In scholarly literature and criminology, gang rape, also called serial gang rape, party rape, group rape, or multiple perpetrator rape, is the rape of a single victim by two or more violators. Gang rapes are forged on shared identity, religion, ethnic group, or race. There are multiple motives for serial gang rapes, such as for sexual entitlement, asserting sexual prowess, war, punishment, and, in up to 30% of cases, for targeting racial minorities, religious minorities, or ethnic groups.
Gang rapes can be part of genocidal rape or ethnic cleansing campaigns.
Gang rape in literature
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible documents two narratives of gang rapes: the infamous account of Sodom and the story of the Levite Concubine in Gibeah (presented as a doublet with mimicking literary structure to the former). Both instances result in the judgement of God through destruction and war respectively.
Perpetrator characteristics
Gang rapes are typically perpetrated by two or more men, and tend to have somewhat different characteristics than rapes by individuals. For instance, gang rapists tend to be younger and are more often repeat offenders, and the gang is more likely to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Gang rapes are more violent on average compared to its individual counterpart, with significantly more severe sexual and non-sexual injuries to the victim. The gang members also typically dehumanize the victim more before and during the rape. Gang rapes are almost always premeditated in their intent, target victim(s), social proof, and psychological causes. Social factors such as civil wars, hate propaganda, and ethnic conflicts increase the rate of gang rape.
Rape gang members often have a binding force such as the same race, or place of residence thereby forming a close-knit peer pressure group, encouraged by the behavior of their fellow criminals. Gang rape can result from a group form of criminal spin, in which the group starts with less serious offenses which ultimately lead them to go well beyond their initial intention.
In a 2013 study based on 25-year crime data from US and Europe, between 10% and 20% of all rapes were gang rapes. Less than one in three gang rapes are reported, while less than 1 in 20 attempted but failed gang rapes are reported.
Motives
Sexual entitlement and entertainment
A 2013 Lancet report found that among the motives for rape were sexual entitlement and seeking of entertainment. Associated factors in the crime included alcohol misuse, poverty, personal history of childhood victimization, need to prove heterosexual performance, dominance over women, and participation in gangs and related activities. , according to the report, most cases were not reported to law enforcement, and just 23% of single or multiple perpetrator rapes that were reported by the victims ended in prison sentence. The 1886 Mount Rennie rape case in Sydney, Australia falls in this category.
As an act of war
Gang rapes during civil wars and ethnic riots take added dimension of becoming a means of revenge, sending a message to the victims' community, inducing fear in the opponent, and creating a sense of solidarity among the soldiers or militants or the violent group. At least 20,000 women were raped or gang raped and afterwards killed during the Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).
Major ethnic conflicts and wars within the last 50 years have witnessed a campaign of gang rapes. Rapes by Soviet soldiers and the Mahmudiyah rape and killings by American soldiers are examples of such war crimes.
The Congo war saw thousands of gang rapes every week, with each relief center reporting 10 or more daily victims of gang rape with battering of women. The Rwandan genocide of 1994 witnessed numerous gang rapes by soldiers. The Bosnian war during the 1990s saw a similar campaign of gang rapes. In the 1990s, the Kashmir region which was a battlefield between Jihadists and the Indian armed forces also saw a number of gang rapes which were perpetrated by both sides of the conflict to instill fear in the population of each side.
In the 2000s, civil war-torn countries such as Sudan, Afghanistan and Syria reported high rates of gang rapes by government soldiers, security forces, insurgents, and militias. Similar incidents have been recorded in Libya, and Mali.
As punishment
A 2013 Lancet report on rape and gang rape in Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka found that the crime was committed for various motives, including as a means to inflict punishment on the victim.