The Role of Male Sexual Arousal in Rape: Six Models

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628 HOWARD E. BARBAREE AND WILLIAM L. MARSHALL Stimulus: Emotional State Sexual Stimulus Rape Stimulus Sexual Stimulus Rape Stimulus Sexual Stimulus N E R L v E H E t Arousal (+) _ (0) or (-) (+)(+3 _ (-)(-) Rape Stimulus .~_ (+) Figure4. The emotional state augmentation process is illustrated. (In the upper panel, no augmentation is present. In the middle panel, the arousal to sexual cues is augmented by positive emotional responses toward the partner. In the lower panel, the arousal to rape cues is augmented by negative emotional responses toward the partner.) possibility that rape arousal is modulated by the emotional state of the subject, or by the nature of the emotional response he directs toward the imagined victim of the rape. Discussion Abel et al. (1977) presented data and an interpretation of data that encouraged a sexual preference explanation of sexual assault and a sexual preference view of rape arousal among rapists. Following from this article and view, numerous authors have espoused the sexual preference hypothesis as it pertains to rape and violent sexual assault (e.g., Quinsey et al., 1984). This view would argue that proclivity to rape would be proportional to the strength of sexual arousal to rape cues. However, several research articles have reported comparisons of sexual arousal to rape cues between rapists and nonrapists in which the differences between these groups are either nonsignificant in a statistical sense (Murphy et al., 1984) or unimportant in a clinical sense (Baxter et al., 1986). Commentary in the literature on these discrepant findings seems, on the whole, to be predicated on the notion that what is true for one rapist must be true for all others. For example, when the sexual preference hypothesis has been posited and supported by research findings, it has been discussed as if it pertains to all, or at least most, sexual aggressors (Abel et al., 1977; Quinsey, Chaplin, & Upfold, 1984). When findings have been explained in terms of a lack ofdisinhibition among rapists (Barbaree et al., 1979), the explanation has been applied to all rapists. When authors have been critical of the notion that rape cues have excitatory control over rapists' arousal (Blader & Marshall, 1989), the criticism has seemed to apply to the use of the model for all rapists. The application of a single model of arousal to rapists belies the data each research group has presented. Examination of individual case data will show a heterogeneity of pattern of response. Even so, a single pattern of response is often presented as being typical of the rapist. For example, even if groups of rapists, on average, show patterns of response that are not different from nonrapists (i.e., that rape cues act to inhibit responding), it is clear that at least some individual rapists show patterns of response indicating that rape cues have excitatory properties for them (Abel, Blanchard, Baflow, & Mavissaka- lian, 1975; Barbaree, 1990), or they show a preferential rape pattern (Freund et al., 1986). Even in studies of sexual preferences among child molesters, where the group studies indicate large differences between child molesters and normal subjects and where child molesters as a group show clear evidence of a sexual preference for children (Freund, 1981; Marshall, Barbaree, & Christophe, 1986; Quinsey, Steinman, Bergersen, & Holmes, 1975), the pattern of responding has been shown to be extremely heterogenous, with no less than five different patterns of response identified (Bar- baree & Marshall, 1989). Knight, Rosenberg, and Schneider (1985) have pointed to the extreme heterogeneity among sexual offenders measuring differences along many different dimensions, including sexual arousal. They go on to argue for the necessity of constructing typologies to describe the heterogeneity that has been ob- served. Knight and Prentky (1990) have presented a typology of rapists that contains no fewer than nine separate subtypes, and the typology has been shown to be reliable and to have empiri- cal validity. The possibility exists, and begs investigation, as to the relation between patterns of response to rape cues and classification in the various rapist subtypes. For example, we might predict that the sadistic rapists would show evidence of rape cues being excitatory, in comparison with the nonsadistic sub- type rapists, who may show no such evidence. Perhaps the model of disinhibition of rape arousal would account for the sequence of events leading up to the opportunistic rapist's as- saults. For the subtypes of rapists whose motivation involves anger and hostility, we might predict that anger would disinhi- bit arousal to the rape cues in the vindictive rapists, and it may serve to enhance or accelerate arousal in the pervasively angry subtypes.
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