NAMES: GEORGE NOAH GACHUGI

ADM NO: PSY/1032/21

COURSE TITLE: CONTEMPORARY GENDER ISSUES

COURSE CODE: SAS 301

LECTURERS NAME: DR. DONALD WANDERE

TASK: TAKE AWAY CAT

DATE: 20TH JULY 2022

Question;
1. Provide theoretical and practical explanations for the occurrence of
rape cases (including marital rape), and clearly illustrate the
patriarchal nature of these forms of violence.
Rape is a type of sexual assault in which sexual intercourse or other forms of
sexual penetration are performed on someone without their consent. The act
may be carried out through physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or
against a person who is incapable of giving valid consent, such as someone
who is unconscious, incapacitated, has an intellectual disability, or is under
the legal consent age. Rape and sexual assault are terms that are sometimes
used interchangeably.
Why then does it occur? Several studies have been conducted on this subject,
and many people are perfectly fine with saying that you can't stop in the
middle of sex; that a woman owes you sex if you buy her dinner; that women
frequently lie about rape (either for revenge or out of regret); that it's not
rape if the person isn't actively fighting you off/screaming; that rape can be
"accidental," (e.g., that a man can just lose control of his feelings and then
realize what he did after).That it's okay to grope or forcibly touch a woman
who is "teasing" you or dressed provocatively  etc. 
There’s a statistic that states that 1 in 6 women will probably be sexually
assaulted in their lifetimes. This added upon the fact of how we tell women
to be cautious about what they wear, how they wear it, how to carry yourself,
where to walk, when to walk there, with who they walk, who they trust, what
they do, where they do it, with who they do it, what they drink, how much
they drink, whether they make eye contact, if they're alone, if they're with a
stranger, if they're in a group, if they're in a group of strangers, if it's dark,
what kind of environment it is, how many people they sleep with, what kind
of people they sleep with, who their friends are, to whom you give
thy number, who's around when the delivery guy comes, to get an apartment
where they can see who's at the door before they can see you, to check
before they open the door to the delivery guy, to own a dog or a dog-sound-
making machine, to get a roommate, to practice self-defense, to always be
alert, always pay attention, always watch.
This inherently promotes the fact that rape “will” happen at some point and
that they should be prepared for that fact. A highly misogynistic conclusion
in my opinion.
Here are some of the reasons why I think rape occurs;
1. Rape is a crime of power and control.
Rape is used as a tool to remind women of their place in society as well as to
discourage women from pursuing equality.
2. Rape is used to perpetuate the idea that women are sexual property
(thieves can be punished by stealing their property, murderers can be
punished by taking away their life, rapists can be punished by denying the
use of her body).
3. Men’s perception that sexual violence against women is acceptable if
there is no physical violence associated with it.
4. A person who rapes often blames the woman for his behavior, saying she
dressed in a way that made him want to rape.
5. Men do not want to be perceived as weak, so they find a way to prove
themselves by raping a victim who seems vulnerable.
6. Our culture associates’ rape with sex, leading people to believe that men
who rape do so out of sexual desire and not anger or control.
7. More men than women are victims of rape, and those who are raped often
feel ashamed and responsible.
8. Men who report that they have been raped often find it difficult to do so
because they fear that their rapists will be released on bail and allowed to
continue attacking them.
 9. Rape is a way for men to control women. The act provides the rapist with
an excuse for feeling entitled to a woman’s body, sexual pleasure or
intimacy; he gets violent when she refuses him; and he relishes his power in
the fact that she has no choice but to submit to him.
10. The larger cultural context of rape (rape culture), which includes the
media, music, popular culture and advertising contribute to the prevalence of
rape.
11. The way in which we measure the extent of a problem is through
statistics and studies not through personal observation.
12. Most rapists will never be caught, even though they know they are
committing a crime and should be punished as such.
13. The statistics regarding rape exonerates rapists in other forms of sexual
assault; therefore, rapists are not held accountable for their actions as they
have been acquitted in court cases.
14. Women often do not report rape because they feel shame or blame
themselves for their victimization.

There are also theories on rape that I shall be discussing;

The theories, feminist, evolutionary and social learning try to understand why
rape happens and this can ultimately help social scientists figure out how to stop
it.
The feminist theory;
Rape, according to feminist theory, is a "pseudosexual act" committed by men
to intimidate and dominate women. Rape feminist perspectives can be thought
of as ranging from liberal to radical. Liberal perspectives on rape tend to view it
as a gender-neutral assault on individual freedom, comparing it to other forms
of assault and/or illegitimate appropriation and focusing primarily on the harm
that rape causes to individual victims. More radical perspectives, on the other
hand, argue that rape must be recognized and understood as an important pillar
of patriarchy. As a result, they examine rape as one of several forms of sexual
violence and exploitation perpetrated by men, examining their interconnections
and how they work together to maintain and reinforce women's oppression.
Second, they broaden the definition of "rape" to include more than just overt
physical violence and force (or the explicit threat thereof). Recognizing how
broad patterns of male power systematically undermine women's bodily and
sexual freedom, and challenging the equation of female submission with
meaningful consent, they tend to see rape as a kind of continuum (rather than a
sharp dividing line) between rape and much "normal" heterosexual activity.
Third, the emphasis on group-based oppression has prompted many radical
feminist thinkers to investigate the role of rape and rape ideologies in creating
and reproducing not only patriarchy but also multiple systems of domination,
such as racism and colonialism.
Feminist theorists are committed to ensuring that women's and girls' sexual
violation experiences are taken seriously as such, that the harm they suffer as a
result of it is acknowledged, and that those who inflict that harm are held
accountable. Achieving these goals has frequently required arguing that certain
types of encounters that were previously not socially or legally recognized as
rape should be, thereby challenging overly restrictive ideas.

Evolutionary theory;
Rape, according to evolutionary theory, is an extreme reaction to natural
selection pressure that has favored male assertiveness in attempting to copulate
with multiple sex partners and females who resist male attempts to control their
sexual behavior.
According to this theory, rape is either directly or indirectly linked to inherited
mechanisms that increased ancestors' reproductive success. The ability of
evolutionary psychology (EP) to explain behavior in terms of both ultimate and
proximate causes is a significant strength. All of the evolutionary factors that
contribute to the development of a psychological mechanism or pattern of
behavior, such as ancestral environment, sexual selection, and natural selection,
are referred to as ultimate. The more recent factors involved, such as the
person's genes, learning, and environmental stimuli, are referred to as
"proximate." Rape, according to evolutionary theory, may have evolved to help
males circumvent female caution when choosing a mate.
The positive argument entails making an explicit case for the evolutionary
account of rape's coherence, scope, empirical adequacy, and explanatory depth.
The negative argument is based on refuting the traditional social science model
of rape. It is concluded that the evolutionary theory has not been proven to be
superior to social science explanations. The theory does not specify what
mechanisms directly underpin rape or how rape may be a byproduct of other
adaptations associated with male sexuality. At best, this argument makes a
strong case for biological factors playing an important, but not exclusive, role in
the occurrence of rape and gender relationships. Any evolutionary theory will
require social or cultural explanations to be reinforced.

The social learning theory;

Rape, according to social learning theory, results from male acquisition of
attitudes and vicarious learning experiences favorable to males behaving
aggressively toward women.
According to social learning theory, social behavior is learned by observing and
imitating the behavior of others. As an alternative to the earlier work of fellow
psychologist B.F. Skinner, known for his influence on behaviorism,
psychologist Albert Bandura developed the social learning theory. While
behavioral psychology focuses on how the environment and reinforcement
influence behavior, Bandura proposed that individuals can learn behavior by
observing others.
The social learning theory has four mediational processes that help determine
whether a new behaviour is acquired:
1. Attention: The degree to which we notice the behaviour. A behaviour
must grab our attention before it can be imitated. Considering the number
of behaviours, we observe and do not imitate daily indicates attention is
crucial in whether a behaviour influences imitation.
2. Retention: How well we remember the behaviour. We cannot perform
the behaviour if we do not remember the behaviour. So, while a
behaviour may be noticed, unless a memory is formed, the observer will
not perform the behaviour. And, because social learning is not immediate,
retention is vital to behaviour modelling.
3. Reproduction: The ability to perform the behaviour. This is the ability
to reproduce a behaviour we observe. It influences our decision about
whether to try performing the behaviour. Even when we wish to imitate
an observed behaviour, we are limited by our physical abilities.
4. Motivation: The will to emulate the behaviour. This mediational
process is referred to as vicarious reinforcement. It involves learning
through observing the consequences of actions for other people, rather
than through direct experience.
In addition to the behaviour, rewards and punishment that follow will be studied
by the observer. If the observer perceives the rewards to be greater than the
costs (punishment) then they will most likely imitate the behaviour. If, however,
the reinforcement is not valued enough by the observer, they will not model the
behaviour.
This is then furthered by “rape culture”. Rape culture is a set of beliefs that
promotes male sexual aggression and violence against women. It is a society in
which violence is considered sexy and sexuality is considered violent. Women
perceive a continuum of threatened violence in a rape culture, ranging from
sexual remarks to sexual touching to rape itself. Physical and emotional
terrorism against women is accepted as the norm in a rape culture.
In a rape culture, both men and women believe that sexual violence is an
unavoidable part of life, like death or taxes. This violence, on the other hand, is
neither biologically nor divinely predetermined. Much of what we accept as
unavoidable is actually the expression of malleable values and attitudes. But
because of how society is structured it is the woman who lives in more fear of
being raped.

REFERENCES;
https://www.ojp.gov‹ngr‹

https://cyber.harvard.edu/vawoo/theories_of_rape
www.wikipedia.org

Stephen R. Gold’s Sex, Power, and Conflict Review: Evolution and

Feminist Perspectives, edited by David M. Bass and Neil M. Marams.
Oxford University Press, New York, 1996

Catherine K. Baker, once a rape criminal? Evidence of motivation and

relevance in the rape method, 110 Harv. L Revised 563 (1997