Behavioural characteristics of rapists

A substantial proportion of past research on rapists has focused on their motives. This paper reports on two studies that investigated the behavioural characteristics of rapists. The first study gathered behavioural data from police rape files to determine the types of behaviours exhibited by 130 men charged with rape. The second study was designed to validate the behavioural clusters found in study 1, using the transcripts of court cases from a sample of 50 accused rapists. The results demonstrated a high level of consistency in the behaviours of the accused rapists in the two studies. Rapists were most frequently a stranger, the rape occurred frequently in the victim's home, and the rapist used a range of different ways to communicate verbally with his victim. Five behavioural themes were identified in both studies: vaginal, kissing/fondling, oral, anal and brutal/physical themes. This analysis of the behavioural aspects of rape provides an understanding of the types of behaviours exhibited by men who reach the stage of court proceedings for the crime of rape. The difference between the current behavioural profile and that reported by members of the general community who have experienced rape is discussed.

Adult rape scripting within a victimological perspective

This review of the adult rape experience draws from theoretical conceptualizations in both psychology and victimology. It is an integrative discussion of Lerner's [Lerner, M.J. (1980). The Belief In A Just World. New York: Plenum] victimological theory of the “just world” and Gagnon and Simon's [Gagnon, J.H., & Simon, W. (1973). Sexual Conduct: The Sources of Human Sexuality. Chicago: Aldine] conceptualization of cognitive sex scripting. The “just world” is one in which an individual gets what he/she deserves. People will construe events and interpret the character of people to maintain this ideology. As theorized by Perloff [Perloff, L.S. (1983). Perceptions of vulnerability to victimisation. J Soc Issues 39, 41–61], this promotes a feeling of “unique invulnerability” in the absence of victimization. However, should victimization, such as rape, occur, this ideology can implicate detrimental effects of adjustment. This includes the “secondary victimization” from others, as theorized by Williams [Williams, J.E. (1984). Secondary victimisation: confronting public attitudes about rape. Victimol Int J 9, 66–81]. These victimological perspectives are cognitive scripts. They develop over time from exposure to family dynamics, sociocultural tenets describing gender roles and sexual conduct, and from an individual's parameters and dimensions of sexual individuality and disposition. How these victimological scripts may impact on the adjustment of adult raped men and women is discussed.

Behavioral characteristics of men accused of rape: evidence for different types of rapists

The aim of this study was to determine whether the behavioral characteristics demonstrated by rapists clustered together into groups that were similar to the common rapist typology in the literature: anger, power exploitative, power reassurance, and sadistic. Two studies were conducted to examine the evidence for this typology. Study 1 involved the analysis of data from 130 men charged with sexual assault and Study 2 involved the analysis of court transcripts from 50 rape cases tried through the court system. The results of Study 1 revealed that there was some validity to the characteristics usually associated with each of the four types of rape, especially for the power reassurance and sadistic rapists. However, there were some unexpected outliers within both the anger and power exploitative types of rapists, which may suggest that there is more than one type of anger rapist and more than two types of power rapists. The results of Study 2 very closely replicated the results of Study 1. Future research needs to focus on the behavioral, motivational, and cognitive characteristics associated with each of the types of rapists and research them separately, so that it is possible to further evaluate the evidence for the typology identified in this study.

Reading scripture from a hermeneutic of rape

In order to construct a basis for reading the Bible from a hermeneutics of rape it is argued that this experience is endemic within religious com munities and defines how those who are affected experience and speak about God. Contemporary scholarship has recognized the important work done by communities of readers in constructing the meaning of texts. Those who have been affected by rape constitute an important interpretative community who will approach scriptural texts on the basis of their experience. While the personal experience of rape is dif ficult to articulate, and thus makes the construction of a hermeneutical position hard to describe, the social location of those affected by rape is more easily analysed. From an understanding of this social location it is possible to construct a hermeneutics of rape, both in relation to those scriptural texts in which rape imagery is explicit and also in regard to those in which abusive power is less evident but no less dangerous. The article concludes that while a shared social location does not generate unitary interpretations it nevertheless should be considered as a highly significant feature of the encounter between the reader and the text.

Expectancy violation and perceptions of rape victim credibility

Purpose. Rape victims have been found to have a heightened risk of secondary victimization in the legal system through biased perceptions of their credibility. In this study, participants observed a video of a rape victim reporting the crime and evaluated her credibility, to establish the influence of victim emotional expressiveness on evaluations of victim credibility. Methods. The nonverbal (eye-contact, crying) and paralinguistic (tone of voice) behaviour of the rape victim was manipulated such that the emotional presentation viewed by observers was either expressive, or not expressive. One hundred and thirty seven participants were randomly allocated to observe a videotape of either an expressive or a non-expressive victim. Participants' specific expectations about the emotional expressiveness of rape victims in general were also measured. Results. Results revealed no significant main effect of emotional expressiveness on perceptions of credibility. However, among participants with a strong expectation of emotional expressiveness, a rape victim who was emotionally expressive was perceived to be significantly more credible than a victim who was not emotionally expressive. Conclusions. It appears to be expectancy violation rather than emotional expressiveness per se that biases observers' perceptions of rape victim credibility.

Victorian index of estuary condition : recommended themes and measures

Deakin University was engaged by the Department of Sustainability and Environment to develop an Index of Estuary Condition (IEC) for evaluating the environmental condition of Victorian estuaries. The Index will ultimately complement the existing Index of Stream Condition (ISC) by providing a consistent statewide assessment of the environmental condition of estuaries. This will better enable:

• Estuarine condition to be reported at regional, state and national levels.

• Prioritisation of resource allocation.

• Strategic evaluation of management interventions in estuaries.

Workshops involving participants with expertise in a variety of disciplines were convened to integrate learnings from assessment programs currently being developed interstate and overseas. This report synthesises and builds on the output from those workshops which:

• Identified key components (themes) of estuaries that contribute to estuarine condition.

• Contributed to development of a broad conceptual model for Victorian estuaries

• Identified possible measures of each theme

In keeping with the sub-indices of the ISC, six themes were identified for use in the IEC: Physical form, Hydrology, Water quality, Sediment, Flora and Fauna. Several measures within each theme are recommended to assess estuary condition.

Implementation of particular measures in the IEC partly depends on the investment required to both collect and interpret the required data. With regard to data collection, each measure was assessed according to whether there is an established sampling procedure, how frequently data need to be collected and the level of expertise required for collection and processing. For interpreting the data, measures were scored on whether baseline condition is established and whether descriptions and scores are developed which reflect the extent of deviation from that condition. These scores were used to indicate which measures are feasible to implement immediately and which require further investigation.

A trial of the recommended IEC measures in a selection of estuaries is recommended as it would provide an opportunity to test the measures and their suitability for application statewide. It is suggested that the trial is conducted in estuaries subject to various levels of threats within each of the four estuary classes described by Barton et al. (2008)

Harmonised procurement policy environment - identifying key themes towards the development of a conceptual model

Capital works procurement and its regulatory policy environment within a country can be complex entities. For example, by virtue of Australia’s governmental division between the Commonwealth, states and local jurisdictions and the associated procurement networks and responsibilities at each level, the tendering process is often convoluted. There are four inter-related key themes identified in the literature in relation to procurement disharmony, including decentralisation, risk & risk mitigation, free trade & competition, and tendering costs. This paper defines and discusses these key areas of conflict that adversely impact upon the business environments of industry through a literature review, policy analysis and consultation with capital works procurement stakeholders. The aim of this national study is to identify policy differences between jurisdictions in Australia, and ascertain whether those differences are a barrier to productivity and innovation. This research forms an element of a broader investigation with an aim of developing efficient, effective and nationally harmonised procurement systems.

How do detectives make love? : themes of the survival of the child: corruption in relation to innocence

The major component of the thesis is a manuscript of poetry titled How do detectives make love? which includes forty poems written over a period of two years. Many of these; poems have been published in literary journals and magazines both in Australia and internationally as well as being performed at various performance poetry venues. How do detectives make love? was accepted for publication by Penguin Books, Australia in 1994. Also included is a 12,000 word exegesis in support of the manuscript titled How do detectives make love? Themes of the survival of the child: corruption in relation to innocence. The exegesis explores various themes and motifs occurring throughout the work, including the motif of birds and dogs, and the themes of love and the police, guns and weaponry, the outback and parklands, the parents, the change from childhood to adolescence and adolescence to adulthood, and the survival of the child. The current vital social relevance of these themes and motifs is explored in the poems. The literary use of the themes is explored comparatively with the work of other Australian poets including Gig Ryan, Kenneth Slessor and Les Murray. The purpose of the exegesis is to give the reader insights into the poet's intellectual processes and literary concerns throughout the work itself.

Victimological and cognitive scripting study of adult male and female rape

From this exploratory study it appears that the experience of adult rape has many similarities for men and women, but there are additional factors which may account for the adjustment differences and difficulties for and of men.

Oxidative stress : emerging mitochondrial and cellular themes and variations in neuronal injury

Oxidative stress plays a central role in neuronal injury and cell death in acute and chronic pathological conditions. The cellular responses to oxidative stress embrace changes in mitochondria and other organelles, notably endoplasmic reticulum, and can lead to a number of cell death paradigms, which cover a spectrum from apoptosis to necrosis and include autophagy. In Alzheimer's disease, and other pathologies including Parkinson's disease, protein aggregation provides further cellular stresses that can initiate or feed into the pathways to cell death engendered by oxidative stress. Specific attention is paid here to mitochondrial dysfunction and programmed cell death, and the diverse modes of cell death mediated by mitochondria under oxidative stress. Novel insights into cellular responses to neuronal oxidative stress from a range of different stressors can be gained by detailed transcriptomics analyses. Such studies at the cellular level provide the key for understanding the molecular and cellular pathways whereby neurons respond to oxidative stress and undergo injury and death. These considerations underpin the development of detailed knowledge in more complex integrated systems, up to the intact human bearing the neuropathology, facilitating therapeutic advances.