Mind of a Rapist

Some years back, a Hindi movie by the name 'Lajja' was released. This controversial movie had depicted the plight of rape victims. However the movie could not make a big impact at the box office. But I was very impressed by the creative which was published in newspapers to promote this movie at that time. It depicted a woman's expressive eyes in close up with a drop of tear falling from her left eye with a caption "Rape : An ordeal only a woman can understand". Although I have never watched that movie the caption has managed to stay in my memory for more than 4 years now.

I was reminded of this caption after reading these two news items recently.
1. BPO rape, murder clouds Bangalore - The victim's mother-in-law herself had seen her off for work with the rapist, not knowing what was going to happen to her. It did really hurt me, no words to explain my agony.
2. Woman raped in train - The victim was raped in front of her husband and co-passengers at knife point. How inhuman!!!

These incidents have pained me to a great extent and I have been thinking about this since the last few weeks. I felt as helpless as the rape victims themselves, as it is upto the people who indulge in such crimes to realise their fault, until such time no amount of law can completely eradicate this crime. I feel these criminals should be awarded capital punishment to avoid setting a bad precedence to others. However I wanted to understand what goes on in the mind of the rapists and what makes them to commit such sins.

I searched the web and found this information.Rapists who assault women lead double lives. On the outside they may appear no different from other men. They are members of every race, religion, profession, and socioeconomic group; they are of varying ages and are often members of churches. Many of them impress others as dedicated family men who are good providers.

They are not insane nor are they "sowing some wild oats." They are men who have serious psychological or personality disorders, which they discharge trough sexual violence. The consequences of this behavior (what may happen to him or to others) has no meaning to the rapist at the time of the assault. Therefore, he is not deterred by such logical considerations as punishment, disgrace to his family, injury to his victim, etc.

Rape is always an aggressive and/or violent act. In every act of rape, aggression is involved, but it is clear that the sexual acts are the means of expressing the aggressive needs and feelings that operate in the offender. Either anger or power is the dominant component so that rape, rather than being primarily an expression of sexual desire, is in fact the use of sexuality to express his issues of power and anger. Basically, it involves sexual behavior in the primary service of non-sexual needs.

Sexuality is NOT the primary motive underlying rape. It is, however the means through which conflicts surrounding issues of anger and power become discharged.

Read the complete article at :

http://danenet.wicip.org/dcccrsa/saissues/rapist.html