Sexual Assault Essay

Sexual assault is defined as a type of behaviour that occurs without explicit consent from the recipient and under sexual assault come various categories such as sexual activities as forces sexual intercourse, incest, fondling, attempted rape and more (Justice.gov. 2017). People often become victims of sexual assault by someone they know and trust (Mason & Lodrick, 2013) which is conflicting to the public’s perception and beliefs that offenders are strangers. Women are the main victims for sexual assault and are 5 times more likely to have been a victim of sexual assault from a male (Wright, 2017, p. 93). Men are victims of sexual assault however only 0.7% of men, compared to 3.2% of women, experience some form of sexual assault which highlights

Sexual fantasy had often been defined as being almost any form of mental imagery that can be viewed as being sexually arousing to that individual (Bartels, 2013, p. 7) which can result in deviant sexual behaviour. Many offenders have sexual fantasies and the sexual arousal gained from these fantasies sometimes isn’t enough which therefore leads the offender acting the fantasies out on another individual regardless of the trauma or pain they inflict. The mental imagery of the fantasy can become less arousing and this can lead to them performing these fantasies in real life to get the sexual gratification they had when they first developed the fantasy. The offender in the article, Marc, Ronald’s, made his victim wear nappies and plastic underwear while he was assaulting and raping her which portrays the idea that he was fulfilling a sexual fantasy he may have had; this could link back to previous childhood experiences that may have caused trauma to the offender. Law and Marshall’s (1990) account of sexual fantasy has shown to have a similar assumption as McGuire et al (1965) that sexual fantasies are a stimulus that is able to be conditioned and fantasizing is a deliberate act by an individual. The offender urinated on his victim during the sexual assault which instigates

Groth (1979) recognised four types of rapists; power-reassurance, power-assertive, anger-retaliation and anger-excitation. According to Groth’s typology, Marc Ronald’s fits into two of the typologies, power-assertive and anger retaliation. Power-assertive rapists are those who experience feelings of inadequacy and have poor social skills; they doubt their desirability so result to using aggressive behaviour towards the victim to reinstate fears regarding masculinity. (Robertiello & Terry, 2007, p.509). Sex offenders that fall into this typology often use verbal intimidation against their victims to feel a sense of power. Marc Ronald’s has shown power-assertive traits through his behaviour as he used aggressive language towards the victim while he was assaulting her. This elaborates on the idea that his masculinity had been questioned in society and used this language to oppress and humiliate her; he is being assertive and aggressive to conceal the fact he does not feel powerful in society. Power-assertive offenders like to use drugs/alcohol prior to the assault and emotionally traumatise and torment their victims which reflects Marc’s actions as he drugged the victim with Valium to make sure she would not wake up during the assault and recorded the emotional torment for his own personal use. This behaviour elaborates on