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This paper analyzes the excuses and justifications which a sample of convicted, incarcerated rapists used to explain themselves and their crimes. Excuses consisted of appeals to forces outside of their control which, the men argued, compelled them to rape. Justifications attempted to present their own behavior as situationally appropriate and, using a number of common rape stereotypes, to make their victims appear culpable. We demonstrate how these excuses and justifications allowed the majority of these rapists to view themselves as either non-rapists or “exrapists.” Finally, through their narrative accounts, we explore convicted rapists' own perceptions of their crime.
Scully et al. (Fri,) studied this question.