The Serial Sex Drugger: The Social Profile and Attack Strategies of Drugging Serial Rapists as Depicted in Newspaper Accounts

• In Event: Investigating the Contemporary Narrative of Drugging: What Do the Data Tell Us?

Abstract

While serial rape is a common theme in television crime dramas and in the popular media, few researchers have attempted to understand its nature, frequency, and distribution across time and space. In fact, almost everything that is known about serial rape was generated by researchers generalizing from small, cross-sectional, captive samples. Hazelwood and Warren’s (1990) classic essay on the behavior of the serial rapist, for example, was based on a sample of 41 convicted offenders. Furthermore, past scholars have drawn almost exclusively from Hazelwood and Warren’s style typology to summarize offender attack styles. We draw from serial rape newspaper accounts published between 1940 and 2010 to investigate the social distribution of attack styles. Our analysis developed a new category of attack—drugging—to extend Hazelwood and Warren’s original typology. Drugging involves the offender relying on a medication, sedative, or street drug to subdue the victim and render her vulnerable to sexual coercion. We identify and interpret the social structural correlates and victim counts associated with this attack style.

Authors

• Thomas Vander Ven, Ohio University

• Lauren Wright, University of Central Florida