WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENTA STUDY into the justification of sexual assault has given rare insight into the motivations of sexual abusers.

Analysing dozens of first-person accounts from perpetrators of rape and sexual assault, posted anonymously online, researchers at Georgia State University identified common themes of what makes rapists attack, and how they rationalise their actions.

It is, of course, uncommon for people, mostly men, who take advantage of passed out roommates or routinely anally rape their wives to come out and give a no-holds-barred account of what they know to be a horrific act.

So when a reddit thread began in 2012 asking perpetrator of sexual assault to tell “their side of the story” — attracting more than a thousand responses — researchers pounced on the opportunity.

It’s the first time the viral social media site has been used as the basis for an academic study, and the results are as fascinating as they are disturbing.

Using a sample of 68 responses, academics found respondents justified their actions “by citing sexual scripts and blaming their victims”. They also “described being motivated by their hostility toward women, their uncontrollable hormones, and an unrestricted desire for casual sex”.

“AN ERECT D*** HAS NO CONSCIENCE”

Many perpetrators, like a man who admitted he insisted on raping a woman who had been raped by her father in the past and insisted she “finish me off” as she kept crying, suggested hormones controlled their behaviour.

“My hormones were going insane, I didn’t have any empathy in my heart at that moment, just my own concerns,” the respondent wrote.

“An erect d*** has no conscience,” another said.

The same respondent, who admitted to raping a woman while “extremely horny”, even after she “realised what was happening and tried to clamp her legs shut”, disturbingly describes how he plans to educate his own daughter about the dangers of men’s uncontrollable sexuality.

“When my daughter is old enough, I’m going to have a very frank conversation on male-female relations of the sort that I do not think most girls get,” he wrote.

“Most girls do not really understand how horny guys are, how much stronger guys are, how guys will rationalise what they do.”

THEY BLAMED VICTIMS

Along with raging hormones, victims were also commonly blamed for motivating rape and sexual assault.

“Respondents also blamed victims when the victim had flirted with them or had sex with them previously,” the researchers noted.

“They blamed victims when they had consensual sex with the victim at some point after the assault occurred. Respondents frequently described the victim as being overly sexual, suggesting that the victim’s overt sexuality provided absolution from the assault they described perpetrating.”

One perpetrator described badgering his girlfriend multiple times until she eventually stopped physically resisting, and went on to say he didn’t’ realise what she was feeling until he found her crying in another room.

“She told me she didn’t want to let me do what I did, but that my repeated attempts to initiate made her feel like she didn’t have a choice,” the respondent wrote.

“It was as much my responsibility to ensure good communication as it was hers ... She (albeit non-verbally) implicitly consented to something she felt she had no choice but to consent to.

“She was wrong and she did have a choice, but if she didn’t realise that in the moment then what difference does it make?”

“EVERY YEAR I TREAT HER WORSE AND WORSE”

Other respondents described objectifying women, one referring to an unconscious woman who was friends with his roommate as his “personal f***-box”.

In another disturbing account, a man described how he enjoyed the first time he anally raped his wife of 20 years and now repeats the act annually.

“She doesn’t mention it after, ever, even if I joke that I enjoyed raping her. I like the experience so I repeat it every year ... Every year I treat her worse and worse in between ... but I very much love her, just doesn’t seem like the inner emotions match what I physically want,” he wrote.

In identifying what perpetrators blame their actions on — biology, victims, and objectification — the researchers hope their findings will be used to shape policy and encourage further study in the area.

They found the motivations the responses illustrated were consistent with what is commonly described as “rape culture”.

They concluded it was a priority to “address the harmful sexual scripts and general tendencies toward victim blaming that are embedded within societal structures to ultimately prevent sexual violence”.

CONFESSING SINS

Though the study did not set out to investigate why respondents wanted to post their accounts of perpetration to the website, they noticed many users described wanting to “get this off my chest”.

“(Perpetrators) asked for others’ perceptions of whether their story constituted assault, hoped that their story would help someone else, or acknowledged feeling better having disclosed what they had done.”

On the original forum, this, predictably, infuriated rape victims who weighed in on the conversation a well.

As one commenter said: “The thought that my rapist is PROBABLY a redditor and could very well be getting patted on the back RIGHT NOW by HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE for relating how rough raping me was for him is making me literally nauseous.”

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732): 24 hour, National Sexual Assault, Family & Domestic Violence Counselling Line for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault.