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Gang Rape

What is Gang Rape?

Gang rape is when two or more offenders act together to rape the same victim. The offenders include those who actually obtain sexual relations with the victim as well as those who threaten or use force to make the victim submit but do not themselves have sexual relations.

Dynamics of Gang Rape

Gang rape is very different from individual acquaintance rape. Foremost among those differences is the use of the rape as a reinforcing mechanism for membership in the group of men. Perpetrators have a physical advantage of their position when gang rape occurs as it is conquest of multitudes over an individual.

Men who rape in groups might never commit rape alone. As they participate in gang rape, they experience a special bonding with each other, a unity of purpose that comes from the pride they feel in reducing their victim to nothing. Through the rape, they also prove their sexual ability to other group members and underscore their status. Often, the group’s leader is the first person to rape the victim with the underlings to follow. Sometimes two people will have consensual sex first and afterwards one party will invite others to take turns without the other’s consent.

According to Helen Benedict in her book Recover: How to Survive Sexual Assault for Women, Men, Teenagers, and Their Friends and Families, “Group rape has traditionally been considered less perverted than solitary rape because of the assumption that gang-raping someone is some kind of proof of masculinity, a sort of rite of passage.” Refusing to join in a gang rape might cause a group member to become excluded from the group or have their sexuality questioned.

Gang rape tends to have added humiliation to the victim, beyond that experienced by a single-assailant acquaintance rapes. There are many individuals who watched, participated, or were in the other room knowing what was going on and doing nothing to stop it. The humiliation grows after the attack as the persons involved in the gang rape brag about their conquest. The victim may also feel very betrayed by people that are seen in everyday life.

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