Title:
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Dimensions of sexual aggression
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This thesis explores sexual aggression in men, focussing primarily on the bases and
manifestations of rape in western society. A multivariate, meta-theoretical approach is
adopted, given the diversity, and complexity of the phenomenon drawing on general,
and specific literature, both ancient and modem. There are many seminal and classic
pieces of work which are often overlooked when doing contemporary research on redefined
constructs and ambiguous concepts which have their basis in much older
theoretical considerations of human constructs; concepts which have puzzled
philosophers and scientists for millennia. It offers a critique of clinical, forensic and
offender profiling approaches adopted to discriminate sexual offenders, and proposes
the use of behavioural scales to characterise them. The research and discussion reflect
a facet-theoretic influence with respect to methodological orientation in the study of
behaviour.
This work de constructs the psychological perspectives on sexual aggression and reintegrates
them within the proposed multi-dimensional model of sexual aggression.
The approach is necessarily general, since there is neither a definitive model of human
behaviour that can be applied to sexual aggression, nor a model of sexual aggression
that can fully explain the differences between sex offenders. The empirical data
derives from police and clinical sources and is examined for the presence of
underlying components, or dimensions, within the spectrum of sexually aggressive
acts. Associations between these dimensions, and clinically identified motivations are
explored, revealing intuitive associations between action and intent. Statistical
analyses lend support for the constructs themselves, while the conceptual model is
inevitably theoretical, because statistics only simplify reality.
The resultant model is defined in terms of Context (societal and localised), Biological
pre-disposition (Temperamental variation), Interpersonal style (Aggressive to Intimate
and Dominant to Submissive), Motivation (Cognition and Affect), and Sexual
Variation (Normal to Deviant Appetites). It is proposed that these domains are
correspondent to each other within a generalised model of sexual aggression.
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