self-convicting rapists

Here's a fascinating blog entry, 'Meet the Predators", from "yesmeansyesblog.wordpress.com", which summarizes two recent surveys on men and rape:

yesmeansyesblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/meet-the-predators/

Illuminating article, which reveals that
men are much more likely to self-convict as rapists if the questionnaire doesn't use the word "rape"; and that
of those who do self-convict (answer "yes" to questions like "have you ever had sex with a woman so drunk she passed out?" or "have you ever pressured someone into sex by twisting their arm, holding them down, or that sort of thing?"), a high majority of the crimes are committed by a small minority of men (4-8% of those who self-convicted) who are repeat offenders; and that
of those repeat offenders, a much higher number of them also admitted to committing domestic violence; and that
those repeat offenders NEVER used violence on strangers; only on intimates. On strangers, they used alcohol, and drugs.
The author concludes that this argues that the repeat offenders who commit most of the crimes know bloody well what they're doing. A lot of the time people claim that date-rape is a tragic accident of misunderstanding by a good guy; but no. A high majority of the time, the guy didn't just happen to find himself in a room with passed-out drunk lady and foolishly took her silence for assent, oops, I'm so sorry. A high majority of the time, that guy meant to get into that room all along; that was his target. These are not nice guys who made a tragic mistake - these people are also the ones admitting to domestic violence in their intimate relationships. The men committing these crimes, in short, are creeps.

And how can we know this? Because these guys don't use violence with strangers (who might charge them); they reserve the violence for their friends and room mates and the people who love them, who aren't likely to charge them because they're scared of them, or are trying to preserve the relationship because they are abuse victims who think it's their fault. With strangers, they use drink or drugs, because they won't get charged for that, most of the time; the victim will get blamed instead.

Now I note, out of interest, that that number, 4%-8%, is exactly in line with the standard estimates in "The Psychopath Next Door" of the percentage of psychopaths in the population. (The author of TPND estimates at the high end; standard estimates are around 4%).

So this all makes hideous sense, doesn't it. Most stranger rapes and most date rapes are being committed by psychopaths, who know damn well that you didn't want this, and don't care. But most men aren't psychopaths. So why the high incidence of rape?

Because, argues the author, of rape culture - a few men commit a lot of rapes; but the culture condones the behaviour, is willing to accept barroom conversations where a drunk woman is called an "opportunity", where misogynistic jokes are tolerated, and psychopaths are very sensitive to social cues, because they don't want to get caught. So they do what they can get away with.

The solution, then, is to change the culture, so that these behaviours aren't socially acceptable. Not because most men rape; most men, by far, do not; but those who do, are enabled by a culture that speaks as if this behaviour is okay.