Trigger Warning: This post is about rape.There is an interesting post on Feministe by
Thomas Millar about
Predator Theory - a model that attempts to explain why some men rape, and sharing some interesting studies within certain confines - that of a cis- and hetero- dominated space, and concerning only male-committed rapes that occur between acquaintances - which is by far the most common situation.
It's a good post, and worth a read, but here are some of the take-home messages as far as I'm concerned. A lot of them are unsurprising, but it's worth noting that they tie in with each other.
- a very small percentage of men commit the vast majority of rapes. A large number of rapists are repeat offenders.
- most rapes involve drink or intoxication, rather than force
- rapists are more likely than other men to commit other violent acts
- rapists are more likely than other men to harbour misogynistic opinions and attitudes
- the 'undetected rapist' and the convicted rapist differ in modus operandi, not in attitude/motivation
I think this is important because sometimes there's a tendency in discussions about rape to seperate the kind of incident I encountered - a violent outdoor attack from a stranger - from "date rape" and, even if the existence and dominance of the latter is accepted, it's often treated like a seperate entity to violent assault; something that can't properly be dealt with because it's difficult to convict. The studies presented by Thomas (and I don't claim for a second that it's a comprehensive review) counteract that assumption - men who are predisposed to rape, wherever that predisposition comes from, will rape, and as often as not, it's a premeditated, deliberate act. 'Violent' rape and the more common variety come from a similar root cause, and if we tackle that root cause - for example, a permissive misogynistic culture of victim blaming* - then we can reduce the number of undectected rapes at the same time as tackling the violent rapes that actually feature on our cultural radar.
*
I am not setting out, today, to prove to you that is the cause. But as I suspect it is, I'm leaving that claim there. 
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Thank you. <3
In an odd sort of way, that's rather comforting.
Though I think it makes prevention harder, because I still believe the larger culutral context we live in is key to causing those men to offend. the problem is, it's harder to affect a change in that cultural make up if met with the majority of people saying "I don't commit rape, so why should I change?"
And my other worry is men predisposed to it will whinge that "they couldn't help it because it was in their genes."
I may be incorrect in doing so, as it's shown that men who rape tend to do so again, but the general rhetoric these days seems to err towards personal qualities being innate. Which is bullshit.
I agree, it's bullshit.
Upon reading I wondered how many rapists actually believe what they do isn't rape. I wonder whether in their own mind they are convinced that if there is no force involved (as a result of drunkenness, drugs, or other) there is no rape. Which would explain why they do it, of course.
I imagine that a lot of them tell themselves that. "I didn't force her, so it wasn't rape!" And I imagine they also delude themselves into believing that if there's no violent struggle, then that alone is a form of consent.
What amazes me is that such aggressively misogynistic men have enough female acquantances to prey upon. You'd think women would steer well clear of them.
So it's a giant fucking shock when one's male friend turns out to be a rapist. And that's how women learn to treat all men like potential rapists.
When you're a woman, you are never allowed to grow out of stranger danger.
Rapists aren't always scary men that jump out of the bushes, they're often guys that would otherwise seem "normal" and "nice" IRL.
I think you're probably right, in the second idea. If you look at the original post, the studies asked questions of men which had no wriggle room from an outsider perspective, but which didn't involve the explicit word 'rape'. There's a certain mindset that's required for that justification, though, which is why it's so rare.
Most people are familiar with the idea of bell curves in statistical studies, but that doesn't always apply. In some cases, like the ones Gladwell mentions in his article, a power law distribution is more appropriate (for example, the Long Tail), and it suggests different, and possibly far more effective, public policies for addressing a problem.
I'm wondering now if the same might be true for Predator Theory.