Abstract
This paper presents a model of vindictive rape based on common mechanisms for maintaining cooperation among humans, namely altruistic (or costly) punishment, sex role expectations, and retributive (“eye for an eye”) justice. Vindictive rapes are characterized by high level of victim harm without explicit sadistic sexual interests. They are also distinguished from angry, reactive sexual aggression in response to personal insult or threats. In this model, vindictive rape is considered a form of retributive justice in which the perpetrator punishes the female victim for perceived transgressions against sexual norms. None of the specific psychological mechanisms are intrinsically problematic. Nevertheless, individuals who have committed vindictive rapes would still be expected to have risk-relevant schema worthy of interventions. For such individuals, the primary treatment targets would be loosening rigid sexual norm expectations for women, increasing confidence in conventional methods of maintaining social order, and decreasing willingness to hurt others at the cost of hurting oneself. A 15-item Vindictive Rape Attitude Questionnaire is presented in order to facilitate further research on the topic.
Highlights
This paper presents a model of vindictive rape based on common mechanisms for maintaining cooperation among humans, namely altruistic punishment, sex role expectations, and retributive (“eye for an eye”) justice
This paper presents a model of vindictive rape rooted in the constructs of altruistic punishment, empathy cruelty, and retributive justice
In our 2013 review of attitudes as risk factors for sexual recidivism, we found that attitudes were less predictive for individuals who had offended against adults compared to individuals who had sexually offended against children (Helmus et al, 2013, p. 41)
Summary
Vindictive rape is characterized by high levels of overt violence and relative low levels of sexual interest in sadistic acts (Barbaree et al, 1994; Knight, 2010b). Vindictive rape could be considered a subset of the general category of anger-motivated sexual aggression. Vindictive rape, may have distinctive features; in particular, it may not require the personal affront commonly associated with anger-motivated sexual aggression. An individual who degrades, humiliates, and physically harms a woman in a sexualized context is likely to be considered sadistic, regardless of how the individual explained his behaviour (Eher et al, 2016). Another reason for decreased interest in vindictive rape is that the developer of the MTC:R3 classification system, Raymond Knight, no longer believes that vindictive rate is a distinct class. There appeared to be an opportunity to extent our theoretical reach to better identify what motivates men to sexually hurt women
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