Question

Part one: Describe the different historical definitions of and causal explanations for rape.

Part two: Apply rape proclivity theory and routine activity theory to sexual assault.

Part three: Analyze the interactional contexts in which stranger rape and party rape most often occur.

(300 words or more)

Answer 1

Stranger rape involves sexual assault by an assailant that the victim does not know. The victim may be assaulted in a public place or they may be victimized in their own houses, While stranger rape is the most common image people have of sexual assault by the person unknown to the victim.

Party rape takes place in drinking and partying context.

Positivistic social scientists focus on both the micro and macro causes of rape. At the micro-level, they seek an explanation of characteristics of individuals who are more likely to commit rape than others, At the macro level, they look for the characteristics of social settings and cultures where rates of sex crimes are high in comparison to cultures and settings where sexual assault is less common.

Neil Malamuth has developed rape proclivity theory to identify a set of characteristics that they argue must converge in a man to motivate him to engage in rape. These characteristics include becoming aroused by sexual assault. Feelings of hostility toward women, attitudes that support violence toward women, participating in promiscuous sex.

Other sexual assault researchers use routine activities theory to explain the contexts in which rape is more likely to occur. Routine activity theory proposes victimization occurs in places where individuals are vulnerable as targets, in presence of motivated offenders and in the absence of capable guardians, Such locations, they argue then to be hot spots for criminal victimization. Using this approach, David Maume found that rates of rape are high in communities where there are wide discrepancies in income and large numbers of single and divorced women, unemployed men and high numbers of potential offenders, vulnerable targets as well as a low level of guardianship.

Routine activities theory helps explain high rates of rape in another more affluent population, white female college students as well.