Victims' Nonverbal Sexual Initiatives

(As Reported by Perpetrators)

  Victims Were Not "Asking for It"

• I am fearful of discussing a subject that might mistakenly give readers an impression that I am suggesting some of the female victims in my study were "asking for it."  This is clearly not my intent.

• I am simply stating that there were statements made by the date rape perpetrators that I would include in the category "victims' nonverbal sexual initiatives."  These accounts could be faulty because of poor memory or bias against the female victims in order for perpetrators to justify their own immoral behavior.

  Examples as Reported by Male Sex Offenders

• I will give examples as reported by the male sex offenders that proceed from highly overt sexual behaviors to less obvious ones.

Among those of a more overt nature is one remembered by Interviewee 5: "The next thing I know, we're sitting back at her house and everything, and she takes her top off.  And she comes over and puts her breasts in my face."

Interviewee 14 provided a similar reflection, speaking of kissing and fondling:  "She was doin' it back just the same - just grabbin' the crotch and stuff, rubbin' the butt, stuff like that."

Interviewee 10 described the behavior of a female victim who was drunk:

She's laughing.  Still carrying on.  Getting a little bit more flirtatious.  She starts grabbing my bottom, butt; she's letting that guard down.  We head back to the corner of the barn where ...there's not many people.  We go to the back of the barn, start kissing a lot more.  My hands start roaming everywhere.  Her hands start roaming all over me.  It progresses even further then.  Grabbing my penis outside my  pants...and then she unzipped my zipper.

What one learns from this last account is that the date rapist was pleased his female victim was "letting that guard down" and becoming increasingly uninhibited and more "flirtatious."

Interviewee 10 assessed this situation as being "great" in terms of the opportunity if offered him to achieve his sexual intent. 

 

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