A framework for understanding sexual violence: Incentive-motivation and hierarchical control

Abstract The article applies an incentive-motivation model to sexual violence. It suggests that insights can be gained by looking at the biopsychological processes that underlie ‘conventional behavior’. It argues that sexual violence, as in rape, arises from a fusion between (i) sexual motivation an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Aggression and violent behavior 2017-05, Vol.34, p.238-253
Main Authors: Toates, Frederick, Smid, Wineke, van den Berg, Jan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aggressiveness
Behavior
Brain
Discounting
Dominance
Dopamine
Fantasy
Habituation
Hierarchy
Impulsivity
Inhibition
Motivation
Psychiatry
Psychobiology
Rape
Sensation seeking
Sex crimes
Sexual fantasies
Sexual motivation
Sexual violence
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Summary:Abstract The article applies an incentive-motivation model to sexual violence. It suggests that insights can be gained by looking at the biopsychological processes that underlie ‘conventional behavior’. It argues that sexual violence, as in rape, arises from a fusion between (i) sexual motivation and (ii) sensation-seeking and varying strengths of dominance/aggression motivations. The excitatory part of the motivational system is rooted in brain dopamine and sexual violence is expressed in behavior when excitation exceeds inhibition. The assumptions are framed within the principle of the hierarchical control of behavior. The incentive-motivation and hierarchical framework can yield insights into such phenomena as planning and impulsivity, future discounting, habituation and escalation, violence as addiction, the role of fetishes, sexual fantasy, stress, drugs and brain development.
ISSN:1359-1789
1873-6335
DOI:10.1016/j.avb.2017.01.001