The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of NLP Reframing as a means of decreasing sexual response when aggression is aroused by a female with incarcerated rape offenders. The process of reframing involves a redirection of the positive intentions underlying rape behavior by associating new acceptable and nonviolent behaviors to the same intention. The paradoxical nature of this method allows for measurement of newly acquired behavior, a decrease in the maladaptive behavior (rape) or a decrease in some representation of the maladaptive behavior. In this study, a representation was created by arousing the aggression level of the participants toward a female followed by measurement of sexual response as measured by the Sexual Imagery Levels 1 and 3 of the Rorschach. A post-test only control group design was utilized. The sample for this study included 26 rape offenders incarcerated at the Arizona Correctional Training Center in Tucson. Participants ranged from 18 to 28 years of age and had a mean age of 23.33 years; had a mean I.Q. of 112.71 on the Culture Fair Intelligence Test and included 13 Anglos, 7 Mexican Americans, 4 Blacks, and 2 Native Americans. Data analysis for hypotheses testing involved ANCOVA with the total number of responses on the Rorschach being the covariate. Significant results beyond the .05 level of confidence were obtained on one of the two directional hypotheses (Sexual Imagery Level 3), suggesting that reframing rape behavior using the NLP method with incarcerated rape offenders may be effective in decreasing sexual response at a more symbolic level.

Thesis. 1975. B.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning. / Bibliography: leaves 46-47. / B.S.

During the second-wave feminist movement, anti-rape activists sought to heighten cultural awareness about the pervasiveness of rape and instigate legal reforms that would increase the number of prosecutions and convictions of rapists. Despite resulting legal reforms that expanded the definition of "rape" and that eliminated resistance requirements and marital exemptions, reform efforts have been a failure in terms of increased reporting and achieving heightened response from the criminal justice system. I attribute the ineffectiveness of rape law reforms partially to the way in which the concept of rape was framed during the anti-rape movement. In particular, I argue that broadening the concept, detaching it from its sexual features, and paralleling the phenomenon to other violations such as property and assault have the effect of obscuring the unique indignity of rape. This, in turn, has inhibited the full legal recognition of the victim and her injury. I explore possibilities for an alternative conceptualization of rape that instead acknowledges and accommodates the distinctive features of the phenomenon in terms of sexuality, embodied differences of gender and race, subjective states of submission, and the encompassing nature of the injury as a violation of the integrity of self in both bodily and psychological dimensions. In order to enhance the recognition of the victim and her injury, I suggest that: a) legal discourse should be opened up to better account for concrete circumstances and embodied differences (as opposed to the reliance on abstract rights and principles and the generalized subject); b) victims should be allowed to provide an uninterrupted narrative of their rape experience and its consequences; and, c) "consent" as the predominant guiding legal standard should be reevaluated and replaced with an assessment of how force was subjectively experienced. / text