There were 23 cases of rape reported to the police last year, double the amount recorded in 2014, according to statistics obtained by this newspaper.
A closer look at the data shows that the majority of last year’s reported rape incidents occurred between 6am and 1pm. The majority of the incidents took place in St Julian’s, followed by St Paul’s Bay.
Victim Support Malta director Roberta Lepre says that misconceptions on rape are still rife in Malta, with a lot of victim-blaming going on. People tend to attribute the ‘likelihood of being raped’ with how someone was dressed, how much they drank and where they were. Additionally, there is also very little awareness about rape in relationships and marriages.
The only thing which leads to rape is someone deciding to rape
“Many people in Malta still hold onto a picture of a ‘typical rapist’ and of a ‘typical victim’. This can be highly damaging to victims of rape as it feeds the notion that they may have done something which made them more likely to be victimised.
“The only thing which leads to rape is someone deciding to rape,” Dr Lepre notes.
Women for Life said recently that the availability of emergency contraception encouraged abusive behaviour and rape by men.
“When we accept the notion that the victim’s actions contribute to why s/he was raped, it sets a very dangerous precedent, Dr Lepre warns. “Think of the recent outrage on the Stanford rape case: the perpetrator has not admitted to sexually assaulting the woman and blames the incident on a college culture of binge drinking and promiscuity.
“People can choose to drink, people can choose to be promiscuous but no one chooses to be raped. In the same manner, people can choose to utilise or not utilise any contraceptive method, people can choose to be promiscuous but no one chooses to be raped.
“Creating this sort of link is preposterous,” she insists.
Rape reported to police
2008: 19
2009: 12
2010: 11
2011: 18
2012: 13
2013: 15
2014: 11
2015: 23
• Source: National Police System
What compels a person to commit rape?
There are many different theories which attempt to explain why such crimes exist, forensic psychologist Kevin Sammut Henwood says.
Forensic psychologist Kevin Sammut Henwood.Some general typologies of rapists include:
• The angry rapist is generally motivated by feelings of anger and displaces hostility onto the victim. The offender might be violent and often tries to degrade or humiliate the victim. The act might appear to be impulsive and is generally preceded by a life stressor. Intimate relationships, if present, are usually marked with considerable conflict.
• The power rapist is generally motivated by seeking to control their victims by possessing them using the sexual act. They might have problems with feeling insecure or inadequate and might engage in more planning and preparation than the previous typology.
• The sadistic rapist is perhaps the most dangerous as they are motivated by seeking pleasure and sexual arousal through inflicting pain and fear and their victims. They are also more likely to plan and premeditate and might restrain, torture or mutilate their victims.
Many offenders might also have very individual motives and could be a mixture of these typologies, Dr Sammut Henwood continues. On such example is an act of rape committed in war: it might be a weapon of terror itself as it terrifies the population being occupied, it might be fuelled by anger, power and control and there might also be elements of sadism.
Some might also be motivated to rape someone as they might have intimacy or social skills deficits.
“I met a case in the UK who, after raping his victim, went on to disclose his name and other personal details in an attempt to start a conversation,” Dr Sammut Henwood notes. “He had even asked her out for coffee following the assault as if he were interested in starting a relationship with his victim. This sexual offence was almost the inverse of date rape.”
The inability of offenders to regulate their deficits may start early in childhood, where the perpetrator might start linking deviant or inappropriate stimuli (such as anger or anxiety) with sexual arousal.
Through behavioural conditioning – such as masturbating when angry – the person might further reinforce such links. Eventually, whenever the person experiences anger, he might also experience sexual arousal.
This would also need to be reinforced by cognitive beliefs such as a sense of entitlement and personality traits, say, the need for excitement and egocentricity.
External factors might also contribute, such as the myth that rape victims enjoy it as well or violent/inappropriate pornography or websites.