Rape is a word that is both widely used and widely abused these days. No one is spared its traumatizing consequences, neither the victim, nor society, the authorities, the media or the perpetrator itself.
It’s not just young women that are at the receiving end of this heinous crime, women past their prime and children, even infants are not immune to it. Often we wonder, what was the motivation, what was the need, what was the temptation, and basically, what the heck, why did he do it, what got into him. Actually nothing “went into him”. It’s what came out as we will see later in this article.
The media is full of it, because it happens regularly. Its news, whichever way you look at it, and even more so, perhaps because it draws a voyeurs eyeballs to it. It must have happened regularly earlier too, but is now out in the open forcing authorities to act where previously they would have brushed the victim away after casting aspersions on her character.
The men in government are now at the receiving end of years of apathy, they can’t fathom it and they don’t really like it. They give a number of excuses for its occurrence, from cultural deviance, to women’s attire and even smart phones in the hands of women.
Sexual attacks—particularly of women—are, on some level, condoned by society. We’re told, by these men in positions of power, sometimes explicitly, that women “ask for it” by being alone, wearing short skirts, dressing “sexy,” partying, drinking, having loose hair, wearing tight clothes, wearing impractical heels, hanging out with the “wrong” people.
They have no explanation however when it comes to their inaction, or their inability to protect women. In public they say women are Goddesses that we worship, and in private, curse them their growing independence, empowerment and gender equality.
The Psychology of Rape:
The growing independence, empowerment and sense of equality and the skewed sex ratio in favor of men, is an important sociological phenomena, for it spurs men to physically and psychologically assert superiority over them.
Rape is a sexual deviation, a short cut through the woods, when he finds it difficult to traverse the well laid out but winding highway. It has very little to do with over enthusiasm of a love struck teenager or for that matter youthful exuberance of lust gone awry. It’s a hate crime, much like a racist attack, or the Hitler regime’s torture and extermination of Jews.
Despite its monosyllabic form, it is a very complex issue. It has sensitive sexual issues at its core, even as it is driven by complex psychological problems plaguing the rapist.
No one can be branded a typical rapist and no common traits can be attributed to rapists. It’s a violent act and every human being is capable of violence, but this primal instinct, is tempered by social norms, education, environment, religion and cultural attributes. A rapist stands out, because he refuses to bend to these norms and control his aggressive instinct.
Groth and Burgess of Boston College wrote that the medical evidence justifies their position that rape should be considered a sexual deviation. Their research suggested that the rapist is driven by psychological deviations, which express themselves in sexual aggression.
According to them it is the “sexual behavior in the service of non-sexual needs.” They argue that rape should be defined as a pseudo sexual act that is not about sex but occurs to gratify other needs. And therein lies the rub.
Groth and Burgess identified anger rape and power rape as the two types of ape. While both elements are present in act of Rape, one or the other objective / motive, dominates the act.
Anger rape involves an unplanned rape, which manifests with verbal abuse and forcing his victim into degrading acts. The rapist bears a grudge against women in general.
A power rape on the other hand, has the rapist fantasizing the act and the way his victim will appreciate and enjoy the power he uses.
Sexual deviation as it occurs in rape is the result of the violent misuse of the sexual act to fulfill deviant psychological, developmental and personal needs. Often the rapist suffers from personality disorders and their lawyers use these as an excuse for their behavior when confronted by the law.
But their behavior can be explained, but not excused, by the fact that apart from personality disorders, they can also suffer from developmental disorders, – poor self identity and self esteem – especially the masculine identity, and rape is an outlet that provides him the with the false feeling of power and control
That’s the individual aspect.
Gang Rape:
Gang violence is perhaps understandable from an individual’s point of view, for people think they can get away with it when they are in a group, with a common goal. They feel emboldened to act out their secret fantasies, as they are protected by numbers. They find it conceivably easier to join the mob rather than go against it and suffer the same violence that the mob is about to inflict. 
A group’s dynamics can be positive or negative. It depends on the psychological fabric of the individuals in the group. For example, if you are walking down the street and see something happening ahead, and you turn to your fellow human being and request his help to intervene in a positive way, the positive infection could spread, with the entire group coming to your assistance.
However, the negative dynamic could spread just as easily especially in a culture like ours, which has repeated subtle and overt messages that enforce a stereotypical view of women, and the entitled role of men. This is combined with the fact that more often than not, most men have various levels of frustration in their system – they feel powerless against, and angry with women, and they want that control back. All it needs is a trigger.
Women historically have been denigrated, objectified and viewed as the property of males around the world. To the extent any culture has those kinds of messages constantly in their conscience. its a fertile ground for angry individuals to target individuals who are vulnerable.
Bystander Apathy:
Bystander or witness behavior ranges from the noble (intervention) to the shameful (purposeful ignoring) to the misguided (failing to intervene because the situation is not correctly perceived). It rarely involves the positive group dynamic.
In their now famous 1969 article on bystander behavior, sociologists Latane and Darley argued that bystanders are most likely to intervene when they correctly interpret the situation and think that it is possible to intervene and feel competent to do so. This positive combination of interpretation and feeling is rare, leading to apathy.
Often bystanders passively participate in the act, refusing to prevent it for a variety of reasons. – For e.g. the Keenan case in Mumbai, the nirbhaya case in Delhi and in the numerous other examples that abound in India,
Often this passive participation is also accompanied by derisive laughter, which is even more painful. Possibly such behavior appeals to them and / or at some level, they think such behavior is already condoned and acceptable to the society in which they live.
What needs to be done:
In India, victim bashing has touched a new high, or rather a new low. It’s all pervasive, stemming from cultural and historical factors. Few people overtly say that sexual attacks are acceptable, but secretly condone it. In Indian society, males are revered and pampered and are often and repeatedly subtly given the message that women’s bodies are for their pleasure.
Consequently, it’s not difficult to imagine that some men if not all, might think its ok to abuse women.
Therefore the response has to be on multiple levels.
a. A robust criminal justice response system – Quick, merciless and fair. The message that “This is criminal behavior that will be punished.” Must go across to all potential rapists. A beginning has been made but it has a long way to go if it is to be effective enough.
b. An improved women’s protection system – Self defense courses, mechanisms that automatically broadcast messages of distress when in trouble and effective women’s help lines must be established to cater to women in need of any type of assistance.
c. A Psychological response – Psychologists and Psychiatrists must start talking to the accused and find out what is making them tick – why they view women as targets? What is the basis of their hatred? Response formulation can begin from there.
d. A cultural self evaluation is painful but necessary. We must identify the aspects of our culture that is feeding this rape mentality and find a way to reverse it.
