Anabelle Dunn

FHS 2450: Introduction to Human Sexuality

11/19/2018

Question:

What are the theories of rape?

Answer:

Rape is an ongoing occurrence in humans for as long as we have been on this earth.

Rape or forced sex is when a sexual act occurs between two parties where one of the people

aren’t consenting to the act. Rape is a horrible act and can cause many mental and physical

problems for the victim. We all know that it’s terrible, but why does rape occur? There are a

few theories as to why this happens: Evolutionary, biological, psychopathological, and feminist

rape theory.

The first theory attributes the act of rape to evolutionary and biological drivers. It says

that men have a strong biological sex drive that is a result of the need to procreate because of

natural selection. Every animal has the need to mate and create offspring and most animals don’t

take consent from their partner, they just perform the act in order to preserve their species. This

theory believes that some men act the same way that most animals do and can’t control

themselves when it comes to the need to mate (Knox & Milstein, 2017).

The second rape theory is the psychopathological theory. This theory suggests that

rapists have a mental disorder (Knox & Milstein, 2017). This is the most popular theory among
the general population. Rapists are commonly viewed as crazy people that have no self-control

over their desires. Although popular, this theory has many holes in it that don’t fully explain

why rape is so widespread. The data for this theory also comes from rapists who have been

incarcerated which doesn’t allow for a diverse enough collection of data from different people

(Knox & Milstein, 2017).

The feminist theory of rape acknowledges the imbalance of power between men and

women in society. “Proponents of this theory believe that because men dominate women in the

personal, political, economic, and cultural sphere, rape is an extension of the dominance, power,

and control men exert over women.” (Knox & Milstein, 2017, Pg. 459) Feminist theory suggests

that because men overpower women in so many different aspects of society, that they use sex

and rape as another way to exert their power over women. There is some data that supports this

theory, “In one study of 95 societies (Sanday, 1981), rape was either absent or rare in almost half

(47%) of the cases. In these cultures (the Ashanti of West Africa, for example), women tend to

have equal status with men. “In ‘rape-free’ soci- eties, women are treated with considerable

respect, and prestige is attached to female reproductive and productive roles” (Sanday, 1981, p.

16).” (Knox & Milstein, 2017, Pg. 459)

The final rape theory is the social learning theory. This theory says that men learn

aggressive behavior towards women through a few different effects. The first effect is the sex-

violence linkage effect. This effect says that men learn that sex corresponds with violence

through media such as movies and music videos. The modeling effect is a process where the

man witnesses imitating rape scenes and other acts of violence towards women in media or real

life. This effect can also be a result from mistreatment during childhood. The third effect is the

desensitization effect which is when the male is desensitized to aggressive sexual acts through
repeated exposure to it. The final effect is the rape myth effect where the man views the woman

as “really wanting it” to deny that they are committing rape (Knox & Milstein, 2017).

Many don’t want to believe it, but rape is happening everywhere in the world. It seems

like there must be a defining reason as to why these types of acts are being committed but there

are so many factors that go into building a defining reason. These four theories are the closest

we can come to a reason, and to possibly a way that we can reduce the amount of rapes that

occur.
References:

 Knox, D., & Milstein, S. (2017). Human Sexuality: Making Informed Decisions (5th ed.).
Redding, CA: BVT Publishing.