Interview of Steven Pinker on Women's Rights

Source: Times of India

Steven Pinker: US women's rights movement made lawmakers treat rape seriously

By Srijana Mitra Das | Jan 14, 2013, 12.00 AM IST

Steven Pinker, professor of psychology at Harvard University, is a highly distinguished researcher of violence and peace. Speaking with Srijana Mitra Das, Pinker discussed the Delhi gang rape, the Newtown shooting, how the West won against sexual crimes - and why there's reason to feel hopeful, despite violent incidents:

How do you explain violence like the Newtown shooting and the Delhi gang rape, where the vulnerable are badly hurt?

There's no single explanation. In my book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, i identify five psychological mechanisms that impel people to commit acts of violence, together with four psychological mechanisms - the 'better angels' - which inhibit us from violence. These two atrocities have very different causes. The Delhi gang rape is easier to explain. Rape is an extreme end of a continuum of male sexuality - males pursue sexual partners more ardently and indiscriminately than females. Ordinarily, this leads men to woo, proposition, seduce - but in unregulated settings and when men are desperate, low in empathy and self-control, it can lead to harassment and rape. This can be exacerbated in cultures that practise female-selective infanticide. That leaves large numbers of unattached men, generally poor and marginalised, who prey for sexual opportunities. The rampage shootings in the US are less readily explained. Three things go into them - mental illness, low status that triggers a desire for revenge and a desire for fame, even posthumously, killing innocent people the only way of becoming famous. In that way, rampage killers overlap with suicide terrorists.

You write the West slashed high incidences of rape - how?

Part of the decline was interwoven with a decline in violent crime in general. More police were put on the street - they worked closely with communities, statistics were kept on violent neighbourhoods, extra resources deployed there, violent criminals kept in jail for longer periods, better lights, locks and emergency phones were made available. But the decline of rape was more dramatic than the decline of homicide. I credit the women's rights movement and its decision to target rape, harassment and domestic abuse. Women worked with lawmakers, courts and police to treat rape and harassment seriously. Popular culture changed - no more jokes about rape, harassment or spousal abuse. More rapists were deterred - or, if deterrence failed, thrown into jail. Even minor harassment or unwanted touching were punished. All this came about when women began to assume positions of power and make their interests known. It happened quickly because their arguments were irrefutable - no decent person can honestly argue that rape and harassment are justifiable or that we need to tolerate them.

What is the basis of a civilised society?

A decent government with an effective, but not gratuitously violent, police force and a fair court system are essential. This deters and incapacitates psychopaths, bullies and hotheads - and if it earns the confidence of the people, they don't have to become violent in self-defence.

In moments of seeming social collapse, what gives you hope?

We are not in social collapse - this is an illusion created by excessive media coverage of the most dramatic violent events. Rape, once considered acceptable in war and courtship, is now unacceptable. In most parts of the world, it's declined. Rampage killings are extraordinarily rare. In the US, though 27 people were killed in Newtown, 40 people are killed everyday - but the media doesn't cover those killings. And in many countries, homicide rates have come way down over recent years.