Rapists' Offense Processes: A Preliminary Descriptive Model
Tony Ward, MA (Hons), PhD, DipClinPsyc2001, Journal of Interpersonal Violence
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Abstract
Polaschek et al. / RAPISTS' OFFENSE PROCESSES Models of the offense process set out to provide a description of the cognitive, behavioral, motivational, and contextual factors associated with a particular type of offense. They model the temporal relationships between the variables of interest and focus explicitly on the proximal causes or the how of offending. In this study, qualitative analysis was used to develop a descriptive model of the offense process for 24 adult rapists. Sentenced offenders provided detailed retrospective descriptions of their thoughts, emotions, and behavior prior to and during their most recent rape. These descriptions were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. The resulting preliminary model contained the following six phases: background factors to the offense, goal formation, approach behavior, offense preparation, the offense, and postoffense behavior. These stages are discussed along with the model's theoretical, research, and clinical implications. The model is consistent with existing multivariate theories of rape and has clear taxonomic potential.
Key takeaways
- For example, it permitted little analysis of offender behavior during the offense itself and led to a lack of clarity about whether victim behavior had any influence on offenders.
- However, we obtained the data presented here mainly from the offender's own oral narrative of the offense, collected from him during the interview.
- At this early stage of the offense process, two dominant goals emerged from the offender's proximal mood state.
- Offenders reported a range of sexual behavior during the offense itself (see Figure 5).
- It accommodates a broader range of offense pathways than the traditional RP model, distinguishes between distal and proximal goals and between sexual and nonsexual goals, and makes suggestions about the role of offenders' interpretations of victim behavior in each phase of the offense.
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