Causes of Rape in society

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The causes of rape involved the process of socialization within society. According to research conducted by Peggy Reeves Sanday, higher incidence of rape occurred in societies that tolerated masculine violence where young boys are taught to be aggressive and used physical force if necessary to get what they want.

According to Peggy, in societies where men and women share equal power and authority, young boys and girls that were taught to avoid aggression and violence tend to experience no incidence of rape activity.

The process of socialization may be the reason US have the highest incidence of rape in western nations. Several causes of rape factors are the result of the ways society influence men to use power, aggression, and physical force if necessary to get what they want. Therefore, the same socialization process influences men to use aggression and physical force if necessary to get sexual gratification from women.

Society plays a major part influencing and reinforcing gender roles that are learned through peers, school, and media. From early ages young boys are taught to be aggressive and young girls are taught to be passive.

Society influences women to become passive and nurturing who are less likely to challenge men’s aggression. The fact is any women are at risk of being rape because men are physically stronger and no matter how hard women try to resist men can overpower women. The rapist also tends to select victims they can intimidate into submission by using threat and weapons.

According to research conducted by Boeringer indicates that viewing hard-core pornography with violent rape scene can also lead to the causes of rape. Watching hard-core pornography is capable of leading men’s aggression towards sex and women that may also increase his desire to engage in such acts.

Many researches indicate that not all rapes are sexually motivated as some are motivated by desire for power and domination and some are motivated by desire for sexual gratification.

Rapists that are motivated by power and domination usually have strong anger towards women tend to engaged more often in stranger rape in an attempt to express power and domination. Rapists that are motivated by desire for sexual gratification tend to engaged more often in acquaintance rape or date rape to achieve gratification.

According to research conducted by Abel, some rapist may engage in more violent sexual offenses such as child sexual abuse, exhibitionism, voyeurism, and sexual sadism. Abel also discovered that some rapists fantasized about rape and violence long before committing the actual act and many of them also masturbated to rape fantasy in their mid-teens.

Report indicates most rapists come from lower socioeconomic status with lack of education and unemployed. Report indicates women of all ages are raped. Women with lower socioeconomic status are more often victims of rape because of poor living condition. Women living in poverty are more likely to be subject to these types of crime.

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