Review of The Causes of Rape: Understanding Individual Differences in Male Propensity for Sexual Aggression.

MARTIN L. LALUMIERE, GRANT T. HARRIS, VERNON L. QUINSEX and MARNIE E. RICE The Causes of Rape: Understanding Individual Differences in Male Propensity for Sexual Aggression Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2005, 304 pages (ISBN 1-59147-186-9, US$59.95 Hardcover) The book presents an evolutionary explanation for rape, closely related to the writings of people like Wilson and Ellis, with which many readers will be familiar. It develops an argument that rape is a "mating effort" closely associated with "antisociality. " The book is divided into three parts, in addition to the brief introduction and the appendix. The first part, "general background," is organized into two chapters. Chapter one reviews a selection of texts that discuss a series of topics, including rape, male aggression, customary sanctioning of rape, and murders of women. These selections range from biblical excerpts to rates of rape, as reported by Statistics Canada and U.S. National Crime Victimization Surveys. As the authors acknowledge, most of this coverage is based on secondary references and interpretations, but they offer little explanation regarding the inclusion of this particular selection of texts at the exclusion of others. The second chapter surveys some of the biological research on forced copulation as a reproductive strategy in certain animal species. The species discussed include those for which this type of behaviour has been documented; however, no discussion is presented regarding species where this has not been observed. Part one prepares the reader for the evolutionary thesis that rape has occurred throughout history and across species because it is an adaptive reproduction strategy for some men. The review is intended to prepare the audience to think only in evolutionary terms (e.g., individual variations and selection) to explain not only traits, but all social behaviours. Periodic comments, and especially in the footnotes, remind us that it is not the authors' intent to trivialize the reality of rape for its victims, and that alternative interpretations of the data reported are possible. These comments do not exactly fit the thesis, and seem to have been added almost as an afterthought to calm the reader who might take offence to the psychobiological approach. The second part of the book is where the authors formally introduce the thesis that antisocial behaviour is closely linked with the proclivity to rape, and that rape must be understood as an effort to mate: "It seems safe to conclude that sexually coercive men engage in high mating efforts" (p. 75). To build their argument, numerous correlational studies are presented. According to the authors, these studies "strongly suggest that sexual aggression, like consenting sexual activities, is fundamentally a reproductive behavior" (p. 82). The reviewed literature focuses on the relationships between antisocial personality and the "mating effort" rape represents. Various pathways (rapist profiles) are proposed to explain why certain groups of men use a rape mating strategy. In this section, they also venture into the controversial area of women's resistance to sexual advances as a strategy to select a male partner with certain characteristics (e.g., willingness to date rape). Throughout Chapter 4, the reader is encouraged to follow the evolutionary argument not only to explain rape in its various forms, but also to explain economic inequality, seatbelt use, homicide rates, etc. In Chapter 5, the authors review the literature on phallometry as a tool for differentiating rapists from child molesters, nonrapists, and "normal" men. They attempt to settle an ongoing debate regarding whether it is possible to differentiate between the profile of a rapist and that of a normal man. This is not totally convincing, however, and the argument fizzles especially when reporting certain statistical findings. Take for example the following quote: "[they] studied 87 rapists and found that arousal to rape stories [. …