The most common form of incest is sexual contact
between a father and daughter or a stepfather and
stepdaughter. Perpetration of inappropriate sexual
contact may occur only once, but more often, it takes
place over several years. It is not uncommon for incest
offenders to offend against several children in the
same family. Unlike child molesters, the majority of
incest offenders have female victims and their victims
tend to be older. While they may start offending
against a prepubescent child, the offending may con-
tinue after the child hits puberty.
Unlike a child molester, the incest offender is gen-
erally sexually attracted to adult females. Most incest
offenders have had consensual, age-appropriate part-
ners at some point in their lives. While by definition
they would be considered pedophiles as they are
engaging in sexual acts with a minor, they often view
the victim as a surrogate for an age-appropriate part-
ner. Incest offenders often only start abusing children
as a way to cope with the stress they are experiencing.
Stressors reported by incest offenders include dysfunc-
tional relationships, sexual problems or dissatisfaction,
and social isolation. Often alcohol and drugs are
involved in the commission of the offense. However,
once identified, incest offenders have the lowest rates
of recidivism compared with other sex offenders.Rapists
Rape is generally defined as forced sexual intercourse
without consent against adult victims. Rape is a vio-
lent crime. Rapists engage in behaviors such as
threats, hostility, and physical violence to overpower
the victims and force them into sexual activity against
their will. Rape does not always result in overt physi-
cal injury to the victim. Rapists’ primary interests are
self-gratification, dominance, and control. Unlike
child molesters and incest offenders, rapists generally
offend against the same victim only once. Rapists
have been found to have high levels of deviant sexual
arousal and impulsivity. Additionally, they are more
criminalized than child molesters and incest offend-
ers. Rapists who use violence in the perpetration of
the rape and who have a history of violent behavior
recidivate at higher rates than rapists who do not use
physical violence in the commission of the crime.
In 1979, Nicholas Groth identified three different
kinds of rapists: anger rapists, power rapists, and sadis-
tic rapists. According to Groth, anger rapists are angryabout a variety of issues in their lives and are unable to
cope with them in a prosocial manner. While their
anger may be directed at women, this is not always the
case. Anger rapists tend to use excessive physical and
verbal violence in the commission of the rape, thus
leaving the victim battered and bruised. In addition,
anger rapists may use weapons to hurt their victims.
The offenses are generally not planned and are short in
duration. The anger rapist tends to choose victims who
are perceived to be vulnerable when the rapist becomes
angry. It is believed that between 25% and 40% of all
rapes are committed by anger rapists.
Groth describes power rapists as offenders who use
power and control to dominate their victims. Contrary
to anger rapists, power rapists tend to use the threat of
violence, rather than violence, to force their victims
into submission. While a power rapist may use a
weapon in the commission of the rape, the weapon is
used primarily to gain compliance from the victim.
Victims of power rapists are often not physically
harmed during the perpetration of the crime. These
rapists seek out women who are both physically and
emotionally vulnerable and who will require little
force to be dominated. Groth estimates that the major-
ity of all rapists fall into the power rapist category.
The third type of rapist is the sadistic rapist.
According to Groth the sadistic rapist derives sexual
gratification from the physical and psychological suf-
fering of his or her victim and often engages in ritual-
ized sexual behavior involving degradation and torture
of the victim. Activities may range from restraint, beat-
ing, and punching, to stabbing, strangulation, torture,
and murder. Sadistic rapists frequently have psychiatric
difficulties that may have a direct relationship to the
offense behavior. Sadistic rapists often continue offend-
ing until they are apprehended, and the severity of
sadistic acts increases over time. It is estimated that
only between 2% and 5% of all rapes are committed by
a sadistic rapist. Due to the violent and sadistic nature
of their attacks, sadistic rapists often receive long
prison sentences.Exhibitionism
Exhibitionism is the most common form of sexual
offending behavior. The exhibitionist is typically a
male, and the victim is usually a female. Exhibitionists
derive sexual pleasure and arousal from the exposure of
their genitals or entire naked body to unsuspecting734 ———Sex Offender TypologiesS-Cutler (Encyc)-45463.qxd 11/18/2007 12:44 PM Page 734