Throughout history, rape has occurred in most cultures around the world. The act of forcing someone to engage in sex against his or her will dates back many years. However, the motivation behind it has remains a controversy. Though it seems that rapists are after sex, the argument that violence is primarily behind rape has, in recent times, become a widely held view. This view is debated as the idea of whether rape is a crime of passion or whether it’s a crime of control. Throughout the seminar, many of the comments said and the articles read led me to believe that rape is an act of longing for control and power. This is proven in Fishman’s article which mentions how, “…his [man’s] genitalia could serve as a weapon to generate fear…” In this passage, Fishman supports the idea that men rape because they yearn for that “sense of control” just like in a Patriarchal society.
Although there are many underlying drives behind why a man would rape, three of the most noticeable are anger, power, and control. The common belief is that people frequently assume the sex offender was reacting to sexual frustration or that he/she was a demented sex-fiend harboring unappeasable and malicious ways. The rape offender is also often accused of being primarily motivated by sexual desires, and by committing the act of forced assault; he is gratifying only his sexual needs. Contrasting this idea, the studies of Palmer and Thornhill come into play. In their classification of why men rape, they say that “…It exists because it works…Less-dominant males have found a way to pass on their genes. In evolutionary terms it is as natural as it is effective. Rape, they say, is a reproductive strategy that men have inherited from millions of years of a process called selection.” This supports the main idea that rape is a longing for control and power because they wish to have dominance in society by selecting their mates, even if it means raping them.
According to the article by National Sexual...