given out by women in social situations and may lack the inhibitions that act to suppress associations between sex and aggression. they may have coercive sexual fantasies, and overall are more hostile towards women than men who are not sexually violent. in addition to these factors, sexually violent men are believed to differ from other men in terms of impulsivity and antisocial tendencies. they also tend to have an exaggerated sense of masculinity. sexual violence is also associated with a preference for impersonal sexual relationships as opposed to emotional bonding, with having many sexual partners and with the inclination to assert personal interests at the expense of others. a further association is with adversarial attitudes on gender, which hold that women are opponents to be challenged and conquered. research on convicted rapists the research on convicted rapists has found several important motivational factors in the sexual aggression of males. those motivational factors repeatedly implicated are having anger at women and having the need to control or dominate them. a study by marshall et al. (2001) found that male rapists had less empathy toward women who had been sexually assaulted by an unknown assailant and more hostility toward women than non-sex-offenders and nonoffender males/females. meta-analyses indicate that convicted rapists demonstrate greater sexual arousal to scenes of sexual coercion involving force than do non-rapists. social factors factors operating at a societal level that influence sexual violence include laws and national policies relating to gender equality in general and to sexual violence more specifically, as well as norms relating to the use of violence. while the various factors operate largely at local level, within families, schools, workplaces and communities, there are also influences from the laws and norms working at national and even international levels. family and other social supports early childhood environments there is evidence to suggest that sexual violence is also a learned behavior in some adults, particularly in regard to child sexual abuse. studies on sexually abused boys have shown that around one in five later molest children themselves. childhood environments that are physically violent, emotionally unsupportive and characterized by competition for scarce resources have been associated with sexual violence. sexually aggressive behavior in young men, for instance, has been linked to witnessing family violence, and having emotionally distant and uncaring fathers. men raised in families with strongly patriarchal structures are also more likely to become violent, to rape and use sexual coercion against women, as well as to abuse their intimate partners, than men raised in homes that are more egalitarian. family honor and sexual purity another factor involving social relationships is a family's response that blames women without punishing men, concentrating instead on restoring lost family honor. such a response creates an environment in which rape can occur with impunity. while families will often try to protect female members from rape and may also put their daughters on contraception to prevent visible signs should it occur, there is rarely much social pressure to control young men or persuade them that coercing sex is wrong.nstead, in some countries, there is frequently support for family members to do whatever is necessary, including murder, to alleviate the shame associated with a rape or other sexual transgression. in a review of all honor killings occurring in jordan in 1995, researchers found that in over 60% of the cases, the victim died from multiple gunshot wounds, mostly at the hands of a brother. in cases where the victim was a single pregnant woman, the offender was either acquitted of murder or received a reduced sentence. social stressors war and natural disasters lawlessness during wars and civil conflicts can create a culture of impunity towards human rights abuses of civilians. some irregular armies and militias tacitly endorse looting of civilian areas as a way for troops to supplement their meagre incomes, and promote pillaging and rape of civilians as a reward for victory. in 2008, the united nations security council argued that "women and girls are particularly targeted by the use of sexual violence, including as a tactic of war to humiliate, dominate, instil fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate civilian members of a community or ethnic group." refugees and internally displaced people who flee their homes during war and major disasters can experience human trafficking for sexual or labour exploitation due to the breakdown of economies and law and order. speaking at the un general assembly in 2010, the un special rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences noted women's particular vulnerability and increased risk of experiencing violence following disasters. following the 2010 haiti earthquake, large numbers of women and girls living in internally displaced persons camps experienced sexual violence. the inter-american commission on human rights recognized the need for state actors to respond to gender-based violence committed by private actors, in response to a petition by haitian groups and human rights lawyers calling on the haitian government and international actors to take immediate measures—like increasing lighting, security, and access to medical care—to address sexual violence against women and girls in the idp camps. poverty poverty is linked to both the perpetration of sexual violence and the risk of being a victim of it. several authors have argued that the relationship between poverty and perpetration of sexual violence is mediated through forms of crisis of masculine identity. bourgois, writing about life in east harlem, new york, united states, described how young men felt pressured by models of successful masculinity and family structure passed down from their parents' and grandparents' generations, together with modern-day ideals of manhood that also place an emphasis on material consumption. trapped in their slums, with little or no available employment, they are unlikely to attain either of these models or expectations of masculine success. in these circumstances, ideals of masculinity are reshaped to emphasize misogyny, substance abuse and participation in crime and often also xenophobia and racism. gang rape and sexual conquest are normalized, as men turn their aggression against women they can no longer control patriarchally or support economically. physical environment while fear of rape is typically associated with being outside the home, the great majority of sexual violence actually occurs in the home of the victim or the abuser. nonetheless, abduction by a stranger is quite often the prelude to a rape and the opportunities for such an abduction are influenced by the physical environment. the social environment within a community is, however, usually more important than the physical surrounding. how deeply entrenched in a community beliefs in male superiority and male entitlement to sex are will greatly affect the likelihood of sexual violence taking place, as will the general tolerance in the community of sexual assault and the strength of sanctions, if any, against perpetrators. for instance, in some places, rape can even occur in public, with passersby refusing to intervene. legal and social deterrents of victims reporting sexual assault women in various countries face serious risks if they report rape. these risks include being subjected to violence (including honor killings) by their families, being prosecuted for sex outside marriage, or being forced to marry their rapist. this creates a culture of impunity that allows rape to go unpunished. "delegation clauses" used in many nursing home contracts have been blamed for effectively permitting the rape of residents. social norms sexual violence committed by men is to a large extent rooted in ideologies of male sexual entitlement. these belief systems grant women extremely few legitimate options to refuse sexual advances. some men thus simply exclude the possibility that their sexual advances towards a woman might be rejected or that a woman has the right to make an autonomous decision about participating in sex. in some cultures women, as well as men, regard marriage as entailing the obligation on women to be sexually available virtually without limit, though sex may be culturally proscribed at certain times, such as after childbirth or during menstruation. societal norms around the use of violence as a means to achieve objectives have been strongly associated with the prevalence of rape. in societies with a machismo ideology - emphasizing dominance, physical strength and male honor - rape is more common. countries with a culture of violence, or where violent conflict is taking place, experience an increase in almost all forms of violence, including sexual violence. economic factors many of the factors operating at a national level have an international dimension. global trends, for instance towards free trade, have been accompanied by an increase in the movement around the world of women and girls for labor, including for sex work. economic structural adjustment programmes, drawn up by international agencies, have accentuated poverty and unemployment in a number of countries, thereby increasing the likelihood of sexual trafficking and sexual violence, something particularly noted in central america, the caribbean and parts of africa. social climate theories feminist theories of male-female rape a feminist theory of male-female rape is summarized by susan brownmiller's statement: "rape is nothing more or less than a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear". some feminists assert that male domination of women in socio-political and economic domains is the ultimate cause of most rapes, and consider male-female rape to be a crime of power that has little or nothing to do with sex itself. however, a 1983 study comparing 14 indicators of male dominance and the incidence of rape in 26 american cities found no correlations, except one where greater male dominance actually decreased the incidence of rape. social learning theory of rape is similar to the feminist theory and links cultural traditions such as imitation, sex-violence linkages, rape myths (e.g., "women secretly desire to be raped"), and desensitization to be the core causes of rape. rape culture rape culture is a term used within women's studies and feminism, describing a culture in which rape and other sexual violence (usually against women) are common and in which prevalent attitudes, norms, practices, and media condone, normalize, excuse, or encourage sexualized violence. within the paradigm, acts of sexism are commonly employed to validate and rationalize normative misogynistic practices; for instance, sexist jokes may be told to foster disrespect for women and an accompanying disregard for their well-being, which ultimately make their rape and abuse seem "acceptable". examples of behaviors said to typify rape culture include victim blaming, trivializing prison rape, and sexual objectification. rape culture as a concept and social reality was explored in detail in the 1975 film rape culture, produced by margaret lazarus and renner wunderlich for cambridge documentary films. gender based socialization and sexual scripts studies of college-aged sexually active men and women show they often conceptualize men as sexual initiators and women as sexual gatekeepers. it has been argued that sexual assault trials, as well as rape itself, may be influenced by cultural narratives of men as sexual instigators. boys are brought up to be sexually aggressive, dominant and conquering, as a way of affirming their masculinity. catharine mackinnon argues that men rape "for reasons that they share in common even with those who don't, namely masculinity and their identification with masculine norms and in particular being the people who initiate sex and being the people who socially experience themselves as being affirmed by aggressive initiation of sexual interaction". according to check and malamuth (1983), men are taught to take the initiative and persist in sexual encounters, while women are supposed to set the limits. this classical sexual script is often popularized through television shows, popular films and pornography, which depict the man making a sexual advance and the woman initially resisting, but then finally positively responding by falling in love with him or experiencing orgasm (cowen, lee, levy, and snyder, 1988; malamuth and check, 1981; smith, 1976; waggett, 1989). the implied message is that men should persist beyond a woman's protest and women should say "no" even if they desire sex (muehlenhard and mccoy, 1991). the more traditional the society, the closer the adherence to this sexual script. for this reason, many men do not believe that a woman means "no" when she says "no", and continue to pressure the woman, and ultimately coerce or force her into sex; consent often becomes confused with submission. in many societies, men who do not act in a traditionally masculine