THE ROLE OF BIOLOGY IN EXPLAINING RAPE
Man, as a whole, has had strong, lucid urges toward sexual intercourse ever since he first stepped foot onto the planet. These urges come from inside his sense of self, and he is sometimes unable to control them. This paper will explore what happens inside a man when he is unable to control those urges. It will be shown that some makeup in his biology has gone awry, and causes his violent behavior, particular rape.
LITERATURE REVIEW
When it comes to rape the most widely talked about form is rape
of women by men. Though there are others, I will focus on the rape of
women by men because there are more statistics to show this. Along with
rape I shall attempt to put biology into this category to try and
illuminate its purpose within rape that can cause a male to rape a
female. Females who are victims of rape are not just raped by strangers
who just had an urge, but there is evidence that many know the offenders who
force themselves upon them. Now when it comes to telling the authorities
about it, women are less likely to tell if they know the offender.
"Arnold Binder and Gilbert Geis (1983) suggest that in the case of
wife-beating and rape, for instance, a woman may not want to jeopardize
her relationship with a husband or boyfriend attacker and, therefore, will
not report the crime to interviewers. Only 54 percent of victims raped by a person known to
them reported the victimization, for example, while 84 percent of those
raped by a stranger mentioned the crime to survey interviewers"
(Brown, Esbensen, and Geis, 109).
For the extent of mankind, men, have been the provider for the family, the
stronger of the two sexes. You could probably sat that what a man wanted he
obtained. Built into his genes and therefore his thinking. Now you could say I'm
way off here, and it is your opinion. Oh the male involved in the crime of rape
might have learned it as a young boy in his household (environment) watching his
father rape his mother. He represses it to survive or adapt (figuring it is all
right to do); and in effect evolving in a way, this is biology (evolving or adapting to survive). To survive,
learning must take place, but it does not necessarily have to be a social
norm, with biology learning happens. "Social learning theory portrays rape
as part of a pattern of aggressive behavior by men that is learned and
reinforced through four interrelated processes: (1) by imitating rape scenes and
other acts of violence toward women that are seen in person, conveyed by others,
or depicted by the mass media, (2) by associating sexuality and violence, (3) by perpetuating various 'rape myths,' such as 'No means
Yes' and 'women secretly desire to be raped,' and (4) by desensitizing men
to the pain, fear, and humilitation of sexual aggression" (Ellis,
1989).
People could put more out there that would cause a man to rape a women.
Take for instance a family of four, in which there are two sons. One son is the
norm in which he has never raped a woman, the second has raped a woman. What
would caused the difference between these two sons? Remember now that genetic
material is different in everyone but "identical twins." This second son might have been the weaker adn in the adapting of his mind
and body he went through changes that caused him to seek out weaker
females in order for him to feel strong. This taste of power and control
caused him to continue raping females, but his biology caused him to seek
out an avenue on becoming stronger (weaker females). His adaptation was to
find the weak
and exploit them to make him feel strong and powerful.
Statistics on rape are ever elusive because a lot of women do not report
it. Though the women that do, help researchers and the public alike to see
trends around the United States. In this essay, you may not believe that
biology plays a part in rape, but I hope that atleast you took it all in
and weighed the pros and cons. I mean people used to think the world was
flat, science proved that wrong.
RESEARCH METHODS
There are roughly ten (10) questions that could be asked toward an individual
male at any point in time. These questions could lead to the answer about
biology and its correlation with rape.
One answer per question.
(1) Have you ever been aggressive with a female?
a) Yes
b) No
(2) Has it ever led to rape?
a) Yes
b) No
(3) Do you ever get sexual urges when you look at women?
a) Yes
b) No
c) Sometimes
(4) Are they hard to control?
a) Yes
b) No
c) Sometimes
(5) Do you masturbate more than 5 times a week?
a) Yes
b) No
(6) Do you find it hard to be near women?
a) Yes
b) No
c) Sometimes
(7) Do you get violent easily?
a) Yes
b) No
c) Sometimes
(8) During intercourse are you usually very rough?
a) Yes
b) No
c) Sometimes
(9) If so, have you ever hurt your partner?
a) Yes
b) No
c) Sometimes
(10) Do you feel the need to be the dominant one?
a) Yes
b) No
c) All the time
d) Never
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Hopefully in your mind the idea of the biology of men is involved in the rape of women by men. Not only are females raped by total strangers, but they are raped by people they know. A lot of females are raped by husbands, boyfriends, fiances, and family members. The statistics on rape are not really perfect for the simple fact that there are a lot of rape victims out there that do not come forward and tell authorities. This usually happens when the victim knows the offender more so than when they do not know the offender. This is shown when "Arnold Binder and Gilbert Geis (1983) suggest that in the case of wife-beating and rape, for instance, a woman may not want to jeopardize her relationship with a husband or boyfriend attacker and, therefore, will not report the crime to interviewers. Only 54 percent of victims raped by a person known to them reported the victimization, for example, while 84 percent of those raped by a stranger mentioned the crime to survey interviewers" (Brown, Esbensen, and Geis, 109).
The way men act and think is a direct result of their biology, but more specifically through their genes. Back in the old days, when men wanted something they went in and obtained it. So in my opinion rape was an everyday occurence back then. Now, what happens when a little boy sees his father rape his mother. The child will more than likely keep it all in, a defense mechanism by that child, and later on in life probably follow his father's footsteps. This would be a learning process for the child, and since its a learning process its part of his biology. This defense mechanism of putting the scene of his mother being raped back into his thoughts is a survival technique. To survive, learning must take place, but it does not necessarily have to be a social norm, with biology learning happens. With biology is also the male dominanted hormone, testosterone. With high levels of testosterone, males become more aggressive, violent, and dominant. This can lead to more males raping women, because of this testosterone. "Social learning theory portrays rape as part of a pattern of aggressive behavior by men that is learned and rienforced through four interrelated processes: (1) by imitating rape scenes and other acts of violence toward women that are seen in person, conveyed by others, or depicted by the mass media, (2) by associating sexuality and violence, (3) by perpetuating various "rape myths," such as "No means Yes" and "women secretly desire to be raped," and (4) by desensitizing men to the pain, fear, and humiliation of sexual aggression" (Ellis, 1989).
People as a whole could and probably do put more out there that cause a man to rape a female. Some examples of this could be the way a woman may dress or the way she might act around the male. Also take a family of four, in which there are two sons. One son is of the norm in which he has never raped a female, the second has raped a female. What would cause the difference between these two sons? Could it be the way the females dress or talk artound these two sons? Now genetic material is different in these two sons. The son that has not committed rape probably has stronger genetic material. Maybe the second son has a mutation in his genetic material causing him to seek out weak females to take advantage of. This son's adaptation is to find the weak female and exploit them to make him feel whole or satisfied.
When it comes down to it, one should not just base their research mainly on statistics because of them being elusive. Though statistics on rape can be off-center or biased, they do allow researchers and the public alike to see trends around the United States and around the world too. Still some people might read this essay I have written and think it is bogus and untrue, but I hope you read through it with an open mind and without biases.
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