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Sexual Violence

Over the last three decades, the number and intensity of acts of sexual violence worldwide, but especially in the United States, have increasingly become the focus of public concern. Sexual violence is a mixture of sexual pleasure and aggression (some acts of which can be fatal). Sexual behaviors in the United States have roots in many customs from around the world, many of which are still in operation today.

Overview of Sexual Behaviors in the United States

Sex has existed within society forever; however, its purpose, including the roles of men and women, has changed over time. Sexual intercourse used to be primarily engaged in to increase the population; today intercourse is largely also exercised as a form of recreation (Holmes 1991; Russell 1984).

Each person's value system dictates which sexual behaviors are normal. Researchers (Russell 1984; Holmes 1991) discuss basic types of standards that are used to assess normal sexual behavior: statistical, religious, cultural, and personal standards. The statistical standards for assessing normal sexual behavior focus on what the majority does. If more than 50 percent of the public condones engaging in sexual intercourse before marriage, then that becomes the standard. Religious standards of normal sexual behavior depend mostly upon the person's type and degree of involvement in religion and/or spirituality. In certain religions, certain sexual acts will result in damnation, perhaps everlastingly. A few of these sexual acts are masturbation, oral and anal sex between heterosexuals, homosexual acts, and sexual intercourse with a woman who is menstruating. Americans try to regulate sexual behavior by making certain acts illegal. For example, polygamy, rape, child sexual abuse, same-sex marriages, and sexual harassment are illegal. This is the cultural standard. Each individual has his or her own system of values that dictates normal sexual behavior. This is the personal standard. Some individuals whose perceptions of normal sexual behavior fall outside of society's norms rationalize the acts they engage in; for example, pedophiles and rapists may rationalize their behavior by saying “she was asking for it” or “all women want to be raped.” Overall, individuals develop their own value system of what is appropriate and inappropriate sexual behavior using these four standards, which are interwoven.

Ingredients in Sexual Behavior

Several authors (Swisher and Wekesser 1994; Holmes 1991) have examined the rudiments of sexual behavior in sex offenders. These rudiments include fantasy, symbolism, ritualism, and compulsion. These authors claim that these rudiments also exist in normally sexually active adults. What distinguishes these rudiments in sex offenders from those in normal adults is that normal adults engage in these rudiments with willing partners. In addition, sex offenders can engage in bizarre sex acts, for example, signature serial sex acts involving torture and murder. These authors say the sexual fantasies of sex offenders might include such acts as masturbating to pictures of dead bodies in a detective magazine. Fetishes (sexual feelings attached to inanimate objects) and partialisms (the sexual attraction to various body parts) are symbolic elements in sexual behavior. Fetishes of sex offenders involve an abnormal amount of inanimate material, such as a college male having 4,000 pairs of women's new silk underwear in his dormitory room with the price tags still attached. Serial killers have been known to attach sexual feelings to isolated parts of the body. For example, Arthur Shawcross, a convicted serial killer of women in upstate New York, would carve out the vaginas of some victims and masturbate with them. Ritualistic behaviors of sex offenders involve scripted sex acts that are part of their fantasies and often become part of their signature during the commission of their sex crime. According to experts (Holmes 1991; Russell 1984), when these ritualistic behaviors are interrupted, the offenders' sexual functioning is ruined. Those who have committed rape have described their addiction to sex acts. This addiction involves rapists' ideal victim type and excludes romantic emotions and caring. In other words, sexually violent acts are done to another person rather than with another person.

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