Rape is not about sex. Rape is about anger and control and violence. Sex is merely the weapon. When viewing the different types of rapists, it's important to understand the reasonings behind what they do. Not all rapists are alike. There will be differences in their motives, characteristics and techniques. Assailants may exhibit characteristics from one or more profiles.
The following information, selected characteristics of rapists, are from several resources including, Ronald M. Holmes, Stephen T. Holmes, Profiling Violent Crimes. An Investigative Tool (SAGE Publications, 1996), Seigal, Larry J., Criminology (Thompson Wadsworth, 2003), and Gene Ragula, Supervisory Special Agent, FBI serial rapist profiler, as well as numerous websites.
According to Ronald and Steven Holmes, "Most rapists tend to be young ... with most under age 25. Many come from low economic backgrounds and are members of minority groups; most choose victims of their own race .... Many rapists' psycho-sexual backgrounds include histories of conflict and other trouble with women ... marked inability to relate to women personally and sexually.
Rapists are usually unarmed. Most stranger rapists plan their attacks and most have histories of violence. One in three has a prior record for a violent crime and 25% have been before the court for rape.
However, statistics show that the majority of rapes (80%) are perpetrated by acquaintances of the victim. It should be emphasized that these characteristics apply only to stranger rape."
Disorganized Asocial Offender vs. Organized Nonsocial Offender
The FBI developed a rapist typology which originally included the
disorganized asocial offender and organized nonsocial offender
classifications. This typology, according to Holmes, " ...can be very
useful when the crimes at issue involve sex as their primary motive."
Disorganized Asocial Offender
This type of offender is a male who is completely disorganized with
everything. From his appearance to his surroundings, his lifestyle, his
car, and his job, he is totally disorganized in every aspect of his
life. According to the FBI's data, he tends to be a non assertive,
white male, with a low average IQ, often a high school drop out.
He usually exhibits poor hygiene and his home and car [if he has
one] are sloppy as well. He has a socially inept, introverted
personality with little or no social life. Because of his lack of
organizational, social, and intellectual skills, he usually doesn't
have the ability to carefully plan his attacks, so they tend to be
spontaneous.
According to the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit (BSU), this type of offender will often return to the scene of the crime or may attend the funeral services of his victim. This disorganized pattern of behavior may carry over to the crime scene as well. Below are some crime scene characteristics from Holmes', Profiling Violent Crimes:
- Spontaneous offense
- Victim unknown
- Minimal Conversation
- Chaotic crime scene
- Sudden violence
- No restraints
- Sex after death
- Body not moved
- weapon left
- Physical evidence
Organized Nonsocial Offender
This is a different animal altogether. He's the complete opposite of
the disorganized offender. He has very organized, even compulsive,
thinking processes and behaviors, which tend to show in his appearance,
lifestyle, car, and employment. Ted Bundy is a classic example of this
type of offender. He had a very anal personality.
This type of offender is organized in everything
he does. According to Holmes, "They are nonsocial because they choose
to be so." They are loners because they have an enormous ego and feel
no one else measures up to them.
These type of offenders
are usually very bright, have attended at least some college, "are
socially competent and have sex partners." They usually come from a
middle class background, are very sociable and are able to con people
easily. They tend to hold good jobs but often have a history of drug
and alcohol abuse, especially while committing the crimes.
Because of his personality, he's not the type to be suspected of the crime at first. He will take great care in both planning and committing his crimes, as well as getting rid of the evidence.
The organized offender, true to his personality,
takes his time and picks just the "right" one - someone very
vulnerable, who can be controlled. One killer remarked, " I can tell by
the way they walk, the way they tilt their heads. I can tell by the
look in their eyes.
Other Characteristics [Holmes]:
- Planned offense
- Targeted stranger
- Personalizes victim
- Controlled Conversation
- Controlled crime scene
- Aggressive acts
- Body moved
- No weapon
- Little evidence
Profiling Rapists
Rapist Typology is divided into four main categories: Power Reassurance, Power Assertive, Anger-Retaliatory, and the Anger Excitation (Sadistic) rapist.
Power Reassurance - 81%
This type of rapist is the least violent. This is known as the "gentleman" rapist. This is the guy who will pick a victim or "date" to fall in love with - if only temporary. He is inept and suffers from a very low self-esteem. His psychosocial background will usually include a single parent home, a 10th grade educational level, and a menial job. He's quiet, passive, usually lives with an aggressive, controlling mother or alone; has no friends and no girlfriend.
He is a loner and considers himself a loser.
He often spends time in adult bookstores, can be your local peeping
Tom, or a transvestite. His first crime will usually be within walking
distance of work or home. He'll stalk his victims, watch them through
their windows, then enter through those windows at a later time. He
will usually attack in the victim's home when she is alone or with a
small child.
Strange as it may seem, rapists are also divided into "selfish" and "unselfish" groups. This type of rapist is considered to be verbally and sexually "unselfish". He's not out to hurt the victim. He fantasizes that the victim is his lover and they are on a date. He will usually pick someone from his own age group.
He believes that she is enjoying the rape. He may be courteous, polite and soft spoken, often talking to his victim trying, in his view, to be considerate. He generally attacks at 7-15 day intervals and will usually walk to the scene. He may display a weapon just to get cooperation from the victim but his intention is not to hurt her. This is not to say he can't become violent, but he usually doesn't.
He most often assaults the victim only vaginally and can be impotent. He rarely uses profanity but may want his victim to "talk dirty" to him. He may ask the victim to remove her clothes but may only reveal the body parts necessary for the rape to occur. He's the only one of the four types who will re-assault a victim. He may say, " I'll call you," after the "date" is finished.
He may call a victim later to ask after her health. He likes to collect souvenirs and may keep a diary. In my experience, there may be genital injuries but often not.
This is the easiest offender to deal with. His motive is sexual (even though rape is not about sex) He is trying to increase his self esteem through the control of another person. You can usually try talking him out of the rape, flat our refuse, or fight back. He really doesn't want to hurt the victim and will use only enough force to control her.
If he does attack, and promises to return, have the police waiting - because he often will. His time for attacks are between midnight and 5:00am, so it's good to be pro-active and keep the windows and doors locked. Security alarms are good. A dog doesn't hurt either. For those students on or off campus, during a holiday break, try to leave with the other students. Female students left alone are prime targets.
Power Assertive - 12%
The Power Assertive rapist has an extreme sense of superiority and entitlement. He will rape women simply because he can. For him, rape is a way of validating his masculinity. This is what men do, according to him. He is the opposite of the passive Power Reassurance type of rapist. He is usually athletic, exercises often, likes a sense of style; dresses flashy and drives a flashy car, and is loud and boisterous. He likes the macho image. He wants to be known as a "man's man".
His psycho-social background will usually include a history of domestic problems and multiple divorces. He will probably work in a male dominated field like construction or police work. Unlike the peeping Tom type of rapist, this guy will haunt the singles bars where he can have plenty of females to pick from. He will use the con approach, getting to know his victim, then offering to give her a ride home or walking her to her car. He will usually rape away from where he lives or works.
His fists will be his weapon. He will use a moderate level of force, if the victim resists, and will assault the same victim repeatedly. He could care less about the comfort and well being of his victim. He may assault the victim vaginally, then anally, then force her to perform fellatio(classic technique). He will attack with both verbal and physical violence, committing a very brutal attack, although he doesn't intend to kill. He may slap, hit, curse, and tear clothes.
He will attack most often in the early evening hours, between 7;00pm and 1:00am, and tends to commit the rapes in a 20-25 day pattern. He picks women of his own race and age group. His motive is control and domination of "the weaker sex". He's very arrogant and doesn't try to hide his identity. There is no apology afterwords, nor will he attempt to contact the victim later. He keeps no souvenirs and doesn't keep a diary.
Anger-Retaliatory - 5%
This
guy is out to hurt someone. He blames women for all the injustices he
has suffered in his life. His hate and anger are out of control. He
wants to punish, hurt and degrade them. His psycho-social background
includes physical and emotional abuse (more than 56%) from one or both
parents. About 80% had divorced parents, many were adopted, and over
half spent time in foster care. His relationships with significant
females was extremely poor growing up which created very hostile
feelings towards the opposite sex.
He sees himself as very
masculine, is usually athletic, and often works in a fast-moving male
dominated field or sport. He's usually married and often has
extramarital flings. He has a quick temper and his rapes usually occur
after some negative event involving one of the women in his life. His
urge is almost uncontrollable, as it's the result of a built up of rage
and anger.
He will use both verbal (excessive profanity) and
physical assault, even murder. His attacks are very sudden, with little
forethought. This is not a sexual act. This is rage. He intends to hurt
and degrade his victim. He's the type to "beat the living crap" out of
his victim, assaulting her with his fists, feet, and weapons of choice.
He will pick women of his own race and age, or slightly older and will
usually stalk them while driving close to home. His pattern of raping
is usually every 6 months to a year.
This victim will often
have a lot of physical and genital injuries. In my experience, the few
who have been assaulted this way, have come in with significant facial
injuries at times - injured eye and cheek, with petechial hemorrhages,
swollen cheek often with red marks; split lip, broken teeth, body
bruises and cuts, (+) defensive injuries, and broken fingernails. If
wearing a necklace, the victim will often have a necklace imprint
bruise; (+) oral, vaginal, and /or anal injuries, etc. This is a very dangerous man.
Anger Excitation (sadistic) Rapist
This is the Ted Bundy of the group. This is your killer, straight out.
But first, he's going to beat and torture his victims. His intent is to
degrade, torture, and kill. It's the only way he can get sexual
satisfaction. His psycho-social background will include being raised in
a single parent household and suffering from physical abuse and sexual
deviance. This type of child often shows aggressive and sexual
promiscuity tendencies early on. As an adult, he's often about 30-39,
married with a family, and lives in a middle class, low crime area.
He's intelligent, educated, and usually has no arrest record. He's very
good at not getting caught.
This type of rapist puts a
great deal of planning and fore-thought into his attacks. He stalks his
victims by car, driving out of his area. He often carries a "rape kit" with all his needed tools, such as duct tape, scissors, bindings, ice pack, ski mask, pantyhose, etc.
He will usually take his victims to a secluded area where he can have complete control. He may keep them bound up for days or weeks, torturing and raping them. He will tell his victims what he plans to do to them in order to increase their fear. It's not the injury to the victim which excites him. The fear the victim is feeling is what he needs.
He's very very ritualistic, planning every detail of the abduction, torture, rape, murder, and disposal of the body, if he has become a killer at this point. Everything has to go according to script down to the last detail, including having the victim say specific things to him in order for him to obtain sexual satisfaction. This victim will be lucky to get away with her life.
Protecting yourself:
- Always be aware of your surroundings.
- In parking lots, don't park next to vans. Park up under the lights.
- Be wary of strange men asking for help. Ted Bundy pretended to be hurt and helpless, playing on women's compassionate natures.
- Always carry a cell phone
- If you break down on the road, call for help. Don't accept help from strangers, especially at night.
- I strongly encourage self defense courses for all women.
- Don't allow yourself to get within an arm's length of a stranger. If you're within arm's length, he can grab you. Never, ever turn your back on one or look away.
- Dogs are nice, both at home and in the car.
- If you live alone, get a male acquaintance to record for your answering machine. Have a dog barking in the background. Dogs are one of the best deterrents.
- Always walk like you mean business. Don't walk with your head down or act like you're timid or vulnerable in any way. Look up, stay alert.
I came across your blog while doing some research for a novel - it's fabulous! I'm definitely bookmarking it. I have a question: Is the power reassurance type more likely to use date rape drugs, or would that be the power assertive type. Or would either?
Thanks,
Carolyn
Posted by: Carolyn | November 02, 2006 at 04:07 PM
This site has been very informative-I appreciated the behavorial concepts.
I do have one question: What type of Man is This...
Later he grew tired and grumpy (actually thought I was patronizing him)and he let me walk/leaving alone to go home, alone at closing time;(I remember him qouting earlier that my apt. should be safe since it was on the third floor so why couldn't I go to his place?-(as he claimed he worked third shift and it was his only night to have fun but had to go to mass the next day) I told him this would not work he was a cat person and I a dog person. Q. Would this type be harmless or classified as one or more or none of the above? As I did some follow up inquiring about his character through a few other bar patrons the following day; they all claim he is mean when drunk and when sober goofy and believes he is gods gift to women/a ladies man (but dissappeared for six months after a girl physically assaulted him in the establishment in public!.) And also likes to browse porn sites on the internet and also claimed to have dated a topless bar owners daughter. He was recently either jilted or engaged and they split up? I normally do not drink nor frequent bars so I didn't get drunk when this all occured the other night. I remember him verifying the fact that he wasn't originally from here (possible three year resident)and he did put his phone number in my cell phone earlier that day at the event-I did call him the following day to see if he remembered being drunk and acting foolish but he never answered my calls ( I left shallow stupid messages)except when I text messaged him and he replied with"it costs me 75 cents for text messages-so stop it, please." I decided to not bother him after I thought about the incident. He knows my number and the street I live on. Today I walked to the store and could of sworn I seen him in a car, then recalled him saying he doesn't own one. Q.Which profile or characteristics describes him? Does he fit? or Just a ridiculous drunk?Scenario:(bear with me if you will)
At a public downtown event.
A stranger comes right up to me and grabbed me to plant a kiss on my neck and said he should take me home but instead asked me to meet him at a rest/bar later and to change from my jeans to a dress./? So at the establishment he had aggressive groping hands and said sexual inuendos to me and proclaimed he went to college and didn't know his father and when I told him to stop touching me especially in public, he commented I drank slow and during the following hours he would shut his eyes as if dozing and then would open them and ask me to touch his...trying to take my hands to do that and I pulled away and refused-He would only say sexual things to me throughout the night-then later in the evening he became more intoxicated (pitcher of beer)-when i got up to go get ciggs. from a machine he showed up behind me-
P.S. And to think I refused a dance with some other nice fellow!
Posted by: Anonymous please | June 12, 2007 at 12:15 AM
This has been a very informative site.
What type of rapists is someone who went knocking into your house pretending to be your husband. Have his way with you. He comes back several times and you never really had an idea that he was not your husband. He was so sly that he actually gets away with it.
It was not until lately that I've discovered he has been raping me by pretending to be my husband.
I found this out when one day we went on trip together and he was using the same shoes my 'supposed husband' is using when he came home late a few years ago which I assumed he borrowed from his roommate which he often does. There are other indicators such the odd conversations I have had with him, my supposed husband.
I actually had this feeling that he must be spying on me because he knows the usual time my husband comes home.
He repeatedly does this to me and I never had an idea that he was not my husband until recently when everything just hits me, you know its like you have finally connected the pieces together and realized he's been doing it to you. Confusing I know.
He never hurt me though, except in one time when he forces me on my tummy when I tried to look at him, as usual he gets away with it by saying his my husband.
Right now, I don't know what to do. I can't tell anyone about it either because I know no one would believe me.I also know you will find this unbelievable, but this is true.
I am actually confused right now what to do. Can you help me?
The worst thing is I guess he has been spreading his escapades with me with his friends and even manage to take a video of me and him doing it, without me knowing it.
I know impossible to believe. I know that if I will just dig around there will be plenty that I would find but I am also afraid to do that. I want to forget about it and get it over with but I don't know how.
There are days when I would want to die but I have tried to be strong for my children's sake. Please help me.
Posted by: Uno | February 27, 2008 at 01:52 AM
This site is informative, but very prejudicial as it says most rapists come from minority ethnic groups and come from a low socio economic background. My experience has been the opposite. I have been raped by police officers who broke into my house in the middle of the night and repeatedly raped and beat me. This happened more than once. These evil monsters were mainly white and have good jobs and pretend to be respectable people in front of everybody and hide behind their badges. So, my point is that rapists are sometimes people who do not have any criminal convictions and they do not come from a specific background. They are just violent power hungry monsters who will rape and violate people just to get their kicks.
Posted by: fahmida | October 03, 2010 at 07:27 PM
fahmida,
Rape statistics were obtained from sources. I didn't create them. The important thing is that rape predominately involves acquaintances. Alcohol/drugs are usually involved. As to police breaking into your house twice, raping & beating you, I would guess that's pretty much unheard of.
Posted by: Forensics Talk | October 05, 2010 at 05:46 AM
I don't see anywhere in this article where the author(s) state that most rapists come from minority ethnic groups. You're whacked. All I can see is reference to levels of education, familial/parental factors, and personality traits. Sheesh... if you really are interested in this kind of thing, and do your own homework, you just might find that 'most' rapists are white men. But I'm guessing you might not think that saying 'most rapists are white guys' is prejudiced. Double standard, I'll bet my next paycheck on it.
Posted by: not a moron | May 18, 2011 at 08:31 PM
This person can't be pigeon-holed into one of the typologies because there isn't enough information about his sexual behavior. The only thing you mention is a bit of groping and some very non-specific verbal utterances. Not enough to categorize him, but if I absolutely HAD to, I'd predict he'd turn out to be Power Assertive.
Posted by: not a moron | May 18, 2011 at 08:36 PM
Were they caught? Did you file a report? How did the story end?
Posted by: Margaret Ford | June 24, 2012 at 10:29 PM
I like the idea about making a dog bark in the background of the answering machine....
Posted by: jdtb890 | July 24, 2012 at 04:33 PM
Uno, You should really talk to a councillor. They will help you deal with the confusion and wanting to die. There isn't much we can do on a website like this, you will need someone who you can confide in and sort through all this with.
Good luck,
Posted by: tiger | August 20, 2012 at 09:52 AM
Also, you should not put up with behaviour like this. At the first sign of him not treating you well, you should just drop him. Call a taxi, or a friend and leave at the first sign of him making you uncomfortable. You deserve to be treated better. I am sorry if he hurt you.
Posted by: tiger | August 20, 2012 at 09:56 AM