Forensic Psychology For Dummies (141 page)

Reviewing the dynamic aspects of sexual offending

When assessing sex offenders, psychologists carry out a careful examination of their ways of relating to other people and their ways of making sense of the world that may be open to change. A procedure widely used, particularly in the UK, for determining the possibility of change is the Structured Assessment of Risk and Need (SARN), which explores a number of areas:

Sexual interests
examines preoccupations with sex and any particular sexual interests, such as preference for sexual activity with children, or desire for coerced sex with adults.

Distorted attitudes
explores whether the person thinks that the male needs to be dominant in sex (and on other occasions) or whether the person believes that women are deceptive or corruptive.

Views of women causing themselves to be raped, and related myths about sexual assaults, are also considered (for more details, see the following section ‘Inquiring into the motives for rape’). Any beliefs that minimise or justify sexual activity with unwilling partners or children are an important aspect of this area.

Sexual and emotional functioning
considers whether the person has low self-esteem and sees his actions as not really under his own control but in the hands of fate. Whether this feeling is linked to feelings of loneliness and preferred emotional intimacy with children rather than adults, is also important. These attributes can also be associated with a general suspiciousness and anger that doesn’t recognise anyone else’s point of view.

Self-management
deals with a person’s failure to solve the problems he faces with any responsibility. Impulsivity and uncontrolled outbursts of emotion are monitored. Any dysfunctional impulses the person has, need to be considered and how they may have contributed to his offending.

Inquiring into the motives for rape

Psychological assessments of sexual offenders and rapists focus on the aspects of the person that contribute to him carrying out sexual assaults. They indicate enduring features of his lifestyle as well as attitudes and beliefs.

Many of the dynamic (changeable) components exist in men who don’t rape and would never consider doing so, and so psychologists need to explore a little more deeply the explanations that rapists give for carrying out sexual assaults.

The various reasons that offenders offer for raping tend to overlap and usually have their roots in rape myths (as I describe in the later ‘Rape myths’ section), as well as limited empathy for the victims. These allow rape to be used as a weapon in many wars, harnessing propensities in some men to try and destroy a population regarded as ‘the enemy’. Some people even suggest that rape is an inevitable product of male dominance in society, a requirement for men to demonstrate their masculinity. This ‘feminist’ view of rape sees such crimes as part of a general picture in which men attempt to keep women in fear as a means of maintaining control over them.

The idea that all men are potential rapists is taken a stage further by a curious group who call themselves ‘socio-biologists’. They claim that rape offers an evolutionary advantage for men who can’t have sex any other way to pass on their genes. This bizarre notion doesn’t explain why homosexual rape happens or why women may be involved in rape. Nor does it explain why some men in established sexual relationships still sexually assault other women.

Rape myths

One argument is that many people, mainly men, in Western societies hold views about rape that are conducive to sexual assault. Psychologists have even developed a ‘Rape-Myth Acceptance Scale’ that asks people if they agree or disagree with such statements as:

‘If a drunken woman has sex with a stranger, she’s asking for other men to have sex with her too.’