Right after the Nirbhaya gang rape, she interviewed 142 rapists in Tihar jail. Madhumita Pandey, then a research scholar at Anglia Ruskin University, wanted to understand the attitudes that shape the crime. So between 2013 and 2018, she spoke to rape convicts about why they did what they did. Now a lecturer in criminology at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK, the 29-year-old talks to TOI’s Chandrima Banerjee about the culture that normalizes sexual violence and why she ended up feeling bad for some of those she spoke to.
What is the societal attitude towards rape convicts?
There is a widespread perception that rapists have more conservative and oppressive attitudes towards women. We, as a society, get so appalled by their actions that we don’t want to associate with them. We see them as ‘others’ — completely separate from us and our culture. That is what I’m studying now — attitudes towards sex offenders in India.
Can capital punishment deter such crimes?
I am a strong believer in reform and rehabilitation. In fact, no conclusive study shows that the death penalty will deter rape. Retribution is not a very helpful starting position. Instead, we should direct our attention towards structural societal change that addresses the asymmetric power relationship between men and women in our country.
What did you encounter when you met the inmates?
I wanted to explore if these men were, in fact, as exclusive and rare in their thinking about women as we tend to think. And the answer is no. That is what was challenged in my interactions with these men. I had wild assumptions about what I would encounter inside. I was afraid they would misbehave with me or pass snide comments. But the hardest interviews were the ones where I came out feeling sorry for these men. It is a very conflicting feeling!
Did you feel that way because of guilt or remorse on their part?
I’d like to think they do feel shame but not in the sense we would expect. Their shame lies in being labeled as a ‘rapist’, which would stigmatise their life both inside and outside jail. It was perhaps this shame that made most of them deny having committed rape to an unknown woman researcher. They wanted to present their best selves. For a rapist to feel remorse, he must understand and accept his actions are wrong. Since most men in my research sample did not identify their action as wrong, they did not feel like they had anything to apologise for. They said they were not guilty.
What were the explanations they gave?
The underpinning commonality in everyone I spoke to was a sense of entitlement. That points to the male privilege in our society. There was acute victim-blaming, which is not unusual given the presence of stereotypes in our society about women. And there was a severe lack of understanding of consent.
And how have these attitudes been shaped?
Three main themes that played a role in the gender socialization process emerged from the narratives — watching gendered chores at home, ideas of ‘ideal’ womanhood based on cultural epics like Sita as an ‘ideal’ wife and closeness to their mothers to the extent that they revered her like a goddess. These men had observed their mothers with regard to her gendered behaviour within the household. The mother ‘set’ the gender roles within the family, which the men then internalized. These roles play an important role in shaping their attitudes towards women in adulthood, bolstered by the absence of fathers in early childhood. Most stuck to traditional notions of masculinity. There were instances when they got negative responses when they deviated from these gender prescriptive norms.
Social conditioning, then, creates the context for these attitudes?
To a large extent, historically, this is what most feminists have argued. Sexual violence takes place in the context of a rape culture, which is an intricate system of beliefs that supports male sexual aggression and maintains violence against women. Thus, viewing rape as a cultural phenomenon can have a deep impact on development of sexual violence prevention strategies.
What is the societal attitude towards rape convicts?
There is a widespread perception that rapists have more conservative and oppressive attitudes towards women. We, as a society, get so appalled by their actions that we don’t want to associate with them. We see them as ‘others’ — completely separate from us and our culture. That is what I’m studying now — attitudes towards sex offenders in India.
Can capital punishment deter such crimes?
I am a strong believer in reform and rehabilitation. In fact, no conclusive study shows that the death penalty will deter rape. Retribution is not a very helpful starting position. Instead, we should direct our attention towards structural societal change that addresses the asymmetric power relationship between men and women in our country.
What did you encounter when you met the inmates?
I wanted to explore if these men were, in fact, as exclusive and rare in their thinking about women as we tend to think. And the answer is no. That is what was challenged in my interactions with these men. I had wild assumptions about what I would encounter inside. I was afraid they would misbehave with me or pass snide comments. But the hardest interviews were the ones where I came out feeling sorry for these men. It is a very conflicting feeling!
Did you feel that way because of guilt or remorse on their part?
I’d like to think they do feel shame but not in the sense we would expect. Their shame lies in being labeled as a ‘rapist’, which would stigmatise their life both inside and outside jail. It was perhaps this shame that made most of them deny having committed rape to an unknown woman researcher. They wanted to present their best selves. For a rapist to feel remorse, he must understand and accept his actions are wrong. Since most men in my research sample did not identify their action as wrong, they did not feel like they had anything to apologise for. They said they were not guilty.
What were the explanations they gave?
The underpinning commonality in everyone I spoke to was a sense of entitlement. That points to the male privilege in our society. There was acute victim-blaming, which is not unusual given the presence of stereotypes in our society about women. And there was a severe lack of understanding of consent.
And how have these attitudes been shaped?
Three main themes that played a role in the gender socialization process emerged from the narratives — watching gendered chores at home, ideas of ‘ideal’ womanhood based on cultural epics like Sita as an ‘ideal’ wife and closeness to their mothers to the extent that they revered her like a goddess. These men had observed their mothers with regard to her gendered behaviour within the household. The mother ‘set’ the gender roles within the family, which the men then internalized. These roles play an important role in shaping their attitudes towards women in adulthood, bolstered by the absence of fathers in early childhood. Most stuck to traditional notions of masculinity. There were instances when they got negative responses when they deviated from these gender prescriptive norms.
Social conditioning, then, creates the context for these attitudes?
To a large extent, historically, this is what most feminists have argued. Sexual violence takes place in the context of a rape culture, which is an intricate system of beliefs that supports male sexual aggression and maintains violence against women. Thus, viewing rape as a cultural phenomenon can have a deep impact on development of sexual violence prevention strategies.
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