Women may have developed several defenses against and strategies to avoid rape. They, as have others, 'propose that rape is a conditional strategy that may potentially be deployed by any man.' Women's defenses More generally they mention research finding that at least one-third of males 'admit they would rape under specific conditions' and that other surveys find that many men state having coercive sexual fantasies. There are varying degrees of empirical support for the existence of each of these types. A fifth type is partner rape due to sperm competition when the male suspects or knows that the female has had sex with another male. A third type is opportunistic rapists who switch between forced and consensual sex depending on circumstances. Another is 'specialized rapists' who are more sexually aroused from rape than from consensual sex. One is rape by disadvantaged men who cannot get sex otherwise. (2008) argue that there may be several different types of rapists or rape strategies.

'Men who were low status, who were likely to remain low status, and who had few opportunities to invest in kin may have realized reproductive benefits that outweighed the considerable costs (e.g., reprisal by the woman's family).'.

'During war, raping enemy women may have had few negative repercussions.'.

'Low status women (e.g., orphans) may have been particularly vulnerable to being raped because males need not have feared reprisals from the woman's family.'.

'High status males may have been able to coerce matings with little fear of reprisal.'.

To not seek such evidence is like failing to search a suspect for a concealed weapon.' He also describes some conditions in the ancestral environment during which the reproductive gains from rape may have outweighed the costs: However, he encourages such evidence to be obtained: 'Whether human males possess psychological adaptations for rape will only be answered by careful studies seeking evidence for such cognitive specializations. He believes the adaptivity of rape is possible, but claims there is not enough evidence to be certain one way or the other. Hagen states in his Evolutionary Psychology FAQ from 2002 that he believes there is no clear evidence for the hypothesis that rape is adaptive. Moreover, 'In many cultures rape is treated as a crime against the victim's husband.' Īnthropologist Edward H. Rapists usually use no more force than necessary to subdue, argued to be since physically injuring victims would harm reproduction. Most rapes occur during prime childbearing years. They point to several other factors indicating that rape may be a reproductive strategy. Rape could be a reproductive strategy for males.

Thornhill and Palmer write that 'In short, a man can have many children, with little inconvenience to himself a woman can have only a few, and with great effort.' Females thus tend toward selectivity with sexual partners. If the means of access to legitimate, consenting sex is not available, then a male may be faced with the choice between force or genetic extinction.' 'Human rape appears not as an aberration but as an alternative gene-promotion strategy that is most likely to be adopted by the 'losers' in the competitive, harem-building struggle. Rape is hypothetically homologous to similar behavior in animals. In which the male may gain sex from the female either by presenting a gift of food during courtship or without a nuptial offering, in which case force is necessary to restrain her.' Human rape 'Thornhill introduces this theory by describing the sexual behavior of scorpionflies. Observations of forced sex in animals are uncontroversial controversial are the interpretation of these observations and the extension of theories based on them to humans.

Such 'forced copulations' involve animals being approached and sexually penetrated while struggling or attempting to escape. Indeed, in orangutans, close human relatives, such copulations constitute up to half of observed matings. We can see behavior resembling rape in humans in the animal kingdom, including ducks and geese, bottlenose dolphins, and chimpanzees.

Further information: Sexual coercion among animals, Sexual selection, and Sexual conflict

Pathological fear of rape