Uncovering the Misogyny of Sexually Aggressive Offenders

Cover of Fight Comics No. 77 featuring illustrations by Maurice Whitman

Source: Wikimedia Commons/Hyju/PD US not renewed

If one thumbs through any dull dishwater pulp magazine and peruses the anecdotes, they may encounter la femme fatale. This alluring maneater often employs her superficial panache to ensnare gullible male victims.

In addition to using her iridescent beauty and uncanny mysteriousness, she has a proclivity for deception and playing the damsel in distress to progress her Machiavellian schemes. Though this character remains restricted to the bounds of fiction, for many sexually aggressive offenders, la femme fatale is both implicitly or explicitly encapsulated in every woman.

Research has demonstrated that these dangerous offenders often manifest several cognitive distortions relating to dangerous world attitudes and a hatred of women, all of which are underscored by a pervasive sense of entitlement.

A Fear and Hatred of Womankind

Various research articles have studied the attitudes of sexual homicide offenders and have demonstrated significant cognitive distortions concerning their views of women. In a sample of 120 sexual homicide offenders, both non-serial sexual murderers (NSM) and serial sexual murderers (SSM), James et al. (2019) found that both NSMs and SSMs endorsed misogynistic sentiments, suggesting an underlying hostility towards women. In fact, over 33 percent and 46 percent of NSMs and SSMs—respectively—believed that women were "dangerous," while just under half of both groups (NSM = 45 percent; SSM = 42 percent) endorsed that women were "untrustworthy."

Considering these sentiments, it is furthermore unsurprising that nearly one-quarter (25 percent) of NSMs and one-third (30 percent) of SSMs reported beliefs that "women deserve to be punished." The sexual objectification of women was also highly prevalent in the sample of 120 sexual homicide offenders, with 39 percent and 64 percent of NSMs and SSMs characteristically viewing women as sexual objects. Curiously, the difference in the formerly-mentioned degrees of sexual objectivation was significant (p < 0.01), similar to the perception of sex drives as "uncontrollable" (NSM = 60 percent; SSM = 79 percent) (p < 0.05). Moreover, NSMs (46 percent) and SSMs (55 percent) were almost equally as likely to believe that women were "provocative."

In addition to research conducted on samples of sexual murderers, studies have also examined implicit theories relating to misogyny among non-homicidal sex offenders. In a sample of 37 incarcerated rapists in the United Kingdom, Polaschek and Gannon (2004) found that 65 percent represented women as "unknowable" or "dangerous," with another 70 percent rendering females as "sex objects" in describing their acts of sexual violence (Gannon et al. 2009).

Beech et al. (2006) postulated similar results, finding that 55 percent of their sample of 41 rapists endorsed attitudes towards women as "sex objects" (Gannon et al. 2009). Milner and Webster (2005) furthermore noted in their sample of child molesters, rapists, and non-sexual violent offenders that rapists had significantly higher hostility to women and sexual entitlement when compared to both the two aforementioned sub-samples of criminals on questionnaires.

Polaschek and Ward (2002) noted that sexually aggressive men often perceive women as "gatekeepers to sex as a commodity" and those who control men's access to sexual gratification despite being purportedly in a "continuously sexually receptive state."

Viewing the World as Fundamentally Dangerous

However, most people passively accept that specific environments may yield potentially risky outcomes depending on various conditions. Belief in a fundamentally dangerous and threatening world fueled by malevolence is highly prevalent among non-homicidal sex offenders and sexual murderers (Gannon et al., 2009).

James et al. (2019) found that in addition to high rates of self-reported low self-esteem (62 percent) and feelings of rejection and loneliness (81 percent), over half (52 percent) of the 120 sexual homicide offenders reflected attitudes supporting a pervasive belief in a dangerous world. Overall, there were no significant differences between NSMs (51 percent) and SSMs (55 percent), with both reporting similar degrees of sentiment.

Unsurprisingly, these results have been reflected in other studies. Beech et al. (2005) found that dangerous world theories were also a widely prevailing implicit theory among 28 sexual homicide offenders examined in the United Kingdom's criminal justice system, with this worldview being found in 79 percent of cases. Curiously, in "group 2," a subgroup characterized primarily by dangerous world sentiments, sexual murderers were motivated by misogyny-related grievances rather than sexually deviant fantasies.

In a previously stated study of 41 rapists conducted by Beech et al. (2006), the authors noted that 25 (61 percent) offenders of the sample maintained beliefs in a fundamentally dangerous world. In a similar classification system as the previous research article, "group 1" (n = 13), characterized by a dangerous worldview, was reportedly motivated by anger (69 percent), revenge (23 percent), and inadequacy (8 percent). When compared with "group 2," who primarily viewed women as "sex objects," "group 1" was more likely to have experienced a recent separation from a partner (61 percent vs. 13 percent) (p < 0.05) and—on average—offended at an older age (32.8 years vs. 23.8 years) (p < 0.05).

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Although much research has demonstrated that dangerous worldviews are widely present, Polaschek and Gannon (2004) found that these implicit theories were found in only a narrow subset (19 percent) of rapists in their sample (Gannon et al., 2009).

Despite both sexual homicide and non-homicidal sexual violence remaining a highly problematic and complex human rights issue across the world, male-perpetrated sexual offenses involving female victims may be explained by misogyny and beliefs in a dangerous world, in addition to a series of other developmental risk factors.