Dr. Manoj Dash, Bhubaneswar, 31 August 2024
Recent Incidents:
The recent rape and murder incident in RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata has again brought back shocking incidents of extreme sexual violence against women into our collective focus. A couple of days following this, another gruesome rape and murder case of a 14 year old Dalit child was reported from a village of Muzaffarpur district in Bihar.
Citizens from all walks of life stand visibly shaken and concerned. Families sending out their daughters to schools, hostels, and workplaces are worrying a lot about their safety. Young women are spending their daily trips to workplaces in perpetual worry whether they would come back without someone troubling them. To lend context to such worry, recent data of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reveals that the highest number of rape victims belong to the age group of 18 to 30, who constitute a vital part of the country’s female workforce.
These incidents also create a crisis of self-confidence in every man because they are seen by every woman with a suspicious eye, which is justified from the point of view of women and the entire society if we consider safety of women ti be of paramount importance. How can a society be considered healthy if half of it doesn’t trust the other half? However, let’s turn our focus to the core subject of women’s safety, as men are not the focus of discussion here.
The Prime Minister (PM) spoke on this while delivering his address from the ramparts of the Red Fort in New Delhi on 15th August that “there is public outrage over atrocities against our mothers and sisters. I feel this outrage. The country, the society, our state governments need to take this seriously. Crimes against women must be probed as soon as possible, those involved in monstrous acts must face strict punishment at the earliest, this is necessary to create faith in society.” The PM also added, “it is the need of the hour that extensive discussion on those receiving punishment be held so that those committing this sin understand that this leads to hanging. I think it is very important to instill this fear.”
What is there in the Minds of Rapists?
The first question that comes to one’s mind is, does a rapist ever fear severe punishment by law? What does a rapist think and what constitutes his mind space vis-à-vis women?
The idea of mapping the mind of a rapist was discussed in Susan Browmiller’s “Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape,” one of the most influential books ever written on rape. She was among the first people to suggest (way back in 1975!) that rape is an act of subjugation.
In a research paper of 2016 titled “The Confluence Mediational Model of Sexual Aggression,” Dr. Neil Malamuth, Professor of psychology and communication at University of California, Los Angeles, defined the personality of a rapist as narcissist, insecure, defensive, hostile, distrustful (mostly towards women), and one who gets sexual gratification from controlling a woman. In a survey conducted by Dr. Neil Malamuth, of 2,652 men, it was found that the men who forced their wives or girlfriends to have sex felt that they needed to be in control of the relationship and that women are meant to be subjugated. “There are some for whom sex and power have become intertwined in unusually high levels, and as our research indicates, high levels of hostility towards women are involved,” he says.
He further said that, “I wouldn’t necessarily use the term sexual perversion for most rapists. Many are ‘anti-social’ individuals who would ‘steal’ sex just as they would steal other things.” Most of these men are angry, say researchers who probe the psychology of rapists and men with aggressive behaviour towards women in general. Angry towards the world or just women and they channelize their anger towards women sexually in an act where inflicting humiliation and fear on women is their real target.
And what about gang rapes?
A gang provides the empowerment and the ‘disinhibition’ that such a violent act requires, says Dr Malamuth. Take the Delhi gang rape of December 2012 for instance. The violence with which the minor pulled the victim’s intestines out after raping her was ‘demonic’! Dr. Jamuna Rajan, neuropsychologist at NIMHANS, Bengaluru, said about the juvenile involved in the Delhi gang rape case, “he did it probably because he wanted to assert himself through his horrific act as a sexually capable, mature male with power; calling for respect among the group.” Citing the many gruesome incidents happening everywhere in our country as examples, one can say that “rape is nothing but the product of the inbuilt patriarchal mind-set”, says psychologist Dr Rajat Mitra, who has spent years of his life studying at least 200 rapists in Delhi’s Tihar Jail.
The psychological motivations of rapists are more complex than what was formerly thought. They may include the desire to punish, to gain revenge, to cause pain, to prove sexual prowess, and to control through fear. Many research studies that focused on brutal rape incidents have found that a majority of the rapists were of the belief that the prevention or avoidance of rape was the woman’s responsibility. They advised women not to go out alone, not to hitchhike, not to drink alone, and to learn self-defence!
Does Severity of Punishment Instill Fear in Rapists?
Uttar Pradesh (UP) has a Chief Minister (CM) who is perceived as a very strong politician as he doesn’t tolerate criminals. However, the most recent NCRB data reveal that UP leads the entire country in crimes against women. A sitting MLA of BJP, which rules Uttar Pradesh since March 2017, was involved in the gang rape of a 17 year old girl in a village of Unnao. The MLA who belonged to an upper caste was also involved in the death of the girl’s father in custody. The court that was hearing the case reprimanded the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for delaying registration of cases against the MLA.
Four upper caste men from a village of Hathras in UP gang raped and caused grievous injuries to a 19 year old Dalit girl who succumbed to her injuries later. The victim was cremated late in the night by UP Police without the consent or knowledge of the victim’s family. The District Magistrate of Hathras and senior Police officials of UP were later reprimanded by the Allahabad High Court by stating that their actions “constituted prima facie infringement upon the human rights of the victim and her family.”
The current chief of RSS, which is the ideological mentor of BJP, had in 2012 said that rapes and gang rapes only happen in India (the urban areas of the country) and not in Bharat (rural India). In 2013, a study by Azim Premji University based on NCRB data of 2011 found no correlation between high rate of urbanisation and reported rape incidences!The PM represents Varanasi Parliamentary Constituency which is also in UP. He never fails to project himself as a strong and tough politician. However, his representation in the Parliament and continuance in power for ten long years has not been able to instill any fear in the minds of criminals in UP where crimes against women continue unabated. No wonder, UP has emerged as the top State in India in perpetration of crimes against women!
In the aftermath of Nirbhaya gang rape case in Delhi, laws related to sexual violence against women were made much tougher. However, that hasn’t reduced crimes against women and gruesome cases of rape and gang rape happens every day across the country. The fear of death penalty and talk about instilling fear in the minds of rapists is nothing but politics of convenience. All a politician wants is to kill the visibly violent manifestation of the society’s underlying misogynist culture so that they don’t have to deal with meaningful dialogues on long-term social deterrents for such horrific crimes. That is why every time a rape case has caught public attention, political leaders have preferred to talk about killing the rapist rather than taking on the responsibility of meaningfully addressing sexual violence perpetuated by patriarchal attitudes.
In this context noted Supreme Court lawyer Rebecca John says, “dozens of studies across the world have shown that the death penalty is not a deterrent to the commission of crimes, including in cases of rape. There is no evidence to suggest that the death penalty acted as deterrence.” She adds that “at the government level, regular gender and anti-patriarchal training and sensitization of investigating agencies in cases of sexual offenses are required.”
Rebecca further says, “in the clamour for the death penalty, the harder work of addressing the root causes of sexual violence, including ending patriarchal mindsets, gender sensitization, and empowerment for women and other minorities, often slides under the radar.”
In the Supreme Court judgment of 2017 concerning the Nirbhaya gang rape case of Delhi, Justice Banumathi had noted, “apart from effective implementation of the various legislation protecting women, change in the mind-set of the society at large and creating awareness in the public on gender justice, would go a long way to combat violence against women.”
A number of experts have also opined that, since both crimes are punishable by death, it could act as an “incentive” for criminals to commit murder in a rape case in order to destroy evidence.
Way Forward:
It becomes clearly known from the discussions above that death sentence is not an adequate deterrent to “instill fear” in the minds of rapists. It is also known that changes in patriarchal culture, toxic male masculinity will take enough time to change. So, what should the society, families, and public institutions do so that women are able to fearlessly lead a life of their choice and there is no threat to their safety from men with a diabolic mind-set? On the basis of opinions of experts, research studies, and others who have been involved with studying the subject of extreme sexual brutalities against women, some short term and long-term policy measures can be suggested as follows:
- Parents must be nudged to start sensitizing boys early about sexuality, violence, and masculinity. Teaching a boy how to ‘grow up as a man’ would be of no help! He may finally end up as a sexual predator. This should be reinforced in schools and other educational institutions.
- Invest in public sex education through community based formal and informal organisations. This will have positive impact in a few years.
- Provide regular sensitisation training to police officers. They are often the first point of contact for women in cases of sexual violence against them and women do not feel comfortable in approaching police because of their obnoxious behaviour.
- Ensure that judicial reforms undertaken in recent years are applied in reality to fast-track rape cases. Experts aver that certainty and swiftness in awarding punishment are much more effective deterrents than severity.
- Sensitise officials at various levels to be sensitive about women and their challenges. They must be able to realize that women would never need protection if safety is guaranteed. Officials also should interpret women’s workplace in a wider context. For example, a workplace for a street vendor is the street; the workplace for a wood collector is the community forest; the workplace for a housemaid is the home of their employer. Wider use of definitions of workplace would help working women deal with sexual harassment in workplace more effectively.
- Institutionalise social auditing of police stations, Women’s Commissions, Censor Board, media houses, and other agencies that work on crimes against women or create narratives impacting women. These audits must be done by a group drawn from the public which should include at least 50% local women and the rest 50% should be professionals such as doctors, psychologists, lawyers, and the like.
