EMPATHY FOR THE VICTIM AND SEXUAL AROUSAL AMONG RAPISTS AND NONRAPISTS

One explanation of the finding that rapists and nonrapists differ in t heir sexual arousal patterns is that when listening to rape stories, n onrapists, but not rapists, empathize with the rape victim and their s exual arousal is inhibited by her suffering. Fourteen heterosexual rap ists and 14 men who were not sex offenders were presented with audiota ped narrations while their penile tumescence was measured. All stories described a male-female interaction and the categories included rape with victim enjoyment, rape with victim suffering, nonsexual assault b y the man, and consenting sexual and nonsexual heterosocial interactio ns. In each category, stories were told from either the woman's or man 's point of view. Overall, subjects showed higher arousal to stories d escribed from a female perspective. Consistent with the lack of empath y account of rape, rapists were less empathic than nonrapists and devi ant arousal was inversely related to self-reported empathy. The best d iscrimination between groups was obtained for rape stories told from t he point of view of a suffering victim. However, the finding that all rapists, but no nonrapists, preferred rape stories over consenting sex stories suggested that the lack of empathy account of rape was incomp lete. The present data suggest that cues of violence and victim distre ss contribute to sexual arousal among rapists.