ABSTRACT
According to the sexual preference hypothesis, men commit rapes because they are more sexually aroused by coercive sexual fantasies and behaviors than by sexual activities involving two consenting adults (Barbaree, 1990). Partial support for this hypothesis is provided by Lalumière and Quinsey’s (1994) meta-analysis of 16 phallometric studies; the authors concluded that “Rapists, as a group, respond more to rape cues than to consenting sexual cues in comparison to non-sex offenders, and non-sex offenders prefer consenting sex to rape” (p. 16). However, rapists exhibited a mean rape index greater than one (indicating a sexual preference for rape) in only nine of the 16 studies. Such results indicate that not all rapists have a sexual preference for rape. Furthermore, the proportion of rapists with such a preference varies considerably from setting to setting, from as low as 25% in a correctional institution (Beauregard, Lussier, & Proulx, 2004), to as high as 61% in a maximum-security psychiatric institution (Michaud & Proulx, 2009). Consequently, although deviant sexual preference is an important explanatory factor for rape, it is not relevant for all rapists (Barbaree & Marshall, 1991).
