
In interviews with rapists, student pursues not-so-simple question: why? - ValentineC
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/12/16/570827107/in-interviews-with-122-rapists-student-pursues-not-so-simple-question-why
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tim333
The Washington Post article on the same story has more detail and some of the
researcher's ideas where the problem is
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/09/11...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/09/11/a-woman-
interviewed-100-convicted-rapists-in-india-this-is-what-she-learned/)

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warbaker
The analysis is kinder to the rapists than the data.

They state that they believe that this ruins the woman's marital prospects
forever, but that didn't stop them from doing it.

Even within their belief system, they are acting monstrously.

Interviewing them is a great idea, but the researchers should be open to the
idea that the main problem is the boring, standard idea that violent criminals
have little empathy for their victims, and little impulse control.

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dingo_bat
Agreed. I hate this trend of trying to mellow everything down to some harmless
palatable cause. People rape because they are worthless scum who don't think
about their victim's wellbeing. People murder because they don't value their
victim's life. I don't need to justify their fucked up behaviour using some
humane analysis of their psyche. Just lock them up and throw away the key.

~~~
warent
This is a mentality that humans have had since the dawn of history. Not
necessarily towards rape specifically, but to things the broader popular
society finds morally reprehensible.

Your line of reasoning is totally normal for the human condition and has been
used for thousands of years now. Here we are today without any lack of morally
reprehensible problems. Don't you think it's time we changed our strategy and
rose above this animalistic, purely instinctual nature? It's time we got out
of this mess.

~~~
someguydave
> Don't you think it's time we changed our strategy and rose above this
> animalistic, purely instinctual nature?

The poster's reaction is justified disgust toward someone who is clearly
dangerous to his fellow humans.

Why should traditions that have served humanity well be cast aside because it
is $CURRENTYEAR? The burden of proof is on those who would do otherwise, not
the natural and obvious thing.

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ck425
This reminds me of the Netflix series Mindhunter, about the FBI doing the same
with serial killers in the 70s. It's based on real life work. Well worth
watching both for the complicated but well handled subject matter and for the
direction (David Fincher) and performances.

For anyone doubting the 'morality' of this researc or presuming rapists are
just vile apathetic scumbags and nothing more, go watch it or better yet read
the real life story it's based on. This kind of research has saves hundreds of
lives and prevented many men (mostly) from becoming serial killers. Let's hope
this new research does the same for rapists.

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justinnhli
A list of Madhumita Pandey's publications can be found at
[https://theconversation.com/profiles/madhumita-
pandey-276284](https://theconversation.com/profiles/madhumita-pandey-276284)

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cm2012
What a disturbing article. I wouldn't have thought _all_ the men were
remorseless.

~~~
spodek
> she said she would only interview willing participants

They selected themselves. Remorseful ones, if any, may have chosen not to
participate.

~~~
ScottBurson
> Remorseful ones, if any, may have chosen not to participate.

Conceivable, but then why were most of the murderers she interviewed
remorseful? Why would remorseful murderers be willing to talk but not
remorseful rapists?

~~~
scotty79
>> Remorseful ones, if any, may have chosen not to participate.

> Conceivable, but then why were most of the murderers she interviewed
> remorseful?

Maybe it's easier to become convicted accidental murderer than convicted
accidental rapist?

Most people who killed didn't really want to do that. Maybe that's not the
case for rapist.

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wasx
Is there anywhere we can read the responses? I would be interested in hearing
how they justify their actions and attitudes

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ramzyo
It’s so terribly sad that there are men who think this way.

~~~
Posibyte
I wonder if there's an analogous group of women that behave this way as well.
The article didn't really dive into motivations, so I wonder how much of it is
cultural and how much of it is related to general mental health. And if it is
related to the latter, is it possibly a universal condition that also afflicts
women as well, in such that it may not be sexual, but that small groups of
women can have these predispositions to the worth, behavior, and attitudes
towards men with little remorse for their ultimate actions against them.

~~~
aaron-lebo
You'll find that a lot of predators (serial killers, sexual predators) were
abused as children. Poverty seems to be a factor, but that alone doesn't
usually cause such a lack of remorse later in life. Something like extreme
affluenza seems to cause it in some people, too. That's probably more about
having control over someone else and being used to get your way, even being
rewarded for it.

Wiki's got lots of information on the topic if you don't mind seeing how
people can turn into animals.

~~~
toomuchtodo
The root cause (whether nature or nurture) seems to be a lack of empathy.

Could you detect empathetic capabilities with fMRI? If deficient, would you
mandate treatment? Besides therapy, is there a treatment?

~~~
raarts
There are scientists who claim psychopathy can be detected on brain scans. And
since 1-4% of the population are estimated to be psychopaths (most of which
end up in prison, and the rest works their way up in society), this could well
be a very impactful avenue of further research.

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donatj
I would be interested to see results of similar studies compared across
different cultures.

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megaman22
Keystone Light. Zhenka. Mr. Boston. There's your reasons for most cases of
sexual assault on college campuses.

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Alex3917
Has the actual paper been published yet? I'm wondering if she also tested them
for IQ, blood lead levels, etc.

Given that the WaPo article says that many of them had only a third or fourth
grade education, this strikes me as possibly just making fun of people with
disabilities.

~~~
chiaro
>Given that the WaPo article says that many of them had only a third or fourth
grade education, this strikes me as possibly just making fun of people with
disabilities.

When the topic is rape, you always go into these comments expecting some kind
of reflexive criticism or minimisation but this is honestly one of the most
bizarre manifestations of that yet.

~~~
tnzn
This also strikes me as the American obsession about passing IQ tests in every
single study.

Do you remember some other excuses he suggested in the past?

