerlessness, particularly because they run counter to a masculine sense of self, provide a strong foundation for frustration. The level of frustration is based on the strength of the person's desire to achieve the frustrated goal (e.g. work satisfaction), and the degree to which the goal is interfered with (e.g. boring work, racist supervisor) (Miller, 1941). According to Miller's (1941) frustration-aggression hypothesis, frustration often leads to aggression, but the resulting aggression is not necessarily directed against the immediate source of frustration. This may be due to the source's superior power, and the great risks involved. For instance, a male worker's fear of losing his job may prevent him from directing his aggression at the immediate source of his hardship, his boss, and redirect it to another less dangerous source. Dollard et al. (1939) have called this occurrence "displacement".
If men do not always aggress against the source of frustration, who do they aggress against? In many respects, the perfect victim is a woman. For what is required is someone the man can overpower and control without too many negative economic or social consequences, someone who cannot challenge his physical strength, and someone who can reaffirm some of his lost masculine feelings. A no-nonsense mechanism of doing this is physical assault and rape. The latter provides short-term relief from frustration, alters self-conception positively, and can be justified by social norms.
Since unemployment and extreme frustration in the working place are more likely to be experienced by the working class, are men who live below the railway line in Riverlea more likely to rape than the middle-class men who live above it? In more general terms, do working-class men have more potential to rape than middle-class men? This question cannot be answered empirically, since no data has been collected on the occupational and economic status of rapists. And even if this data was available, statistics would be skewed because middle-class rapists are less likely to be apprehended or convicted. Their economic power, for example, often means that victims who share the same work environment are less likely to report them. The perceived social power of the middle-class rapist may also result in women, particularly working-class victims, believing that the police and the courts will be sympathetic to the offender.
Having said that working-class men are more likely to be disenchanted with their occupational lives than their middle-class counterparts, it does not mean that the latter do not experience work dissatisfaction. They do. They feel disenchanted by not receiving promotions, or by insufficient financial remuneration. The competition in white-collar and business jobs can be fierce, and not all are winners. One result is that non-achievers feel inadequate and need to regain a sense of power. This, like their working-class counterparts, they may do at the expense of women.
There are numerous men, whether blue-collar or white-collar workers, who are dissatisfied with their work and do not rape. It is therefore important to understand the issue in occupational disenchantment within the context of other contributing variables. Just as it is improbable that a man will rape solely because he is politically dissatisfied and feels powerless, it is unlikely that he will rape solely because he is unhappy in the workplace. To rape, he will also need to feel inadequate in other spheres of life, and to objectify the woman, feel aggressive towards her, and see violence and coercion as a means of resolving tension and fulfilling desire.
Resolving conflict and problems through violence has long been a major part of South African culture. Violence played a significant role in African tribal society and in white colonial settlement, and it is currently a popular method of resolving conflict and achieving certain goals in the family, in sexual relationships, in the school, in peer groups, as well as in the industrial relations and political sphere.
Within a small community like Riverlea, violence is strongly intertwined with a machismo ethos. It is often a bestower of esteem and respect. A statement by one rapist illustrates this point:
I felt proud of myself. You see we have a small township and if that thing [massive fist fight] happens in our township, then I feel like a bit of a hero because I started the whole thing. It was a good feeling.
A primary venue for violence in Riverlea is the family. Both the norm of male dominance and notions of family privacy frequently make male violence a sanctioned activity within the family (Marsden, 1978).
Using Bandura's (1965, 1971) theory of modelling, it becomes apparent that the violent behaviour of adults provides boys with a model to relate to. This is especially significant in relation to women, since the violence boys witness is, more often than not, directed against their mothers. Their mothers' response often fits the traditional mode of behaving – passive and accepting. Said one rapist, "She just used to take it all these years. It's like this and, I must accept it." The experience of parental conflict and the effects of sex role socialization help to reproduce this mode of relating in adulthood. As Melani and Fodaski (1974:85) put it:
We find, in the early lives of many convicted rapists, an indication of great parental friction, with a violent father abusing an ineffectual mother. The culturally established images of male aggressiveness and female weakness, learned from the parents and approved by society in general, are thus duplicated symbolically and physically in the explosive act of rape.
Observation is not the only method for learning about violence, some children learn about it through being victims of it themselves. Results yielded from the author's study indicate that while none of the subjects of the non-violent group were severely beaten, most of the rapists and physical abusers had experienced physical and psychological abuse as children. Many of these violent childhood encounters occurred with their fathers. One rapist remarked: "He would hit us with his fist and with his belt until we had blue marks."
Removing a child from a violent environment does not necessarily inhibit the possibility of violent behaviour in adulthood. If a boy is raised in a violent family and culture, is punished through violence, and is seldom responded to with love, it is to be anticipated that he will at a later stage resort to violence. The boy learns that violence is a plain sailing method to get what he wants and to control the behaviour of others.
Besides witnessing the violence perpetrated against his mother, another reason for the boy later directing his aggression towards women is his perception and experience of his mother (Bradbury, 1982; Pleck, 1979). The mode of relating to his mother changes from absolute dependency and intimacy at the time of birth to a perception of her as servant and nurse – a somewhat inferior person. The boy learns that he is in a position to both dominate and be dominated. Sons dominate because they have been given some special status. They are taught the naturality of demanding from their mothers, and later from their girlfriends, lovers, and wives, nurturance and physical sustenance. Thus if a woman challenges him, does not demonstrate affection, or does not confirm his image of his manhood, it conflicts with his perception of her as a satisfier and nurturer. To overcome these anxieties, and reassert his masculinity, the man responds in a sexually aggressive fashion (Bradbury, 1982).
Another possible reason for the rapist expressing his aggression towards women is past anger for maternal neglect. Deprived of care and nurturance, the boy feels unloved, unspecial, and inadequate. To overcome his deprivation, he becomes greedy for attention and love. To ensure that he does not feel unspecial he might for instance be loud, abusive, be the joker and do things which gain him acclaim. Many of the latter actions may be directed towards women. Rape being an extreme behaviour is able to compensate for extreme insecurities and deprivation, and satisfy intense needs. By raping, the perpetrator feels special since he receives the complete attention of his victim. And because he can coerce the woman into having sex, he feels powerful and strong. He is thus able to remove himself from boyish memories of inadequacy and weakness.
The boy's conceptualization of his mother as the "other" and inferior sex, results in his rejection of any of the qualities associated with her. To be "like a woman" is a disgrace. To inhibit this possibility, it is essential that men control and dominate those who are feminine. Tweedie (in Levine and Koenig, 1983: vi) states:
A boy, reared by a woman, perceives that he is not as she is, that he must reject his beloved to gain himself, that paradise must be lost to achieve manhood. Whatever the beloved is, he must not be. Is she emotional? Then he must be unfeeling. Is she gentle? Then he must be aggressive. Is she kind? Then he must be unkind. His earliest model, from whom his earliest comfort came, must be obliterated. Many men manage this difficult transition and confine its injuries to themselves. Others, rapists amongst them, do not. The necessary split is too painful, the inferring emotion too grievous. Who do they blame for the murder for their souls, unconsciously? Women.
Rape is thus in part an act fuelled by the historical experience of the family, which leads to rage, vindictiveness, and revenge. In terms of the rapist's perceptions, it is a "repayment in kind for childhood injuries received" (Tweedie, in Levine and Koenig, 1983: vii).
While having stressed the importance of familial and sub-cultural factors in contributing to rape, to understand the crime purely within this framework would be a mistake. The crime of rape is a reflection of the values of both the specific and broader culture. Thus, to view rape only as part of the violence that plagues the sub-cultures of working-class and black people would make it difficult to explain why middle-class white men, who are from communities where the incidence is lower, rape. Therefore, while a familial and sub-cultural theory of rape is useful in explaining rape, the purpose and aim of sexual violence must not be placed in a social vacuum. As Wilson (1983:67) points out:
… rape represents an act of machismo and sadistic domination, not only in the ghetto but also outside it. It is not the subculture alone that is violent: our whole culture is suffused with beliefs in male supremacy, dominance and aggression.
The eulogization of violence as an appropriate tool to get what one wants means that the committal of violence often does not result in social censorship, but rather provides additional social status to the perpetrator. Since violence is void of social embarrassment, tacit social permission is granted. Within such a setting and considering women's inferior status, "attacks on women are as certain … as death and taxes – more certain than taxes, since some manage not to pay" (Shapiro, 1979:469).
Sexuality and rape myths
Probably the most popular belief about rape is that it is a sexual act, committed for sexual gratification by men, who, in the face of women's sexual provocation, have lost their normal self-control. Men's sexual appetites are supposedly sufficiently volatile for a woman's dress, presence, or actions to trigger off exceptionally lustful behaviour. Women are expected to be conscious of this, especially if they choose to be sexually intimate but do not want to have sexual intercourse with a man. They are expected to impose certain limits so as to curb the man's powerful sexual drives. Of this scenario, Medea and Thompson (1972:45) state:
We would prefer to establish that, if women flirt they are not inviting rape. If they kiss a man goodnight, they are not inviting rape. Even, and this should raise a few male hackles, if they should be guilty of "teasing" a man, they are not inviting rape.
The myth that men's sexual cravings are uncontrollable is part of the fiction surrounding rape, and is used by many men to explain their behaviour. This myth has penetrated the minds of rapists and public alike. Said one rapist:
There is a thing as rape. I mean look, you get guys that get tempted, something runs away with their mind … . They see a girl walking with a mini and he goes and rapes her. You find with guys its in them.
Besides devaluing men's responsibility for perpetrating rape, the above statement points to the belief that rape is a sexually spontaneous act, inflicted upon an unknown victim. Findings from studies (Amir, 1971; Bell, 1981; MASA, undated) show otherwise. At least half of rapes involve men known to the victim and take place in the victim's home. In these familiar situations, the vast majority of rapes are planned and premeditated.2
Related to the issue of spontaneity is the assumption that because men are overwhelmingly attracted to a woman's physical beauty, they find it difficult to contain their sexual drive. Rapists in the author's study did not mention this motivation. While some men are attracted to women purely on the basis of their looks, and prefer to rape stereotypically attractive women, this form of admiration is not sufficient for them to rape. The need to conquer and control is the primary contributing factor. Based on the rapist's idiosyncrasies, he may choose to assert his power and coercion in relation to "physically beautiful" women because his conquest will be of greater value. Are stereotypically beautiful women therefore more vulnerable to attack? This question cannot at present be answered since no data has been collected on the rapist's perception of his victim's physical appearance. However, what is clear is that all sorts of women are raped, including those normally viewed as conventionally unattractive – like very old women.
In the light of the above, structural theories focusing on the sexual nature of rape should be viewed with caution. For example, a study by Svalastoga (1962) attributes a higher incidence of rape in certain societies to an excess of males in the sex ratio, since a surplus of men makes the "hunt" for sexual partners more tense. Theories of sexual access rest largely on the concept of relative deprivation and deviance. Individuals evaluate themselves partly on the basis of comparison with others. Within the framework of sexual access theory, men without sexual partners are envious of men who do have partners. This then becomes a source of frustration and displeasure. Rape becomes a means of resolving this frustration and taking what is not available through legitimate avenues (Chappell et al, 1977).
Lester's (1974) study, cited in Deming and Eppy (1981), brings the validity of the sexual access theories into question. He found no relationship between sex ration and the incidence of rape. Further other studies (Deming & Eppy, 1981; Medea & Thompson, 1972; MASA, undated) indicate that the majority of rapists were involved in a consenting sexual relationship at the time of their rape. These findings were partly substantiated by the author's study – the majority of rapists had sexual access to a consenting partner at the time of their rape.
The notion that women enjoy rape does not only derive from media romanticization of rape, but also from sexual ignorance regarding female sexual arousal. If a man believes that women relish male sexual aggression, as many do, he will not see rape as harmful. When this is coupled with the perception that the central feature of sexual intercourse is satisfaction of the man's physical needs, it is no surprise to find that many rapists conceptualize sex as an act of aggressive passion devoid of any mutual tenderness.
Another major factor tied up with sex is feelings of sexual and masculine inadequacy. Both may be the result of anxiety about sexual competence. Masculinity's strong association with the virility mystique has negative implications for men who do not comply with it. To overcome their insecurity, an over-identification with sexual an aggressive behaviour may occur (Deming & Eppy, 1981). In rape this may manifest itself in the offender forcing his victim to respond sexually, and to tell him that "he is wonderful".
In a war situation, where very real dangers of combat exist, as occurred for many South African men in Angola and Namibia in the 1980s, insecurity about masculinity can be further exacerbated. The insecurity of some men in war situations is such that they are extremely vulnerable to conformity pressure. This can lead to participation in army gang rapes. Komisar (quoted by Herman, 1979:6) gives an example of this:
In 1966, an American patrol held a 19 year-old Vietnamese girl captive for several days, taking turns raping her and finally murdering her. The sergeant planned the crime in advance, telling the soldiers during the mission's briefing that the girl would improve their "morale". When one soldier refused to take part in the rape, the sergeant called him "queer" and "chicken", another testified later that he joined in the assault to avoid such insults.
In everyday heterosexual behaviour, sexual and masculine insecurity is most often magnified by sexual rejection. To defend against the failure of sexual conquest, some men prefer not to initiate sexual relations. Others cope by dismissing the rejecting woman as "a nothing" or through lying about their sexual exploits. Among rapists, a popular method of coping with the fear and the occurrence of sexual rejection is not taking "no" for an answer, or deceiving themselves that the woman's "no" means "yes". In the context of sexual rejection rape "represents a response arising out of the chaos of a beleaguered self image" (Chappell et al, 1977:231).
The Rape
As stated earlier, research into the rapist's behaviour and feelings during and after the rape has been minimal. In an investigation of these areas in this section, the rapist's experiences will be detailed, so that the rapist's feelings and attitudes throughout the offence can be better ascertained and understood.
Events leading up to the rape
Rapists tend to exploit situations in which women are vulnerable to attack. This may mean raping women who are psychologically and economically powerless, physically disabled, mentally retarded, sleeping, very young, or very old (Selkin, 1975). Rapists in this study took the opportunity of raping adult women who were hiking, standing alone, intoxicated, being sexually intimate, or in need of an escort home. The common threads running through the rape situations described in this study are that the victims were alone, and that they were not in a position to defend themselves.
According to the rapists, many of the rapes were preceded by the woman being in a sexually intimate situation with another man or the offender himself. An example of the former is the rapist who waited for a friend to finish having sex with a "girl", and then proceed to rape her with the assistance of another friend:
There was a girl, we were in the same standard. I also heard she was a girl who mucks around. We went to another friend's flat. He was busy with her and I watched through the louvre doors – and I see the guy busy and then he's finished. Then one of my classmates comes with me … and held her legs … and I had sex with her.
Superficial sexual encounters were the final precursor to other rapists' rapes. Many men expect to have sexual intercourse if the woman expresses sexual affection. Women's refusal to go "all the way" is therefore frequently a forerunner to men's use of force and coercion.
Location
The majority of rapes are perpetrated in relatively safe environments where the victim is alone and the rapist will not be seen or interrupted. In this study, the most common location for rape was the victim's or rapist's home. Approximately 55 per cent of rapes were committed in these locations. The second most common place was large open spaces. Just over 44 per cent of rapes were committed in the veld or parks distant from highly populated areas.
These findings closely approximate those of other research. Amir (1971) found that 50 per cent of all rapes occurred in the victim's home, and 19 per cent in the assailant's home. Other figures for rapes occurring within all types of homes (rapist's, victim's, and other homes) are the following: Macdonald (1971) – 58 per cent; Medea and Thompson (1972) – 57 per cent; Peters et al (1976) – 51.9 per cent. The conclusion drawn from these statistics is that both public and domestic locations may be perilous. The myth that the home is a safe place, and that women can escape rape by avoiding dark alleys, should be laid to rest.
As indicated, a sizeable proportion of rapes are planned. This inevitably influences the location of the rape. In the example described below, the rapist's immense desire for "sexual gratification" did not make him rape the "girl" on the dance floor. He managed to control his sexual urges, and at the same time think about finding a private place:
We [friends] went to the disco and I left my girlfriend at home. I danced with this one girl and without me trying anything she was keeping me warm and I thought this is my chance. The first thing in my mind is sex. I danced a few numbers and took her out. Then I remembered a nice place, no one is there, it's not in town, it's past Eldorado Park. We went outside under a tree, there was no one around. I then took her, she had no chance.
In the above case, the woman appears to have been sexually assertive. But "sexual liberation" from feminine passivity is not an unambiguous advantage for women. For while women now supposedly have the right to choose whom they want to have sex with and when, they are still trapped by society's double standards of respectability. When women walk late at night, hitchhike, or go to discos or shebeens by themselves, they may be called "loose", and regarded as easy, even "fair" targets. These were the insinuations the victim, in the case above, had to endure. Medea and Thompson (1972:45) write:
A woman can say "no" all day, but if she has gotten herself into what, by Victorian standards, is a compromising situation, she will not be believed. At the present time the rapist has the best of both worlds – women who are taking more risks, and a society which says that if they take those risks they deserve whatever they get.
The rapist's experience
In the interests of clarity, the rapist's experience has been broken up into component parts, although these are clearly interconnected. They include: the rapist's pattern of interaction, which tends to involve the threat of force, actual force, and various other manipulatory techniques; the rapist's responses to his victim's behaviour; the type of language which the rapist uses; his sexual behaviour during the rape; the length of the rape; and the rapist's feelings during the rape.
Patterns of interaction:
When men have power over women, the possibility of rape exists. During rape, power may be expressed in different ways. Tedeschi et al (1973) describe two different patterns of interaction used to gain power in a two-person encounter. Both of these patterns were employed by the rapists in this study. The first is an open method of coercion whereby the assertion of power is not concealed. The second mode of interaction involves manipulation. With this method, the power seeker's intent is disguised. Rapists in this study tended to favour the open method of coercion, using either the threat of force or force itself. At times, however, this mode of interaction was interspersed with manipulatory techniques.
Threat of force:
Instilling fear is an effective means of ensuring compliance. Rapists instil fear by making a variety of threats which focus on the victim's social and physical vulnerability. The threat of physical assault is the most recurrent. A rapist in the present study commented:
I will say "ek sal jou slaan" [I will hit you], then she sorts of gives in … I've done it, say about three or four times.
To give more weight to their threats of physical injury, some rapists display and make use of weapons.
When we got to the veld, I took out my gun and fired a shot into the air to frighten her. She was frightened because she could see that it wasn't a toy.
The exhibition and use of violent weapons serve another purpose – that of validating masculinity and power. By demonstrating to his victim his ability to handle aggressive armoury, the rapist engages in traditional machismo behaviour, and at the same time illustrates his domination over the woman. In this case, firing into the air displayed a lack of concern over the gun's noise. This would have increased the victim's fear and feelings of helplessness, for the rapist's confidence that he would not be heard meant he believed her screams for assistance would be futile, and it certainly meant they would not halt his sexual assault.
Other intimidatory tactics employed by rapists include the threat of incarceration, and attacks on the victim's social respectability. Both these mechanisms were successfully used by one rapist:
She had to give in, because she knew if she's not going to give in, then I'm not going to let her go home, because I'm going to keep her there the whole night. I just told her, "if you not going to give it, I'm not going to let you go home. You'll sleep right here". I wanted to rape her, but then I took on second thoughts and thought "no". I know her and she knows me, let me rather talk nicely … I told her you must not come with your "shit" here. You must give me, otherwise it's bad and I'm going to tell everybody. You know, just making up stories.
Besides his distorted conception of what it means to rape or to "talk nicely", the rapist's statement reveals his ability to make use of society's double standards. He appeared to have such confidence in society's prejudiced sentiments about women who find themselves in intimate sexual situations, that he used the threat of societal exposure to gain further control over his victim. If anyone's respectability is endangered, it should have been his for raping his victim, and not the victim's for being raped. Thus men's power over how women are perceived, and more specifically their ability to cast a shadow on women's social respectability, were partly responsible for this rape.
Threats and overt intimidations are central components of rape.3 Those who deny the reality of rape, and jokingly claim that "a pencil cannot be inserted through a moving doughnut", fail to comprehend this. They do not realise that the victim faces menacing threats, and that by the time sexual intercourse occurs, she "has been terrorised into co-operating with her assailant or is immobilised with fear" (Selkin, 1975:71). A lack of physical resistance by the victim is not indicative of ambivalence towards her assailant, as some defence attorneys want to argue. It is reflective of fear.
Use of physical violence:
The majority of rapists do not stop at threats and actually employ physical force. Amir (1971) has estimated that in over 85 per cent of reported rapes, the victim had to endure some sort of physical violence. Roughness was used in over 25 per cent of the cases; non-brutal beatings in just under 25 per cent; brutal beatings in more than 20 per cent, and choking in close to 12 per cent. Van Ness (1984) reports that the majority of young rape offenders used guns or knives to coerce their victims. Clearly, if sadistic threats instil fear, then actual violence terrorizes the victim even further.
One of the most common constituents of "rough" behaviour is the forceful removal of the victim's clothes. For the victim, exposure of her naked body to a terrifying, hating attacker is a source of great humiliation. In addition to setting the tone for more gruesome violence, aggressive removal of the victim's clothes indicates the rapist's determination to accomplish his goal. A statement from a rapist substantiates this:
I wanted to have sex – she didn't want to have sex with me. She was fighting back by crossing her legs. And then I pulled off her boob tube and she pulls it up and I go and pull it off again. Eventually I got down and then I struggle opening up her legs and all that.
In a second case, the woman had initially physically demonstrated her liking for the man. Yet he still found it necessary to use physical force. It appears that violence was used in order to guarantee completion of the sex act. This may be because the rapists, perhaps, on the basis of previous experience, feared rejection. Alternatively, he may have believed that since the woman had consented to sexual intimacy, he was entitled to her complete sexual submission.
Many rapists used moderate forms of violence: "holding her down with my hands"; "grabbing her by her tits"; "keep her hand and pull down her panties". There seems little doubt that if the victims in these cases had resisted more resolutely, moderate violence would have turned into brutal violence. In these instances, the process of rape had already begun, and the rapist was determined that no obstacle would prevent him from having sexual intercourse. One rapist's rape encounter exemplified this. After threatening and grabbing his victims by "her tits", he still faced resistance. He describes his response to the victim's continued unwillingness:
How are you going to get that sexual excitement out of her, if she is not willing to have sex with you … . You know how you get it, you become cross – I smacked her.
Some rapists do not even come close to the display of physical affection and use violence immediately. A simple "no" to sexual advances is sufficient to galvanize some rapists into brutalizing their victims. Said one:
I was forced to do it because I couldn't control myself … . Lots of times, I have used a little force. If I talk to a girl and she doesn't want to have sex with me … I would start hitting her.
The rapist's use of violence in response to female sexual rejection does not only serve to rid him of anger; it is also a declaration to his victim that no matter what she may do, he is still a "man", still sexually and physically dominant. Through force he illustrates to her that she really does desire him – for despite her refusals, she is nevertheless having sex with him. The rapist's impatience at not receiving instant sexual gratification further stimulates his violent behaviour. His socialized method of achieving instant solutions to problems is through violence. A rapist commented:
A few kicks and smacks … is the quickest way. It's useless taking a cherrie out and then sit the whole night and treat her nice. If you are going to take her, what's the point, you are still going to be arrested.
Sadly, because of the convergence of sex and male domination in our society, acts of force within the sexual arena are not always perceived as aggression. Medea and Thompson (1972:12) assert that:
Killing and hitting are seen as real acts of aggression by one person against another, regardless of whether they are taken to court; they are acts which may provoke revenge. Strangely, however, in the case of rape that connection – that it is an act of aggression regardless of whether or not it is prosecutable – is not made. It is not made in the mind of the rapist. Sometimes it is not made in the mind of the victim. It is seldom made in the minds of the people the victim will have to deal with after the attack.
Often it is only when the rapist engages in physical brutality, such as sticking sharp objects into his victim's vagina, or hitting, punching, and kicking her, that the rapist, the victim, and public will classify rape as an aggressive act.
Any discussion about the mechanisms of coercion and physical violence in rape must examine the phenomenon of gang rape.4 In the present study approximately 44 per cent of rapists had engaged in gang rape. The phenomenon of gang rape provides clues to men's brutal treatment of women. A brief description of one gang rape will give the reader some sense of the ruthlessness of this crime:
One night, we saw two women standing at the gate. While we were talking with these two women, these fourteen "ouens" [young men] came up. We were all under the influence of liquor and we just decided at the same time that we are going to rape them. The one ran away, so there were about thirteen of us that rape that one woman … . She was very "dead". They fucked her up, blue eyes and all … because she didn't want to take her pants off.
Another feature of gang rape (although it also occurs when there is an individual rapist) is making the victim's boyfriend or husband watch the offence. A report in Business Day of 17 April 1989 highlighted one gruesome incident: The offence occurred near the isolated Nasrec centre in south Johannesburg. It began about 10:30 p.m. when a couple in a parked care were held up by four men armed with guns. The couple were forced out of the car and the woman was gang raped while her companion was held at gunpoint. A short while later, another (second) couple who were driving past were forcibly stopped by the gang. The woman in the second couple was forcibly raped by one of the gang members. The gang then forced (probably under threat of assault, or murder of his partner) the man in the second couple to rape the woman who had initially been gang raped. Afterwards the gang chased the second couple away, locked the first couple in the boot of their car, and drove off in another car.
Making a man watch the rape of his wife or sexual partner has two primary purposes. Firstly, it makes the husband or boyfriend part of the rape by having to "passively" observe it. Secondly, it is an illustration of the rapist's greater power relative to the other man, since the man is perceived as incapable of safeguarding and controlling "his woman". This type of rape serves to affirm the rapist's masculinity while destroying that of another man (Griffin, 1971). In the process the position of a woman as the property of a man, and as a sexual object to be used and abused becomes flagrantly conspicuous.
What makes the gang rape unique is that even though it is a situation "in which no brutality, no threat even, would be necessary to subdue the victim", sadistic violence occurs on a large scale (Medea & Thompson, 1972:36). Excessive force and debasement in rape point to other needs besides sexual gratification (Deming & Eppy, 1981). Thus, in studying the gang rape syndrome, one discovers conformity pressure and the participant's need to prove his sexual competence and physical strength to the others involved in the rape. This desire stems from insecurities about masculinity and sexual prowess. An example in the present study was the rapist who was concerned about the size of his penis during a gang rape: "I was thinking about, I wonder whether she feels the difference inside her, you know how big and small." Sexual anxiety of this sort may precipitate overcompensatory behaviour, resulting in intense degradation of the victim.
The victim's behaviour and the rapist's response
More often than not, the victim does not passively accept her assailant's attack. She resists before and during the rape, or both. Her resistance may be related to her age, physical strength, experience of violence, and her confidence. According to Katz and Mazur (1979) young girls are inclined to struggle less than adolescents and adults; working-class women, who are often more familiar with violence, tend to resist physically more than their middle-class counterparts, who are frequently strangers to violence and have been socialized to be "ladies"; and women who are assertive and confident in day-to-day social situations resist the rapist more fiercely. While these factors are of some significance, the primary factor determining the victim's resistance is the rapist's actions. In turn, his behaviour is influenced – to a lesser degree – by the victim's behaviour. From rapists' descriptions of their victims' resistance as described in this study, four broad categories of resistance have been identified: attention-seeking tactics; non-cooperation tactics; psychological tactics; and physical resistance.
Judging from an American study of victims' descriptions of resistance strategies during rape, rapists in this study have given a fairly consistent portrayal of their victims' resistance (Psychiatric News, 1975). The American study published in Psychiatric News reported that:
Eighteen per cent [of victims] tried to determine possible alternatives, such as how to escape or wondering whether the assailant would panic; over half [57 per cent] used a verbal tacit such as trying to talk themselves out of the situation, stalling for time, reasoning with the assailant by trying to change his mind, trying to gain sympathy from the assailant, using flattery, attempting to strike a bargain, feigning illness, threatening the assailant, trying to change the assailant's perception of the woman, joking and using sarcasm; and 22 per cent employed the physical techniques of attempting to flee the scene, or fighting with the assailant. Naturally some victims used a combination of these strategies.
Before delving into the four categories of victims' resistance, it must be stressed that resistance in this study has been discussed within the context of completed rapes. There are many accounts of successful resistance which have been documented elsewhere. One study, for example, claims that in one-third of situations involving sexual aggression the victim emerged victorious (Denver Anti-Crime Report, undated). Successful resistance was primarily achieved through yelling (15 per cent), physical resistance (18 per cent) and fleeing (24 per cent).
Attention-seeking tactics:
"She would shout "Oh no, no"", was how a rapist characterised his victim's resistance. Shouting, screaming, and yelling are the most common attention-seeking tactics. They are often the tactics first employed by the victim. In general, the rapist responds to his victim's verbal protestations either by verbally reassuring her that the situation is not as menacing as it seems, or by using physical force to silence her. In doing this the rapist may also shift some responsibility for the act onto his victim. As one rapist stated:
She did scream, but the way I was handling her was to say you must not go on like this. You're actually making me do it to you now.
Attention-seeking tactics appear to be successful only in public places. In other circumstances, they are largely ignored by the rapist. The development of hand-held gadgets which produce extremely loud sounds may be of use in scaring the rapist off. However, the high price of such technology makes it inaccessible to most working-class women. Interestingly, none of the rapists in this study reported that any of their victims had protection gadgets.
Non-cooperation tactics:
These tactics can involve refusing to remove clothing, or not assisting with the insertion of the penis into the vagina. Non-cooperation does not cause many difficulties for the rapist. He either tears the woman's clothes off or beats her up until she removes them. With regard to penetration, the rapist proceeds without the victim's assistance. He often makes penetration easier for himself by wetting his victim's vagina with his saliva, which he applies with his fingers.
Psychological tactics:
Strategies that fall within this category include reasoning with the rapist, frightening or disgusting him, or trying to gain sympathy from him. The most assertive of these strategies is the victim's attempt to induce fear in the rapist through threats:
She said, she is going to tell her mother. She was still at school, she was 17. She said she will tell her friends. I said no man, what's she worried about her friends for.
In this example, the rapist went on to threaten her with physical assault and to rape her. Other rapists were similarly unmoved by the victim's endeavours to evoke sympathy. Said one rapist: "She did it, but not willingly. She kept telling me she was still a virgin and she is young and she is at school." He did take some note of her plea, however: "I didn't want to do her harm, so I said she can keep my magazine [of the gun]". He proceeded to "pomp her [have intercourse] about three times".
Begging and straightforward appeals for understanding also had little effect on the rapists studied. In one rape described by a rapist, a woman was forcibly grabbed and pushed into a van by nine men. After they began physically assaulting her, she repeatedly requested that they release her. According to one of the rapists, she was saying, "please guys, I don't know you. My mommy is going to shout and things like that. I can't go with you". Her pleas fell on deaf ears. Six of the nine men brutally raped her.
A more sophisticated strategy employed by one victim was to attempt to evoke both sympathy and disgust in the rapist. Unfortunately, her gambit failed, as the rapist responded even more aggressively.
She came with her story, she's sick and she has got a period. So I said to her, "you mustn't speak shit with me". I just wanted to have sex with her and she didn't have a period.
The question often asked by victims and concerned public with regard to incidents such as the above is why does the rapist not respond to his victim's pleas? This is related to two other questions – "How could men do this?" and "Are the perpetrators ridden with guilt after the act?"
Much of the substance of the answers to these questions lies in the rapist's objectification of his victim, which is an essential ingredient of rape. For individuals to rape or to engage in extreme violence, it is necessary that they perceive their victims as less than human. By dehumanizing the rape victim, the rapist ensures that she loses her status as a feeling, thinking human being who has the right to make her own choices, including the right to say no. Feelings of guilt may be true for some perpetrators, but for many, including those interviewed in the present study, guilt is limited or non-existent because they have raped a pathetic, disgusting creature unworthy of human respect. This attitude helps to explain why in the process of the rape the victim's crying or pleading meets with little response. At times such behaviour can increase the victim's dehumanization, since in the rapist's eyes she has become more pathetic – she is now a "snivelling bitch".
Although psychological tactics employed by the victim are not always successful in making herself more human and preventing rape, Storaska (1975) upholds them as the best rape prevention method. He believes that women can almost always avert rape by adopting strategies based on a personality assessment of the rapist. Strategies include complimenting the rapist on his personality or physical build, engaging in lengthy conversations, being vulgar (burping, urinating, defecating, vomiting), informing the rapist one has a venereal disease or Aids, or behaving in a bizarre fashion to defuse his sexual responses.
Physical resistance:
None of the rapists told of victims who maintained a concerted physical resistance throughout the rape. However, 55 per cent did report some form of physical rebuff from their victims. One rapists stated:
So when I started pulling down her panties, she started pushing my hands away. So I asked her why she's doing that, doesn't she want to have sex with me. So she says, no she doesn't, she's not that kind of person, she only just fucks around. Like me, I got "naar" [annoyed], so I forced her.
Another form of resistance, which only temporarily bothered the rapists, entailed the victim crossing her legs and pushing him away from her body. The rapist sometimes meets the victim's attempt to push him away by lying on top of her with increased weight, and by using more violence. This response was also employed by a rapist who had to deal with biting and scratching – "she started getting excited and biting … scratching too … so I just stayed on top of her". Of course, rapists do no always behave so calmly when confronted with this type of resistance. Said one rapist:
They bite you, here on the chest, so you have to smack her and so on … . After that she must be scared … she had to give in.
Physical resistance does not necessarily inhibit the rapist's will to continue with the act. In fact, it can have the opposite effect. Fifty-five per cent of the rapists in this study said they became more "excited" when their victims resisted. This may be because resistance provided the opportunity for heightened use of aggression and force. One answer to the question "Did her struggling excite you?" took this form:
You enjoy it more to struggle first. When other girls just say okay just come, you don't enjoy yourself like that. You have to struggle first and she has to make you hot.
The fact that rapists find resistance titillating again illustrates that the pleasure of raping lies in the assertion of power, and not merely the achievement of sexual orgasm. Broth (in Time, 5 September 1983) reports that a rapist told him:
You know I could get all the sex I wanted because my brother ran a chain of massage parlours. But if they were giving it to me, I wasn't in control. I wanted to take it.
However, rapists do not always enjoy continual resistance. Eighty-eight per cent of rapists in this study wanted their victims to resist less. How is this apparent contradiction explained? It appears that while the victim's resistance does increase the rapist's sexual excitement, this excitement does not match the gratification provided by a more co-operative victim. Ideally, the rapist craves a victim who resists slightly: her struggling enables him to conquer her and experience corresponding feelings of power and control. At the same time, he can interpret the weakness of her resistance as a signal that she really desires him sexually. Considering that none of the victims vigorously physically resisted rape, it was not surprising to discover that 66 per cent of the rapists believed that their victims were "playing hard to get" or enjoyed the rape experience. One rapist stated:
I was holding and opening her legs … but afterwards I don't think this could be rape … because she didn't really fight back. She did say, no she doesn't want to do it, but maybe she did.
The question of whether women should be uncooperative and physically resist rape has been widely debated. Those favouring active revolt point to the many cases where potential victims have successfully resisted rape through attention-seeking tactics and physical resistance (Clark & Lewis, 1977). Those opposed to this position express concern that active resistance might provoke additional violence (Finkelhor & Yllo, 1982; Medea & Thompson, 1972; Russell, 1975; Selkin, 1975). A gruesome illustration of the violence that resistance can provoke is given by Wood (1974). She quotes Lear (1972) who speaks of a 37-year-old woman who required 120 stitches in her face and head after resisting a man who tried to rape her in New York's Central Park. A detective said of this case:
We've been looking for this guy for a long time. Two years ago we picked him up for attempted rape, and it was a throw-out in court; no corroboration. Now we have this poor woman, who fought like hell and didn't get raped. The guy has been indicted for assault in the first degree. She's scarred for life. And you know what she says now? She says she wishes she hadn't fought, and maybe he wouldn't have cut her up the horrible way he did.
It is on the basis of such incidents that Storaska (1975) suggests that if resistance is to be employed, it should be done through manipulatory or psychological means rather than physical techniques.
It emerges from this study that active resistance is unlikely to be effective in rape locations which are private, or with rapists who are extremely violent from the start of the rape. In these situations, psychological tactics may be more successful. However, in more public locations, active resistance may scare the rapist, who wishes to avoid detection..This does not apply to gang rapes, where there may be public support for the offence. Time (3 September 1983) detailed one such disturbing case:
Last March, a 21 year old mother of two walked into Big Dan's tavern in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to buy a pack of cigarettes. A man in the bar threw her to the floor, stripped her and hoisted her onto a pool table, where he and three companions took turns raping, sodomizing and beating the woman. Other patrons cheered the rapists on, screaming, Go for it! Go for it!
This emphasizes the complicity and guilt of those men who did not rape, but who cheered and further encouraged the actual rapists to continue with their humiliation of their victim. What is indeed frightening about such an incident is that the rapists felt that they did not need to employ any caution in concealing their rape. The presumption was that all the men would support them. This incident, more than most, reveals the meaning of a sub-culture and culture of rape.
A noticeable feature of both a culture and sub-culture of violence is the "shared commitment to violence and a shared concept of aggressive masculinity" (Deming & Eppy, 1981:364) in homosocial relations. In Riverlea, for example, gang fights and gang rapes are not exceptional occurrences. Considering the high level of alienation and conflict within the community, this is not surprising, since gang rapes provide a rationale for solidarity and interaction based on male bonding and masculine validation (Brownmiller, 1975).
The rapist's speech
It is not only a rapist's violent behaviour that can damage a woman emotionally. Verbal abuse can be equally damaging. The rapist's insulting language intensifies the victim's humiliation. His words reinforce his derogatory perception of her: she is nothing more than a "juicy little bitch".
The rape perpetrated by one rapist provides a good example of how verbal behaviour is used to debase. He admits that what he said to her could not be termed "talking – it was more like making fun of her". Says the rapist of the incident: "She was sitting in the van and the five of us were laying there in the back, watching her and shouting about her body".
Demeaning comments were also a component of a rape in which another rapist participated. The rape took place in the victim's house. Immediately prior to the rape, the victim was voluntarily having sex in the bedroom with one of the rapist's friends while he and two other friends sat in the lounge. No longer able to be left out of what was going on in the bedroom, the informant and his two friends entered and proceeded to rape the woman, assisted by the man with whom she had been having sex. As if to add to her humiliation, this man declared in the midst of the rape: "You can give my round to the others, I mean it's still a cock". This statement reflected the woman's position as a sexual object. It portrays her as unfeeling and undiscriminating. She is presumed to be indifferent to whom the penis belongs.
Earlier mention was made of verbal threats as a means of coercion. Occasionally this strategy leads to unexpected consequences. Instead of immobilising the victim, threats may engender hysteria. The rapist often chooses between physical aggression and reassurance to deal with the victim's emotional protestations. In the case described below, the rapist tried to reassure his victim that their sexual encounter would soon be coming to an end:
It was sore, you know how the first time a girl does it, she can't take it. She started crying and I just kept it in and said it's going to be over now my dear.
Ignorance of women's sexual responses and feelings is so widespread that rapists are prepared to suggest to the victim that her rape experience "will be nice". These rapists have so confused domination and sexual affection, that they are able to conceive of themselves as lovers. For them the line between sex and violence is extremely thin.
The rapist's behaviour during the rape
The majority of rapists did not give any detailed account of their sexual behaviour during the rape. Those that did appeared to have incorporated a substantial amount of aggression and defilement into their sexual activity. For instance, one rapist who participated in a gang rape stated:
Then she gave in and we had sex. She was bleeding afterwards, I think it was because of the way I was forcing it in. Also I think it was her first time.
Yet it is the very use of aggression and physical force that often inhibits the rapist's sexual enjoyment. To have their masculinity validated, rapists have to believe that their victims want them sexually. Thus when co-operation is lacking and force prevalent, rapists may feel cheated and unsatisfied.
What does this mean for the rapist's sexual behaviour during the rape? In this study, none of the rapists made any mention of erections or orgasm. Consequently, all information on this issue is drawn from the work of other researchers. Literature on the subject is sparse, however. Some rapists complain that they have difficulty obtaining erection and orgasm (Levine & Koenig, 1983). Many rapists have problems in maintaining an erection when they believe they are involved in a rape, rather than a seduction. Clark and Lewis (1977) have provided some statistics on the frequency of erection and orgasm among rapists. In 61.9 per cent of cases, no mention was made of orgasm. Only 7.0 per cent of rapists gave an unqualified confirmation of orgasm. Over 20 per cent admitted to not having achieved orgasm, and 10.2 per cent to having it with difficulty. Thus, in 33 per cent of reported cases, the rapist had problems with orgasm. According to Paske (1982:53):
… generally in psychiatric literature sexual dysfunction as a whole is correlated with psychological mood, states of anxiety, depression and anger as well as with conflicts regarding sex – viewed as negative or dirty, as dangerous, etc. These same factors are prominent characteristics of rapists.
It should be noted that in over half of the cases studied, problems with orgasm were associated with difficulties with erection (Clark & Lewis, 1977). Unfortunately, this involves bitter irony for the victim. It is precisely because the rapist is unable to achieve erection or orgasm that the victim's forcible confinement can be prolonged. In this extended period, she has to endure further humiliation, and sometimes degrading sexual acts.
Another irony of the rapist's sexual dysfunction is the legal consequences it may have for the offence. The rapist's defence team may assert that since no sperm was found in the woman, rape could not have occurred (Paske, 1982:57). It is in the light of this that Paske comments:
The lack of sperm in the alleged victim's vagina does not preclude the possibility that she was indeed raped.
Duration of the rape
No information was forthcoming regarding the exact duration of rapes. Some rapists reported raping their victim for "two hours" and "a whole night". The length of these rapes could be the consequence of problems with erection or orgasm, or prolonged desire to debase the victim.
The rapist's feelings during the rape
The rapist's primary feelings during the rape have already been documented. Feelings of sexual enjoyment, sexual exasperation, power, control, and insecurity have all emerged. Other emotions also feature.
A rapist's statement, "I felt nothing at the time. I just wanted to have sex", sheds light on his divorcing sex from any emotion, as well as his objectification of the woman. The victim had become objectified to the extent that he was concerned only with his self-gratification. The cost of his gratification, in terms of his victim's pain, was of no significance to him. This callous disregard for, and dehumanization of, the rape victim can be contrasted with the way some rapists treat women for whom they feel affection. According to one rapist:
I don't feel anything for her and won't worry about her and what time she has to go home … it's just straight sex, when you come, you are finished. But with a cherrie that I am moving with, I dance with her, cuddle her, it's more romancing with her.
The two quotations cited below reveal rapists' principal feelings to be of power, control and strength. This bears out one of the central contentions of this study, namely that the primary motivation for rape is the offender's need for power, which he attains through sexual conquest:
I feel strong … . It feels good to make a girl scared … . It feels good because she is listening to you.
I felt … I was the best, I had put her down … [also] it made me feel even better … to know I am a man because a woman is bowing down to you.
Thus far, some of the reasons for why men rape and how they feel while raping have been explored. But how does the rapist feel when the rape is over? In briefly examining this, greater insight can be obtained into the rapist's perceptions of the crime, as well as the reasons for so few women reporting rape.
The aftermath of the rape
Most rapists in the present study were calm immediately after the rape. They made no attempt to flee the scene of their crime.
Some even escorted their victims back to their homes or to the discotheque where they were previously. The rapists' behaviour immediately after the rape suggests that they are unaware of their victims' feelings towards them. Most of them do not acknowledge the brutality of their offence. They tend to perceive their actions as being beyond reproach, or perhaps a slight misdemeanour. The fact that a rapist can walk his victim home, or take her back to the disco, without extreme fear of legal or social reprisals, may point to the perception that he has done nothing criminal or harmful. It may also be indicative of his confidence that his victim will not report the attack.
Rapists' feelings after raping can be divided into three categories: the no guilt and indifferent feelings; the "slight regret" feelings; and the remorseful feelings. The rapist may experience different feelings after different rapes. Most rapists fall into the first two categories, largely because of their sexist attitudes and behaviour.
The type of rapist who escapes guilt feelings entirely is one who objectifies women excessively. For such a rapist, the concept of rape is inconceivable because women are not self-determining individuals with the right and ability to choose. One rapist remarked: "Once you have finished with that [sex], you feel nothing for that girl. Once you have come, you think nothing about her."
Rapists with slight regret feelings recognise their use of coercion in the rape, and feel slightly perturbed by such coercive behaviour. Said one rapist:
I felt shit and thought, hey, why did I do it? I went to her and spoke about it but then I told her "it's your own fault and you know … it won't be the last".
The rapist indicated his awareness that intercourse achieved through coercion was morally reprehensible. But his insensitivity and superficial awareness prevent the development of a long-term sense of concern guilt. This rapist preferred to escape responsibility for his actions by blaming his victim, and he repressed the recognition of his violence by suggesting that his conduct would continue in the future.
The rapist's slight regret (which soon turns into no regret) can be traced to a number of sources. Firstly, there is the desire to see his victim again. This applies particularly when his victim is his girlfriend, lover, or wife. The second reason for the rapist's self-condemnation is his fear that his victim will report the crime to the authorities. Another motivating factor may be his social conscience. Even though his peer group and his cultural context may support his conduct, he is aware that there is a small section of his community (e.g. church officials) who regard rape as wrong. However, these small sections cannot be expected to influence the rapist sufficiently to change his sexually aggressive behaviour.
Only one of the rapists in the study had any remorse after the rape. He had raped three times, but his guilt was reserved for one victim who he said came from "a respectable family". Unlike the sexually promiscuous women who were his two other victims, the respectable woman was perceived as having feelings and sensations.
The lack of remorse and guilt after the rape suggests that offenders do not classify their own behaviour as rape and that they are unaware of the devastating effects of their actions, and are somehow able to rationalize their crime. This does not mean that all rapists remain unperturbed by the incongruity between their attitudes and their behaviour. In fact, most rapists engage in a process of rationalization in order to deal with their (slight) regret or guilt. This process of rationalization further indicates rapists' prejudiced attitudes and feelings towards women. A belief in rape myths, described earlier, is a primary factor in assisting rapists to deny responsibility for their offence.
Rapists also vindicate their behaviour by asserting that alcohol and drugs made them uncharacteristically aggressive and sexually uncontrollable. While alcohol and drugs do act as dis-inhibitors of behaviour, and thus can be seen as a contributing factors to the offender's aggression, his choice of women as a target of his aggression is guided by his attitudes – and those of his society – about women, sex and violence.
There are a number of psychological mechanisms through which rapists justify their conduct. A primary one involves social comparisons. According to Festinger (1954) people do not compare themselves randomly to others; they tend to draw comparisons with people they see as roughly similar to themselves. A rapist who has reservations about his conduct may therefore ask members of his peer group for their opinions and change his attitude in the direction of the norm. Because friendships are usually based on similarities, the rapist's peer group probably has sexist views and believes the common myths about rape. Consequently, after speaking to his peer group, it is less likely that the rapist would be conflict-ridden about his behaviour.
Police and Court Treatment of Rape Cases
Within and after the rationalization period, the rapist may become perturbed by the possibility of arrest and conviction. An awareness of this possibility determines the behaviour of some rapists during and after the offence. However, most rapists were not particularly concerned about the consequences of their conduct, and some took it for granted that their victims would not report the rape. Some of the reasons for the victim's reluctance to report the rape are dealt with below.
The police attitude towards the victim sometimes puts the rapist at an advantage. According to Robin (1977), in Western countries police advice and behaviour towards the victim is often guided by the "slum sex code" which is a moral appraisal of the victim. For example, if the victim was drunk, is black, or is suspected of moral promiscuity, then her report is less likely to be believed. Police may also be less sympathetic to victims wanting to prosecute in cases where there has been little physical violence, and where a prior sexual relationship has existed between her and the assailant.
In an interview with the author in May 1989, Lieutenant-Colonel Frans Malherbe, the Witwatersrand police liaison officer, asserted that the police attitude towards the complainant is irrelevant, since they are obliged to investigate all complaints. It was only the public prosecutor, he said, who could decide whether a to charge someone, or alter the charge to a lesser charge, such as indecent assault.
While noting the obligation the police are under to investigate all complaints, the question is how much time they put into their investigations. While official policy does not determine which victim's complaints should receive more attention, the police may be influenced by their social and political views when investigating certain complaints. According to a study conducted in the United States in the late 1960s, police believe that 80 to 90 per cent of the rapes reported to them are not really rapes. There has been no local research to establish whether this statistic holds true for South Africa, but if such official attitudes do exist, then the rapist need not be overly anxious of incarceration.
Police questioning, which reflects police attitudes, may equally provide the rapist with a measure of indirect protection. Insensitive questions asked of the victim – "Did you enjoy it?" – serve to inhibit victims from reporting rape. In a 1981 "Opinion Finder" feature of a popular South African magazine, Darling, seventy-nine respondents stated that police were insufficiently sympathetic towards rape victims. This view of the police attitude may help to explain why, in the same survey, fifty-eight per cent of women said they would not go to the police if they were raped.
If a victim does report the offence to the police, her insensitive treatment may continue. She will be taken to the district surgeon or a hospital, where she is often left alone for lengthy periods. She frequently becomes nauseous as she is prevented from washing the semen or blood from her body. The rape victim may also, according to Levett, have to deal with an unsympathetic attitude from the district surgeon since "there are district surgeons [in South Africa] who readily express the belief that many women complain of rape falsely" (Levett, 1981:78).
In contrast to the victim, the apprehended rapist may receive lenient treatment from the police. This occurs particularly when, according to one rapist, "it's a policeman that knows you or likes you". Familiarity with the local police is not unusual in the context of small communities like Riverlea, where residents and the police often consort and fraternize.
Of course, not all police treat rapists and victims in these ways. This is an important point to note, since police conduct may be stereotyped and distorted so that understanding of rape and the non-reporting of the offence may be incomplete or skewed. There are many in the police force who act with care and concern and work long hours to apprehend the rapist. Unfortunately, the treatment accorded by the police to some rape victims, and occasional reports of policemen themselves raping, negate much of this good work.
If the rapist is apprehended and charged, the law affords him good protection. For example, Section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977 provides that "An accused who gives evidence at criminal proceedings shall not be asked or required to answer any questions tending to show … that he is of bad character". If the accused challenges the complainant's character, then the accused may lose the protection accorded to him and questions may be put to him to indicate that he is of bad character. This procedure changes substantially when the person is accused of perpetrating a crime of an "indecent nature". In the rape situation, the accused is entitled to acquire information about the complainant without endangering the protection granted to him in terms of Section 197. The implication of this, says Hoffman (1970), is that testimony regarding sexual history cannot be used against the alleged rapist, but can be used against the complainant to demonstrate the probability of her consenting to sexual intercourse.
The court's emphasis on consent seems to be rooted in the notion that women lay false charges of rape. To prevent unjust prosecution, courts demand corroboration of the victim's testimony. Corroboration is confirmation by additional evidence that the defendant is a rapist; that penetration took place; that the complainant did not give her consent.
The circumstances of most rapes make it likely that the victim will correctly be able to identify the rapist: more frequently than not, the victim and rapist are not total strangers. In addition, the relatively long duration of the rape gives the woman the opportunity to observe the rapist. It takes time for the victim's clothes to be removed. In general, it would seem that rape victims have a greater opportunity to take note of the rapist's identity than do victim's of other direct contact crimes such as mugging. Taking these factors into account, the question arises as to why corroboration of identification in rape cases is regarded as more essential than in other crimes, such as mugging for example.
When the harrowing ordeal of police questioning, medical examination, and court cross-examination is combined with the social embarrassment of being raped, the unofficial figure that only one out of twenty rape victims report the offence to the police becomes more understandable.
Conclusion
Man's wish to dominate, which may be expressed through rape, is not instinctual. Controlling and domineering behaviour is learnt from family modes of relating, the media, sexist sexual institutions and activities, and society's glorification of "strong-armed masculinity and docile femininity. Since the cause of the rape is social, physiological solutions such as castration miss the point. What is required are social strategies. Thus, transformation of prevailing social relations can only come about through a change in social structures and ideologies.
In a transformed society where personal development is not assigned according to class, race, or sex, the possibilities of egalitarian relationships abound. No longer would women be thought of as sexual objects or human beings in the service of man. No longer would their lives be restricted by discriminatory economic, social and sexual practices. In a society void of sexual conceptualizations of women and male dominance, rape would become a decreasing phenomenon.
At present, however, rape remains a slightly improper act. The reason for this lies not only in the prevalence of sexist ideology and rape myths, but also in the thin line separating sex and violence. What distinguishes rapists from other men is that for them there is no line. They perceive of sexually violent behaviour and seduction as one and the same thing. For them, sexual activity is tied up with force, as well as with power and domination.
Like the images of pornography, men too associate sex with mastery over another human being. Feelings of ascendancy achieved through sex help to relive the fear of not being considered a "real man". Rape is therefore not only the conquest of the woman, but of the offender's own fears about his virility, his courage, and his masculinity.
Trying to fulfil the expectations of manhood often means that sexual activity is likely to be impoverished by separation from feelings of affection. Endearment in love-making and sexual liberation requires sex role liberation (Russell, 1975). Only when men do not believe their role to be hegemonic and commanding, and regard women as people, can heterosexual relationships be sensual, relishing, and refreshing for both partners. Such a realization among men would help to destroy the myth that women look for and enjoy rape, and would go a long way towards making sexual violence an aberration in our society.
The revision of standards of masculinity and femininity that are taking place today does not alter prevailing heterosexual relations substantially. Men wearing perfume, earrings, tight pants, platform shoes, and long hair does not readily tamper with the older, inbred attitudes of dominance, possessiveness, and competitiveness. As Hoch puts it:
True, men no longer fight duels the way they did in the age of gallantry, and for the educated "middle" classes even fist-fights between rugged individuals have gone somewhat out of style. But competition for women and status is still with us; only now it tends to be fought in terms of a consumption ethic of cars and clothes and credit cards. This kind of competition, this pressure to prove himself "more of a man" than the next fellow, will be with us as long as the present economic system with its hierarchical social classes and status. (Hoch, 1979:144)
The objectification of women, male competition and the virility mystique makes the man brought up in squalid living conditions just as much a potential rapist as the academic, the intellectual theatre-goer, the politician, and the business executive.
What of the changes in femininity? Even in the midst of greater economic opportunities which have provided women with a modicum more autonomy and independence, the all too powerful socialized feminine traits of acquiescence, passivity, and submissiveness persist. Thus many women "prefer" not to have a more autonomous kind of fulfilment, and continue to rely on the acquisition of a lover, a husband, or family to give them their sense of identity and social respectability.
Their dependence on men devalues their worth, for in order to maintain a relationship with them, they must often yield to men's authority and gratify their needs, even when unwilling. This ideology of unquestioning acceptance plays a large part in men not being able to take "no" for an answer in sexual encounters.
Women's position as potential rape victims becomes increasingly precarious as sexism continues to pervade our society, and as men continue to feel a sense of powerlessness. Therefore, as the years proceed, it is to be expected that the amount of rapes in South Africa will begin to far exceed the current unofficial figure of 380 000 per annum, or the official figure of six rapes daily. To break out of this spiral of sexual violence, a concerted effort must be made to develop a science of rape, to implement conclusions of this science, and to ac tively work towards the establishment of an egalitarian and democratic society.
Notes:
1 The popular reaction to rape began with an article by Susan Griffin in Ramparts magazine in 1971. The article, titled "Rape – The All American Culture", was a powerful attack on society's beliefs about rape and rape victims (Clark & Lewis, 1977).
2 Amir's study (1971) contends that of reported rapes, 71 per cent were premeditated, 11 per cent were partially planned, and only 18 per cent were impulsive acts.
3 Amir (1971), for example, reports that in 87 per cent of the cases, the rapist either possesses a weapon or threatens the victim with death.
4 In the United States it is estimated that one in four rapes are gang rapes (a statistic revealed in the 1988 film The Accused).
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