Gang Rape Profiling

Part I of my posts on rapist profiling covered the general personality characteristics of rapists, dividing them into four different types: Power Reassurance, Power Assertive, Anger Retaliatory, and Sadistic.

     Part two will cover two additional categories: Opportunistic rapist and gang rapists. I have further divided the gang rapist category into three types: male gang rapes, street gang rapes, and aquaintance rape.

Opportunistic Rapists

     These are the type to be burglarizing a house or commiting a robbery when a female walks in on them. Their intent is not to hurt the female. They are surprised by the encounter but, rather than quickly leave, they decide to take advantage of the situation and rape her. They usually aren't violent but can be, as they are unpredictable and act on impulse. Some will apologize to the victim and feel guilty later on.

     According to the book, Violence Against Women, by David Bender, one offender who had raped a store clerk said he had only intended to rob the store in which the victim happened to be working. However, when he found the victim alone, " I decided to rape her to prove I had guts. She was just there. It could have been anybody."

 Characteristics 

• Any method of attack
• Verbal threats for control of victim
• Immediate gratification ( usually part of another offense)
• Minimal level of force
• Rape lasts a short period of time
• No preparation
• Poor impulse control
• Frequently drinking or on drugs at the time
• Frequently leaves evidence on the scene         

 Male Rape

 In July, 2006, the U.S. Department of Justice released its second annual statistical report on prisoner rape. The Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) report found that the number of formal complaints of sexual violence ... increased nearly 16%, from 5,386 in 2004, to 6,241 in 2005.

    Characteristics

• An estimated 5-10% of reported cases of rape or sexual assault each year involve male victims (Scarce, 1997)
• 36% male prisoner survivors assaulted by more than one perpetrator
• Most vulnerable prisoners targeted: Non-violent first time offender, gay and transgender detainees, and illegal immigration detainees.
• Force / threat used in 59% of substantiated cases
• 45% of victims were in 18-24 age bracket; 17% were in 30-34 age bracket
• 72.7% of victims were white; 11.9% were black; 9.3% were Hispanic
• 50.7% of assaults occurred in victim's cell
• 44% of assaults occurred 6pm to 12MN.
• Majority of rapes perpetrated by heterosexual males

     Of course, prison rape is not the only type of gang rapes against males. Gang rapes against males have also been reported as having been committed by street gangs against rival gang members or non-members (rare), or as hate crimes against gays. According to researchers, "gang rape is more common with male victims than female victims.

     Multiple sexual acts are more likely to be demanded, weapons are more likely to be displayed and used, and physical injury is more likely to occur, with the injuries that do occur being more serious than with injured female rape victims (Porter, 1986)".

       Street Gang Rapes

  Walter Miller did a study of street gangs in the 1970's. He defined a gang as, " A group of ... associating individuals with identifiable leadership and internal organization, identifying with or claiming control over territory ...and engaging... in violent and other forms of illegal behavior." According to BJS Crime Data Brief (1993-2003), gang activity accounts for about 8% of all violent crime.

   Surprisingly, according to Wm. B. Sanders in his book, Gangbangs and Drive Bys, " As a reported crime, rape by gang members was rare." He states that during the course of the research, "...there were less than a dozen cases involving sexual assault against males or females." It was noted by Sanders, that while openly discussing all other types of crime committed, gang members vehemently denied any involvement in rape. Sanders states, "There is clearly an expressed posture against rape in gangs."

     One of the most infamous cases of gang related abduction and rapes occurred in Sidney, Australia in 2000, when seven young girls were abducted and raped by as many as 19 Muslim youth. I've provided a link with the story. That there are racial overtones with these rapes can't be denied. This is an unusual case though, as rape is almost completely intracial. Rarely does it cross racial boundaries.

     By providing this link, what I'm trying to show is, not so much the racial overtones, but the gang related mentality and violence, the methods of assaults, and the degradation of the young females which often occur with this type of gang rape.

Warning: Some may find the language and details disturbing!
When Race and Rape Collide

 

Gang Rape

Characteristics

Characteristics that are twice as likely to occur in gang rape than in individual rape include:

• Insult
• Forced fellatio
• Pulling, biting, and burning the breast
• Urination on the victim
• Putting semen on her body and demanding manual masturbation or masturbating in her presence
• Amount of aggression and degradation increases as each person takes “their turn”

The Victim

More often than not in gang acquaintance rapes, the group has carefully selected its victim. Sometimes the victim is chosen because of one or more of these factors:

• Vulnerability
• Has already been sexual with a group member
• A newly arrived student who may have few friends
• Unpopular
• Unattractive
• Naïve and therefore easily flattered by the attention suddenly lavished on them before the attack begins
• Drunk or high on drugs—in many cases, is nearly or totally incapacitated and unable to understand or voice consent or resistance   
  

  Acquaintance Rape

    Rape is the most common violent crime on campuses today. Multiple studies indicate that athletes play a significant role in campus violence. One study reported that college athletes were involved in 20% of the cases involving sexual assault.

     Another study [Benedict and colleagues], which recorded the statistics of aggressive behavior occurrences at ten Division I colleges, reported that athletes were responsible for 19.9% of campus criminal acts, although they represented a mere 3.3% of the entire student population. A recent ESPN SportsZone poll showed that "83% of those polled believe that pro and college athletes are committing more criminal acts now compared to 25 years ago."

     The most common type of rape on campus is acquaintance rape. Ninety percent of the women who were victims of rape knew their attacker. The assailant is usually a boyfriend, friend, classmate, or other acquaintance. According to reports:

• Most acquaintance rapes don't occur on dates.
• Date rape usually occurs during or at the end of a date
• Over 60% of all acquaintance rapes occur in the victim's residence.
• Most acquaintance rapes involve one perpetrator and one victim.
• Over 90% involves the use of alcohol / drugs by one or both persons.
• Statistics show that almost all rapes are intraracial.
• Date rapes account for 13 % of all campus acquaintance rapes.

• Campus gang rapes occur less often than date rapes.
• Most of the [reported] campus gang rapes involve members of fraternities (11%) or athletics (9%).
• Women age 16-24 experience experience rape at 4 times higher than the assault rate for all women
• Incoming freshmen females are the most targeted for gang rape
• The first few weeks of the new school semester are the most vulnerable times [for gang rape] for incoming freshmen
• These gang rapes are usually well planned in advance
• Gang rapes can last for hours, often watched & cheered on by all present
• Victim usually has no physical injuries [aside from genital injuries]
• Victims can have significant genital injuries 
• If charged, defendants rarely deny that sex took place. Consent is usually their defense.

    

   

   The public's current adulation of sports heroes, the degree of special attention and privileges given to the athletic teams, the members' own sense of entitlement, as well as the whole campus atmosphere filled with off campus parties and free-flowing alcohol and drugs, all serve to create an environment ripe for sexual assault.

      To view campus gang rape in the right context, I think we need to go back to the actual recruitment of the team members. According to Violence Against Women. The Bloody Footprints, by Pauline B. Bart and Eileen Geil Moran, when it comes to recruiting HS athletes, sex sells. Big time. "Access to women [all women] for sexual gratification is a presumed benefit of fraternity membership, promised in recruitment materials and strategies and through brothers' conversations with new recruits."

   During the course of this recruitment, college women are often used as bait. Good looking sorority sisters, known as Little sisters" or "sweethearts", were often used as bait by both white and African-American fraternities.

   As one fraternity member stated, " We'll tell the sweetheart, "You're gorgeous. You can get him.' "We'll tell her to fake a scam and she'll go hang all over him during a rush party, kiss him, and he thinks he's done wonderful and wants to join."

•  Party rape is usually a well-planned event
• Quite often, it's their own "little sisters" who are the ones targeted for gang rapes.
• Picks out the "targets"ahead of time
• The target victims are usually given plenty of alcohol and / or date rape drugs, or are intoxicated on their own.
• The rape is often watched by all members present. Many men laughing, cheering, bragging.
• Souvenors are often taken.
• As many as 5-15 men may take turns after she's passed out. According to Bart and Moran, this fact is well known by sorority sisters all over campus. Yet many continue to attend these parties.

   One member stated, " Some Little Sisters just won't go ... The girls who do are looking for a good time, girls who don't know what it is and all that."

I believe this quote is a good example that shows that arrogance, denial, and a sense of entitlement typify this type of situation.

   These are not isolated incidents. It appears to be an open secret on most campuses, happening at [traditionally] white and black colleges all over the country - notoriously associated with aggressive contact sports, such as basketball and football.  The occurrence is so frequent that, in the last few years, many administrators have been taking progressive steps by restricting "sweetheart" fraternities and alcohol use, and providing more sexual assault preventative educational services.

Comments

[gazor]

Well done. Keep up the great work. Best regards!

[Query]

Please can you let me know the references you used in discovering the characteristics of gang rape?

Thanks

[Patti]

This was terrible to read, but interesting. I wasn't expecting gang rape to be prominent on places like a college campus, but there you have it.