European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 10, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                By Daniel Goleman. The new York times the mind of the rapist one of the darkest realms of human sexuality is being mapped with a new precision As scientists focus their research on the psychological forces that drive sexual violence. In years past rape was seen As the expression of an overwhelming sexual urge one that women could invite by provocative dress or behaviour More recently it has been widely described As simple violence against women expressed through sex. Now new findings suggest that there Are Many kinds of rapists and that violence and eroticism hold Sway to differing degrees in each. The new research suggests that Only a Small minority of rapists Are sexual renegades driven by sadistic fantasies or hatred of women and that far More common Are men with a Normal sexual orientation who rape impulsively As the Opportunity presents itself often while on a Date. In a 1987 Survey of 3,187 College women 15 percent said they had been raped. Quot eight out of 10 said they knew the Man who did it and for 56 percent the rape occurred while on a Date Quot said or. Mary Koss a psychologist at the University of Arizona medical school in Tucson. The trial of William k. Smith accused of raping an acquaintance this year at the Kennedy family compound in Palm Beach fla., has heightened interest in research on rape. But experts cautioned that the new findings related to men in the aggregate and were not meant to describe any particular Case. The new findings Are part of a recent wave of careful empirical studies of the psychology of rape that is replacing a spotty picture based largely on anecdotal reports. Some of the most compelling data about the psychological ingredients that can make the thought of rape appealing have emerged from physiological measures of men s sexual arousal to depictions of erotic encounters. The findings confirm that most men Are not ordinarily aroused by depictions of sexual violence. But certain circumstances like being angry at a woman can alter that. And while the capacity to be aroused by sexual violence does not in itself suggest that a Man is a potential rapist it is a capacity a successful rapist must have. Using a device called a Quot penile Plethos Zograph Quot researchers can precisely measure the blood flow to a Man s genitals As he views or listens to sexual scenes. By systematically varying the Content of those scenes researchers can detect exactly which details make the scene More or less arousing. Quot for most men hearing a description of an encounter where the Man is forcing the woman to have sex and the woman is in distress or pain Dampens the arousal by about 50 percent compared to arousal Levels during a scene of consenting lovemaking Quot said or. Howard Barbaree a psychologist at Queen s College in Kingston Ontario who is also director of a treatment program for sexual offenders. A report of Barbaree s research was published in the october Issue of the journal of clinical and consulting psychology. Quot ordinarily violence inhibits sexual arousal in men Quot Barbaree said. Quot a blood flow loss of 50 percent Means a Man would not be Able to penetrate a  when volunteers for the study responded to scenes of consenting and forced sex Over several Days the loss of arousal to descriptions of forced sex became greater each Day Barbaree found. But that was not True for men who had been convicted of rape. And in about 10 percent of rapists a including those with Large numbers of victims a the arousal was markedly stronger to the rape scene than to consenting sex Barbaree said. Indeed in research with convicted rapists or. Gene Abel a psychiatrist at Emory University found that the More a rapist became aroused by scenes of forced sex the greater the number of his victims and the More physical injuries the victims were Likely to have suffered. In a series of experiments Barbaree and his colleagues investigated what circumstances might make the arousal patterns of Normal men More like that of the . Becoming angry at a woman Barbaree found is one such circumstance. Men who thought they were participating in a study of the effects of physical exercise on sexual arousal were asked to pedal a stationary bicycle As fast As they could for one minute. After they had finished a Young woman Confederate of the experimenter entered into the room ostensibly on an errand noticed the amount the Man had peddled and made a disparaging remark Quot is that All you can do i peddled a lot More than that myself this  Quot when these men subsequently went into the lab they had the same degree of arousal to the rape As to consenting sex Quot Barbaree said. In other experiments Barbaree also found that men were More Likely to be aroused by viewing a rape scene if they had been drinking or if they believed the Page 14 a the stars and stripes monday february 10, 1992 woman portrayed had been Quot asking for  Barbaree sees this line of research As refuting the scientific theory that had seen rapists As unique in having a sexual preference for combining violence and sexual arousal. Quot with the right combination of factors most men can be aroused by violent sex Quot Barbaree said. But that mix of psychological ingredients May not in itself be enough to set the psychological stage for rape in the View of Barbaree and other researchers. Quot rapists often recall being intensely angry depressed or feeling worthless for Days or even months leading up to the rape Quot Barbaree said. Quot very often the rapists say that the trigger for the rape was when a woman made them angry usually by rebuffing a sexual overture. The men experienced the Rebuff As an insult to their manhood that intensified their emotional  researchers caution that there is no single psychological formula that explains every rapist. Quot there is a huge variety among men jailed for rape Quot said or. Robert Prentky a professor of psychology at Boston University medical school. Prentky has developed a typology based on an advanced computer analysis of the. Characteristics of close to 300 rapists. Early results were published in 1988 in the annals of the new York Academy of sciences. The most frequent Type is the Quot opportunist Quot whose rapes Are impulsive Prentky found. Among the convicted rapists 23 percent fell into this category though Prentky believes such rapists Are far More common among those who Are never caught or convicted. Quot for the opportunist a sexual assault is part of a larger pattern of impulsive crimes Quot said Prentky. Quot in their sexual assaults they show no anger except in response to their victim s resistance and use Little unnecessary  Date rapists fall into this category he said and men who commit Date rape Are also prone to other impulsive actions that May be illegal. Men who Are preoccupied with a fixed sexual fantasy which they try to act out in the rape Are another common Type Prentky found making up 25 percent of the convicted rapists. These men Are often driven by a bizarre romantic fantasy in which they Force a woman to have sex and she then Falls in love with them. Quot these men Are often arrested Quot rapists often recall being intensely angry depressed or feeling worthless for Days or even a. A it. / a a to or. Howard Barbaree psychologist because they try to make a Date to see their victim again and will name a time and place to meet Quot Prentky said. The least aggressive of rapists such men Are most Likely to flee if a woman puts up a Strong resistance. And in these rapes for instance Quot the rapist will take his coat off and put it on the ground for his victim to lie on Quot he said. Far More violent Are the 32 percent of convicted rapists classified As the Quot vindictive Quot Type. Quot their assaults Are physically harmful and their intent is clearly to degrade and humiliate the woman Quot Prentky said. Quot they Are  similar were another 11 percent of rapists whose compel log motive is anger at the world at Large. But unlike the woman hating rapists these men were angry at men and women alike they were Likely to have inflicted the most physical damage on their victims. Quot they pick fights with men and rape women Quot Prentky said. Quot they Are unlike other rapists in having a Long history of violent crimes of All sorts from fights in bars to assaulting arresting  sexual sadists were the rarest Type just 8 percent of convicted rapists. These men were obsessed with sadistic fantasies which their rapes were meant to enact. Quot for the sadist the victim s fear is a sexual stimulus Quot Prentky said. But other research suggests that violence More than eroticism is the engine that drives the rapists behaviour. In an As yet unpublished study financed by the National Institute of mental health psychologists were Able to measure the sexual arousal patterns of about 200 men while they were of College age and then 10 years later interviewed both the men and for 52 of them their wives or girl friends. Quot if the men were aroused by rape scenes when they were College age then they were very Likely at age 32 to use physical Force with their wife or girl Friend to Force her to have sex when she did t want to Quot said or. Neil Malamuth of psychologist at the University of Michigan who conducted the study. In a National Survey of 2,652 men Malamuth found that those who admitted having forced sex on women tended to have a hostile adversarial relationship with women in general. Quot these men feel they have to be in control of their relationships with women even in conversation Quot Malamuth said. Men who fit this pattern were far More Likely than others to have reported an atmosphere of family violence or having been victims of sexual abuse in their childhood Malamuth found. Likewise 56 percent of the convicted rapists who accounted for the most victims a an average of 30 a had been victims of childhood sexual abuse according to a 1988 study by Ann Burgess a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. A study by Prentky among rapists who had committed an average of just three known rapes found the incidence of childhood sexual abuse was Only 23 percent. The researchers said the findings suggested that the More men were abused As children the More they were Likely to rape As adults. In addition these men typically had Quot an earlier sexual initiation sometimes forced and endorsed myths about rape such As the notion that if you know the woman it s not rape Quot said or. Koss who conducted the Survey with Malamuth. Quot they Are also More Likely to socialize with other men who see women As sexual objects and like to keep score of their sexual  the stars and stripes a Page 15