“The woman executive was raped allegedly by Shiv Kumar Yadav, a driver with Uber on Friday night, 5th of December, this year. Now it has emerged that he is a serial sex offender who was allegedly involved in two separate cases of rape in 2011 and 2013.”

Well, obviously when I first read this in the newspaper I felt dismayed, but my disillusionment was transcended by a ‘question’ that struck me almost suddenly: “What is the psychology of the rapist?” What could make an ordinary human turn to be such a brutal person and commit such a horrendous crime? My search for answers began that moment and till date I have gained quite some learning on the subject.

To begin with, we first have to understand what exactly rape means. In explicit and simple terms: “The purpose of rape is to hurt another human being while often making one feel superior as well.” That ‘rape is always associated with some form of sexual activity’ is a misconception and the statement is fallacious-Rape is fundamentally used to exert and establish power and ascendance over the other, and this could be done by the volition of the rapist, that too in the ‘manner’ in which he or she wants to proceed with it.

Take, for instance, that I am a sociopath and this is what I wish to tell the world about myself…

“I am an incorrigible and unchallengeable individual who will engage in behaviours and deeds for my own gratification, at the expense of another, and will use others for my own fulfillment irrespective of whether or not it causes harm. I do not have empathy for others and do not have a conscience, or experience penitence or guilt when I exploit others. I will do what makes me euphoric, and get what I demand, regardless of how my doings affect others.
I am sometimes vacillating between various thoughts-‘Am I a hedonist who consumes women to gratify his inner temptations?’… ‘Or am I a misogynist who unequivocally abhors women and thereby assaults women?’… ‘Or am I simply someone who abominates everyone around?’ But these thoughts eventually subside. Although I repeatedly advocate that I perform such debaucheries for the simple reason of ‘self-fulfillment’, I, and many others like me who have been designated the misnomer of a ‘RAPIST’, could actually be suffering from a ‘psychological drift’ which perhaps hit us at some point in our lives. I am not supporting that ‘ALL’ rapists are afflicted with this drift but I am bolstering my opinion that a few of our kind could really be pulled out of this abysmal struggle!”

Here, we must picture India in the frame and try to sympathize and understand that the men who, in actuality, detest women may have themselves been victims of affliction, of misery, of distress, or could have been abused by women, such as their mother, their aunt, or a female relative, or may have experienced some other traumatic scene with women during their childhood.

It is quite empirical that if a sociopath exists within a society that supports the use of women for sexual pleasure or otherwise, and circumscribes women in this stereotypical status, then rape may not even seem or feel wrong to him.

What does seem credible now is that when a community draws sturdy boundaries and has unyielding laws in place that are enforced to protect women, the frequency of such crimes is decreased. And, of course, these kinds of laws are a reflection of the societies’ own fidelity to its citizens, and a reflection of how much society values its own citizens.

It is true that hideous crimes do and will continue to exist even in the finest of societies. But, we the people of India, must be concerned with the fact that ‘the societies that observe that such behavior is a crime are the ones which take on the ability to abate the frequency of such crimes due to their awareness, their laws, and their ability and willingness to enforce the laws that, in general, protect the basic rights of its every citizen, and in specific, protect its most valuable traditional dignity: Its WOMEN…By walking through the sociopath’s mind and ameliorating his condition and thereby allowing him to be part of a truly accepting community which will progressively spread acceptance, respect and democracy at the global level.