Predator's psyche
All guns are now trained on the rapist. In the last week of November, the Supreme Court, anguished at the increasing incidence of rape, asked lower courts not to show any leniency while punishing rapists. The apex court's pronouncements reflected the general climate of opinion. Senior ministers of the Union government and jurists had demanded the same after the series of rapes in the capital two months ago. Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani even advocated the death sentence. Will all this act as a deterrent on the lurking man? For that, one has to look into the mind of a rapist and attempt to chart its innards. Is he a monster on the prowl, looking for nubile young things or is he the flawed product of broken families where love has no meaning? These are complex questions which psychologists and crimino-logists have tried to address. There are no easy answers. But years of painstaking research into the criminal mind have brought out some salient facts, hints rather. To state the obvious, there is no way you can identify a rapist among the crowd. "There are no physical characteristics which differentiate a sexual predator from a normal person," said Dr Rajat Mitra, director of Swanchetan, an NGO working for rape victims. "It is difficult to identify him." Most of the convicted rapists lodged in Tihar jail lead normal lives and show no signs of mental illness. "They don't suffer from hallucinations or delusions," said Mitra. "They are not crazy people. They are not different but think differently." The key to the rapist's psyche hides in the phrase, "think differently." It sounds like a grotesque parody of a corporate power slogan. And surely, power and dominance are the themes in the rapist's troubled mind. The abduction and rape of a Swiss diplomat in Delhi on October 14 is a case in point. The suspect spoke fluent English and after raping the woman, tried to impress her by talking about international politics. "The rapist wants to dominate and control his victim through intimidation and coercion, even using physical violence," Mitra said. It is probably an explosive fuel of power and sex that drives him. While narrating how he lured a victim, a rapist lodged in Tihar kept on saying, "She was totally under my power.... I liked subjugating her." Outraged:
Activists demonstrating after the Profiling a criminal is not a brain-tickling pastime. It is a survival tool especially in a country where one woman is raped every hour. This year, the Delhi Police registered 382 cases of rape until October. In Mumbai, there were 108 rapes in the same period. Just a week before the Swiss diplomat rape, a college girl was raped by four troopers of the elite President's Body Guard. Delhi's joint commissioner of police, Maxwell Pereira, feels that the prevailing culture has galvanised the rapist. "Women are not respected," he said. "She is considered a commodity with which one can play around." In rapists, this tendency touches the very extreme. Psychologists call it objectification-seeing a person as an object, a dehumanised and depersonalised target. The rapist is a canny being. Not only does he feel himself to be above the law, but he feels that he is smarter than the law. He can hoodwink it again and again. In fact, there is pleasure in doing so. "A rapist always thinks that he is cleverer than the system," said Mitra. Most of them are surprised when they are caught. At the centre of the rapist's being, there is confusion about values. "He can't make out what is right and what is wrong," said Mitra. In the cauldron of his mind fair becomes foul and foul fair. Mitra, who is preparing a profile of rapists in Tihar, said: "Objectivity is low and subjectivity is high." Translated, this means that the rapist lives in a bizarre world of his own. The psyche of the rapist has been dissected in the west much more thoroughly. So much so that it even sounds a trifle academic. The Federal Bureau of Investigation in the US, for instance, identifies five types of rapists. The first is the power reassurance rapist, who forces his fantasy on the victim, since he is unable to realise it with other women in "normal terms". The rapist believes that the victims are willing, participatory lovers. Many rapists lodged in Tihar jail said the victims actually enjoyed the rape but complained later. They refuse to believe it was not so. Delhi's joint commissioner of police, Maxwell Pereira, puts the blame on the prevailing culture of considering a woman a commodity. The second category is the power assertive rapist, who wants to show off his male prowess. Men who rape their lovers fall in this category. Anger retaliatory rapists are extremely hostile and aggressive men, who are probably taking revenge for some perceived wrong. The anger excitation rapist is the most dangerous of all since he is aroused by the suffering of his victim. The last is opportunity rapist, who just wants to have sex. There is some research which hints that rapists come from broken families. But there is no concrete evidence as such. "They could have suffered abuse in their childhood and are likely to be abusers," said Raj Mangal Prasad, the president of an NGO helping rape victims. Mitra, however, said it was too simplistic a formula. Many rapists in Tihar come from normal families. "It depends on many factors," he said. "But one thing is true. Most rapists can't imagine having a steady relationship with a woman. For them, a woman is just an object to be subjugated." A convict in Tihar put it more crudely when he said, "A woman has to be kept under the sharp edge of a knife or penis." It is a terrible power-sex game. Mitra perceives a subtle attempt nowadays to shift blame to the rapist's family and even the victim. "The attitude that the victim asked for it takes the responsibility for the attack away from the assailant," he said. "Many even say that the accused was drunk and so had no idea what he was doing. That is stupid," he said. He also disagreed with the "commonsense" contention that women who wear provocative clothes attracted rapists. "It is sheer nonsense," said Mitra. "Rape happens to women of all ages. Usually a sexual predator chooses a victim on the basis of her vulnerability and not her physical appearance." The psycho profile of the rapist is a bizarre jumble of indicators. There are a lot of blank spaces. The indicators delineated by crimino-logists are mostly intuitively identified by women. The practical rule for women is still the age-old rule. Trust your intuition. Be careful. EXCLUSIVE
Ritika was sleeping next to her elder sister when she felt someone lift her skirt. She was shocked to find the 'uncle' patting her thighs and tried to push him away. She, however, did not tell anybody about it and he grew bolder. The next time he did it, Ritika told her mother, who did not believe her. She realised she was on her own and began avoiding him. One day when she was alone at home, he raped her. No one felt anything was amiss even when a pale-faced Ritika refused to go to school the next day. She hoped it was a bad dream but the assault continued for four weeks. "I felt dirty," she said. She began wearing clothes that covered her completely, discarding her preferred jeans and T-shirt. "Skirts were a no-no," she said. "I thought if I covered myself, it would protect me." Things changed when her sister caught the 'uncle' red-handed. "He was beaten up and jailed," said Ritika. "But it was too late for me." Her parents berated her for not telling them earlier. "I was depressed," she said. "I wanted to die." She took poison but was saved. After the suicide attempt, her parents took her to a psychiatrist. It took ten months for Dr Rajat Mitra and a woman counsellor to win her trust. "She told me she could never dance again as she used to," said Mitra. Ritika used to learn Bharatanatyam. After the post-traumatic stress disorder phase, she took the first step towards normalcy when she decided to go to a gym. "It was a rebirth," said Ritika. "Today I want to live." The 20-year-old university student still cringes when men pass by her. "I want to fight injustice in society," she said, wiping away her tears. "I would like to become a lawyer so that I can give strength to someone who has suffered as I have."
EXCLUSIVE
She was alone and looked confused and docile when she entered the hotel where I worked as a waiter. She asked for a glass of water. It was then that I felt that she was a possible target. It was 8 a.m. There were few customers at the hotel and I had time to spare. I decided to gain her trust. I had come to Delhi in 1994 from a village in Madhya Pradesh and knew what it meant to be alone in a city. I looked at the girl and gave her a smile. She smiled back. She was not weak, but looked vulnerable. Obviously she had run away from home. I talked to her softly, trying to find out why she was here. She haltingly told me that she had come to look for an uncle who lived in the city. Her stepmother's cruelty had forced her to run away. I told her I would help her to find her uncle. Her face lit up. But I could make out she was still not ready to trust me fully. I took her to a wrong location and asked the people living there about her uncle. They said they knew nobody by that name.The girl was heart-broken but I comforted her. To ease her mind, I took her to a movie. If I wanted I could have touched her in the dark. But I didn't. I had planned everything. When we came out from the cinema hall, I realised that she trusted me and was completely under my power. I told her we should meet a friend who could help us. I took her to my rented room and introduced my friend. It was this friend who had introduced me to the pleasures of the flesh when I first came to Delhi. One day, he had found a teenager at the railway station who had run away from home. He acted as her benefactor and brought her home. I felt like a king while trying to control the whimpering girl. I always believed women should be subjugated. This time, I wanted my friend to share my booty. We took out a bottle and started drinking. Both of us were getting restless. My friend finally grabbed her. When she screamed, he gave her one tight slap, which sent her sprawling. We barred her way, pulled her hair and bashed her up. Her loud screams and cries for help excited me. The day after, we left the girl and went to work. The next thing I know, I was arrested. The girl had escaped and called the police. I was surprised to see the police because I was sure I would not be arrested. I
am in Tihar Jail now. The lower court has given me a life sentence.
I think it is all fate. I am not a sexual predator, but a normal
person. If only I had run away....
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